Clergy Child Molesters (148) — References/Archive/Blog
[2007-08 Mr Akers -NEW*] - "Citi Church." Girl.
Telegraph-Forum,
www.bucyrus telegraph forum.com/ apps/pbcs. dll/article? AID=/ 20080501/ NEWS01/ 80501012 ;
By Kimberly Gasuras, May 01, 2008
BUCYRUS (OH) – Danny Alan Akers, 28, met a 14-year-old girl and her family at the Citi Church in Bucyrus about a year ago.
"He befriended the family and was caught having sex with the 14-year-old girl. He is facing 42 counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor," said Morrow County Sheriff's Detective Stoney Hall on Thursday. …
Detectives said Wednesday that he was a church volunteer that used church activities as an excuse to engage in sexual contact with a teenage girl, 10TV's Cara Connelly reported.
(This is the first item of Abuse Chronology:
http://www. multiline. com.au/~ johnm/ethics/ ethcont148. htm ,
and of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.bishop- accountability. org/ abusetracker ,
A Blog by Kathy Shaw,
for Thu May 01, 2008.)
INTENTION: A challenge to RELIGIONS to PROTECT CHILDREN
Series starts:
www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm
Visit
http://www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker . These are digests of and links to mass media and other coverage of clergy abuse. Get fuller details by clicking the links.
[2007-08 Chima -NEW*] - Pentecostal. 6 boys.
Nigerian Tribune,
www.tribune. com.ng/0205 2008/news/ news10.html ,
by Olalekan Olabulo, Lagos, with Agency Report - for May.02.2008
LAGOS -- A pastor of a pentecostal church in Satellite Town, Lagos, (names witheld) has been arrested by the police for allegedly having sexual relationship with six under-age boys in his parish.
Nigerian Tribune learnt that the pastor, who is in the custody of the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Panti, Yaba, was earlier detained by the police at Agboju but released on bail.
While he was on police bail on April 23, NAN correspondents met him at his church. Though he confirmed that he had a "minor issue" with the police, he declined to say if it had to do with the alleged homosexual relationship.
[-2008 Dr Lloyd Barlow -NEW*] - FLDS.
The Salt Lake Tribune,
By Heather May and Brooke Adams,
Article Last Updated: May/01/2008
UTAH -- The physician who cares for the polygamous community now in the national spotlight - and who has treated its prophet in a Utah jail - is described by his mentor as "very kind, very sensitive, very concerned."
Lloyd H. Barlow, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, graduated from the University of Utah's School of Medicine in 1995.
He completed a one-year internship in internal medicine in 1996, and then did a family medicine residency at the U. that ended in 1999.
Barlow oversees a health clinic in Hildale, the sect's traditional home base, and its Texas clinic at its YFZ Ranch. Texas authorities allege there is a pattern of sexual abuse of underage girls at the ranch; and on Wednesday an official said at least 41 children there have had broken bones. He also said young boys may have been sexually abused.
[-2008 Macanga -NEW*] - Roman Catholic Church (RCC). Child pornography.
Courier-Post,
By JOSEPH GIDJUNIS, May 1, 2008
LUMBERTON (NJ) – Dressed in a faded Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt and shorts, Joseph Macanga stood in his doorway Wednesday -- an electronic monitor fastened to his left ankle bulging through a white tube sock.
Macanga said he couldn't talk about his case, but he thanked those who have brought him food and not ostracized him from the community he calls home.
A week ago Macanga, Lumberton Middle School's 2003 "Educator of the Year," was arrested at his township home and charged by the FBI with possessing child pornography.
The school district suspended him without pay last Thursday, and a substitute teacher has taken over his classes until the end of the school year, school spokeswoman Betsy Kapulskey said. …
Macanga, a former priest with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, graduated from Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pa., and was ordained in 1986. He voluntarily left active ministry in 1995 with no indication of child pornography or anything similar in his files, according to a statement from the archdiocese.
[1950s Stricker -NEW*] - RCC. Minor.
WCPO,
Web produced by: Ian Preuth, Last Update: 7:06 pm, ~ May 01, 2008
CINCINNATI (OH) -- The Cincinnati Archdiocese has put a retired priest accused of sexually abusing a minor about 50 years ago on administrative leave.
Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk placed 84-year-old Robert Stricker on leave Wednesday.
The Archdiocese said it's the response under church law to an accusation considered to have the "semblance of truth."
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 1, 2008
7:29 PM]
[2003-04 Russell*] - "Acts II Church". Girl.
Neosho Daily News,
www.neosho dailynews. com/news/ x82849 9685 ,
By John Ford, 05:23 PM CDT, Thu May 01, 2008
NEOSHO (MO) -- Another local self-proclaimed pastor faces charges of child sexual abuse.
Randall "Danny" Russell, 49, of Neosho has been charged with second-degree statutory rape, second-degree statutory sodomy, and child abuse. Russell, the pastor of Acts II church, located at 11285 Mulberry Road in Neosho, is accused of having sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl in 2003 and 2004.
"We have a young woman that has come forward and alleges he began having sexual contact with her in 2003, and it continued on to 2004," said Bill Dobbs, Newton County assistant prosecutor.
Deputies with the Newton County Sheriff's Department served a search warrant at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the church, which is also the site of Russell's business, Garages & More, and his home.
Deputies seized a computer from the business and several photographs of a nude juvenile girl from the church office. According to a probable cause affidavit, the photos were dated Dec. 21, 2003.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 1, 2008
7:23 PM]
[2000+ Caver -NEW*]- Baptist. Money < US$400,000.
The Plain Dealer
Posted by Leila Atassi
17:51PM
May 01, 2008
CLEVELAND (OH) -- Artis Caver, former pastor of Harvest Missionary Baptist Church, was sentenced Thursday to 16 years in prison for stealing nearly $400,000 from the church.
Caver, 56, was found guilty last week in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court of theft and forgery, three counts of perjury and 20 counts of money laundering dating back to 2000.
The pastor, who most recently ministered at New Life Cathedral in Cleveland, used most of the money to rescue his failing tour bus company, AFC Charters Inc., prosecutors said.
[? 2000s Cormier*] - "Church of Downtown Montreal." Girl.
The Northern Light,
by Jonathan Montpetit, THE CANADIAN PRESS, ~ May 01, 2008
MONTREAL, Canada -- A preteen girl was clueless during years of sexual abuse by the leader of a fringe Christian church that he had claimed her as his wife, a Quebec court heard Thursday.
"He said that I was his wife," said the woman, who cannot be identified. "At the time it didn't click. It went in one ear and out the other."
She later added that she "didn't really understand what (Cormier) meant" when he talked of marriage or engagement.
The Crown produced a paper, signed by Cormier's right-hand man at the now-defunct Church of Downtown Montreal, that stated the couple was married on her 10th birthday.
- Roman Catholic Church (RCC)
Renew America,
by Matt C. Abbott, ~ May 01, 2008
UNITED STATES -- … Speaking of the aforementioned Father Andrew Greeley … SNAP outreach director Barbara Dorris had the following response to Father Greeley's April 23 column:
'Andrew Greeley is right about many things.
'First, he's right about his early attention to clergy sex crimes and cover ups. Early on, when no one wrote about them, he did. Many survivors are and will forever be grateful to him for his courage.
'Second, he's right about the corrosive effects of anger. That's precisely why we in SNAP have monthly support group meetings in more than 50 cities across the country, and why dozens and dozens of volunteer SNAP members spend countless hours – on the phone, in person and via e-mail – listening to, supporting, and helping other deeply wounded sex abuse victims. If pain and anger aren't dealt with – in safe, proven and effective ways – these emotions can rule a person's live and come out in unhealthy ways. That's what we have provided for 20 years and continue to provide.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 1, 2008
7:35 PM]
- RCC. Song about a priest, Sguotti, who fell in love, though he was an RC clergyman.
Il Gazzettino,
May 01, 2008
ITALIA -- É finita in una canzone la storia di don Sante Sguotti , il prete padovano, parroco di Monterosso, che ha ammesso in chiesa di avere un figlio, e che la chiesa ha sospeso. A cantare questa vicenda, con molta ironia, é il cantautore padovano Michele Gallo, in arte Mik, che esce con il suo nuovo singolo intitolato "Maledetta quella volta che non ho fatto il prete", prodotto dalla casa discografica Iperspazio di Milano.
[translation]
THE IRONIC SONG OF THE PADUAN MICHELE GALLO AIRED ON THE RADIO STATIONS;
The Rev. Sante's story in the new CD by Mik
ITALY -- Rev. Sante Sguotti's story ended up in a song. Rev. Sante Sguotti's story, the Paduan priest, former parish priest of Monterosso, who after having confessed he was the father of a child was suspended "a divinis". The singer of that story, which is narrated with much irony, is the Paduan songwriter Michele Gallo, known professionally as Mik, who is just releasing a new CD titled " Maledetta quella volta che non ho fatto il prete" (Cursed that time I didn't choose to be a priest), produced by the record company Iperspazio in Milan.
The Rev. Sante's story was reported on all the newspapers and the priest was invited many times as a guest in the most popular TV shows. He also wrote about his choice to be a priest-father in a very successful book. The sarcastic song by Mik implies that perhaps in order to reach notoriety it's much better to be a priest than a singer.
People could initially listen to the song through Mik's website
( http://www.sinergymusic.it ) and in the past days is being aired by some local radio stations. It attracts interest and curiosity, above all for the issue it deals with.
This year it will be sung during the songwriter's next show at the very known 2008 "San Martino Festival", which will take place on July 26 in the elegant square Martiri d'Ungheria at Tribano.
Mik will be present in the next days as a guest in various local TV shows.
- RC bishop still thinks the Church mission is more giving charity than practising righteousness.
Catholic News Service
By Dennis Sadowski
~ May 01, 2008
ARLINGTON (VA), (CNS) -- Multimillion-dollar awards in civil lawsuits place a burden on the free exercise of religion and undermine the Catholic Church's ability to continue its charitable works, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Chicago told the National Diocesan Attorneys Association.
Speaking at the association's annual meeting April 27 in Arlington, Va., Bishop Paprocki said balance must be achieved between providing adequate compensation to plaintiffs in cases of wrongdoing and "preserving charitable viability" for the church.
"My point is that the pendulum has swung from the complete protection of charitable immunity to the complete exposure of charitable liability, and, in some cases, all the way to charitable bankruptcy," Bishop Paprocki said.
[COMMENT No. 1: Is the lawlessness in the Roman Catholic Church, supposedly "the pillar and ground of the truth," so huge that there is a
"National Diocesan Attorneys Association"? AND it is big enough to have an annual general meeting, with a celebrity speaker?
Or do the attorneys just do land conveyancing, workers' compensation, health and life insurance, and oppose people who injure themselves on Church property?
ENDS.]
[COMMENT No. 2: "Charity" comes from words in ancient languages that mean love, and it is generally the goodness-love rather than the sensual and marriage love that is meant. If Bishops and other Church people had remembered that, and NOT been transferring corrupting priests from one place to another, even overseas, the juries and courts would not be imposing such huge penalties. This bishop is not echoing his leader, the Roman Bishop, who said in recent days in America he was "ashamed" of what the Church people had done to children.
ENDS.]
[ORIGINAL DOCTRINE: "Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." "So let your light shine before men …" "Behold, I am with you all days …"
ENDS.]
[? 2000s Cormier*] - "Church of Downtown Montreal." Girl.
The Canadian Press
~ May 01, 2008
MONTREAL, CANADA – An 18-year-old woman says the head of an obscure Christian church in Montreal had sex with her when she was a prepubescent girl.
The woman, who can't be identified, told Quebec court Thursday she was just nine years old when pastor Daniel Cormier started touching her. Cormier is defending himself against sexual-assault charges by claiming he married the girl on her 10th birthday.
But the woman said she had no idea at the time Cormier considered her to be his wife.
[Person unknown -NEW*] - Presbyterian. Money.
Telegraph Herald,
~ May 01, 2008
DUBUQUE (IA) -- Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2155 University Ave., reported the internal theft of $53,232 on Wednesday.
Thomas W. Young , the church's pastor, reported that the theft occurred between July 1, 2007, and April 21, 2008.
Young said irregularities were discovered while following "normal procedures" in checking through the church's financial statements.
[1950s Stricker*] - RCC. Minor.
WLWT,
by Travis Gettys, WLWT.com , May 1, 2008
CINCINNATI (OH) -- A retired Cincinnati priest was placed on administrative leave Wednesday after he was accused of sexually abusing a minor.
A man reported in 1993 that he was abused in the 1950s by Robert Stricker, who at the time was associate pastor at Saint William Parish in Price Hill.
Stricker denied the allegation, and archdiocese officials said they investigated and determined the charges were unsubstantiated.
However, the same man came forward again several weeks ago with new information, and Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk said the accusation appeared to be.
[1950s Stricker*] - Roman Catholic Church (RCC). Minor.
WTTE,
AP,
15:56 EDT
May 01, 2008
CINCINNATI (OH), (AP) -- The Cincinnati Archdiocese says a retired priest accused of sexually abusing a minor is on administrative leave.
Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk put 84-year-old Robert Stricker on leave Wednesday. The archdiocese says the action doesn't represent a presumption of guilt.
Stricker may not celebrate the sacraments, engage in priestly ministry or present himself as a priest in any way while on leave.
A man reported in 1993 that Stricker abused him in the 1950s when Stricker was an associate pastor at Cincinnati's St. William Parish. Stricker denied the allegation and the archdiocese determined that the accusation was unsubstantiated.
[1950s Stricker*] - RCC. Minor.
Beacon Journal
Thursday May 01, 2008
CINCINNATI (OH) -- The Cincinnati Archdiocese has put a retired priest accused of sexually abusing a minor about 50 years ago on administrative leave.
Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk (puh-LAHR'-chuk) placed 84-year-old Robert Stricker on leave Wednesday. The action does not represent a presumption of guilt. The archdiocese says it's the response under church law to an accusation considered to have "the semblance of truth."
Stricker could not be reached for comment. There was no Cincinnati telephone listing for him.
[1950s Stricker*] - RCC. Minor.
Dayton Daily News
By Tom Beyerlein
Thursday, May 01, 2008
CINCINNATI (OH) -- The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati announced Thursday, May 1, that Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk has suspended retired priest Robert A. Stricker for allegedly sexually abusing a boy in the 1950s.
The archdiocese had investigated the same complaint against Stricker, now 84, in 1993, but concluded the allegation was unsubstantiated, according to spokesman Dan Andriacco. A few weeks ago, the purported victim renewed his accusation, with new information, and Pilarczyk on Wednesday "concluded that the accusation had the semblance of truth and therefore placed Stricker on administrative leave," he said.
"All I can say is, we have information now that we didn't have then," Andriacco said.
Stricker served his entire ministry in the Cincinnati area, Andriacco said. The alleged abuse occurred when Stricker was serving at St. William parish in Price Hill. The archdiocese, which includes the greater Dayton area, serves some 500,000 Catholics in 19 counties.
- RCC.
[1950s Stricker*] - Minor.
[≤ 2006 Kiffmeyer*] - 2 youths.
Local 12,
~ May 01, 2008
CINCINNATI (OH) -- On the same day the Archdiocese of Cincinnati placed Robert Stricker, a retired priest, on administrative leave over sex abuse allegations, the Archdiocese appointed Father James Kiffmeyer as pastoral administrator of Holy Family Parish.
Father Kiffmeyer was reinstated in December 2006 from administrative leave, following allegations of sexual misconduct by students at Fenwick High School.
No criminal charges were ever filed against Kiffmeyer, because the statute of limitations ran out.
The Archdiocese did make a settlement in one of the cases.
- RCC's novel definition of freedom of religion.
City of Angels
By Kay Ebeling, ~ May 01, 2008
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- The Salesians write: "The Society objects to the term 'sexual misconduct' on the grounds that it is vague and ambiguous" and on this point I agree with the defendants in the upcoming jury trial in LA. In fact all the terms used so far about crimes committed by pedophiles in the guise of Catholic priests have been too vague and ambiguous. It was sodomy on 6 year olds, drugging 8 year olds so that a few priests could rape them on film, using the once blessed sacraments and other elements of the Catholic Church as trappings to snare children and betray their families. "Sexual misconduct" implies pinching in the lunch line.
Just as "Total Outrage" is what I felt when I read this by the defendants, "#14 FIRST AMENDMENT: The Society objects to each request to the extent that it infringes the free exercise of religion in violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution and Article 1 Section 4 of the California Constitution."
HOW DARE THEY equate protecting information in the personnel files of pedophile priests with the basic American right of worshiping God in the way you believe.
[Magaldi, Cote] - RCC. Children.
Providence Journal
By Tom Mooney
May 01, 2008
PROVIDENCE (RI) – For the second time in as many months a national group representing victims of clergy abuse yesterday criticized the Most Rev. Thomas Tobin, bishop of the Diocese of Providence, saying he wasn't doing all he could to help prosecute two priests who once worked in the diocese and now face allegations they molested children.
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said his group believes there are in the Providence Catholic diocese victims of abuse by the Reverends Phillip A. Magaldi and Aaron J. Cote, or at least witnesses, who, if Bishop Tobin encouraged them to step forward, could help the police prosecute the clerics. …
In a statement released after Clohessy's news conference, the diocese said it "aggressively encourages those with information relative to abuse to report such allegations."
The diocese statement said it had taken out advertisements in The Providence Journal and its own newspaper, the Rhode Island Catholic, and posted messages on electronic newsletters sent to all parishes encouraging people to come forward. The statement did not say whether the advertisements were specifically directed toward those familiar with the Magaldi and Cote cases or were general in nature.
[2008, March - Murd*] - RCC. Adult.
Toledo Blade,
By MARK REITER
May 01, 2008
OHIO -- A Roman Catholic priest and former pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Maumee was indicted yesterday after being accused of having improper sexual contact with an adult in a hot tub at the YMCA/JCC in Sylvania.
The Rev. Frank Murd was charged in Lucas County Common Pleas Court with one count of misdemeanor sexual imposition.
The indictment stems from a reported incident March 18 at the YMCA/JCC, 6465 Sylvania Ave. The male victim called Sylvania Township police later that day, and a report was filed with the department.
- Orthodox Judaists.
The Australian Jewish News,
www.ajn.com. au/news/news. asp?pgID= 5334 ,
By PETER KOHN, ~ May 01, 2008
AUSTRALIA -- FIFTEEN people from the Orthodox Jewish community have come forward indicating they want to give testimony about allegations of inappropriate behaviour by a trusted official.
The whistleblowers have all identified themselves to an inquiry set up by the Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV), as community pressure mounts for swift action.
Four of the interviews have been scheduled during and immediately after Pesach.
Phone calls "have been coming in hard and fast" since the rabbinical body announced the inquiry into allegations of abuse, RCV president Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant told The AJN last week.
[1980s+ Kolko*] - Judaist. 8 boys.
The Jewish Week,
by Hella Winston and Larry Cohler-Esses, ~ May 01, 2008
NEW YORK -- It's the case they can't keep straight.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes' shifting explanations of a widely criticized plea deal earlier this month for alleged child sex molester Rabbi Yehuda Kolko took several dizzying turns this week.
Contrary to earlier statements from Hynes' office, Sex Bureau Chief Rhonnie Jaus disclosed Tuesday that parents from two families whose children Rabbi Kolko allegedly molested had been willing to let their children testify. Hynes' spokespersons had earlier said otherwise.
But Jaus stressed that in the end, both families had signed affidavits agreeing to the deal after Rabbi Kolko had offered to plead guilty to a non-sex-related misdemeanor and receive a sentence of three years' probation.
Providence Journal,
~ May 01, 2008
PROVIDENCE (RI) -- The national director for a group representing clergy abuse victims called this morning on the Most Rev. Thomas Tobin, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Providence, to take a more active role in helping prosecute two priests who once worked in the diocese and are now facing allegations that they molested children.
``We're begging Bishop Tobin to be a pastor and reach out to the wounded,'' said David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, describing Tobin's response to the issue so far as ``reckless.''
``When any of us have an ability to jail a serial predator'' and chose instead to do ``the bare minimum,'' Clohessy said, ``we believe that is reckless.''
Clohessy says his group believes that there are, in the Providence diocese, victims of abuse by The Revs. Phillip A. Magaldi and Aaron J. Cote, or at least witnesses, who, if Tobin encouraged them to step forward, could help police criminally prosecute the two priests.
[Pelotte] - RC bishop's "health" problems.
The Daily Times
By Debra Mayeux
Article Launched: May/01/2008
NEW MEXICO -- Nearly 10 months after suffering a severe head injury, Donald Pelotte no longer is the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup.
An announcement was made Wednesday by the Vatican that Pope Benedict XVI accepted Pelotte's resignation as pastor of the diocese because of "ill health or another serious reason," a press release from the diocese stated.
"The people here are very sad," said the Rev. Jim Walker, vicar general of the diocese and pastor of St. Mary's parish in Bloom-field. He is in charge of the diocese when the bishop is not present.
- FLDS.
The Dallas Morning News,
By ROBERT T. GARRETT,
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com ,
Emily Ramshaw contributed to this report, Thursday, May 1, 2008
AUSTIN, TEXAS – The state says 41 children from a polygamist sect have suffered broken bones in the past, and it's checking the possibility that young boys were sexually molested.
The disclosures came as Texas' top protective services official briefed lawmakers Wednesday on the biggest removal of children in state history. CPS has said it removed 463 children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' ranch because the sect arranged "spiritual marriages" between underage girls and older men.
Medical exams and medical record reviews for the youngsters showed dozens with previous bone breaks or fractures, said Carey Cockerell, head of the Department of Family and Protective Services, parent agency of Child Protective Services.
"Several of these fractures have been found in very young children, and several have multiple fractures," Mr. Cockerell told a Senate panel.
The Joplin Globe
By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com , ~ May 01, 2008
NEOSHO, Mo. – A man identified as a self-proclaimed pastor in Newton County has been charged with sexually molesting a member of his church when she was a minor four to five years ago.
Newton County sheriff's investigators served a search warrant Tuesday afternoon on a property west of Neosho at 11285 Mulberry Road. The warrant was based on information obtained from a young woman who came forward to allege that the pastor, who lives and operates a church and business there, sexually abused her when she was 16.
Randall Danny Russell, 49, pastor of the Acts II Church, was arrested Tuesday. He was charged Wednesday with second-degree statutory rape, second-degree statutory sodomy and child abuse.
Blogcritics
Written by Richard Marcus
Part of Canadian Politics in Review,
Published April 30, 2008
At first glance there might not appear to be much in common between the Canadian government's announcement of who will be heading the Truth and Reconciliation Committee looking into the history of the Residential School System in Canada and the presidential aspirations of Barack Obama and the controversy surrounding the pastor of his church, Jeremiah Wright. Yet both stories reflect deep divisions that exist in both Canadian and American society. Even a cursory look at the history behind both stories reveals the similarities, while also making a telling statement about both countries and their approaches to similar problems.
In Canada, as in other areas of North America, after the government was unable to commit actual genocide against the Native population they decided to settle on the next best thing and try for cultural genocide. Towards that end they enlisted the aid of both the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches in establishing the Residential School system. A generation of Native Canadian children were taken from their families and placed in this school system in order to drive the "Indianness" out of them.
[2007-08 Chima*] - Pentecostal. 6 boys.
AllAfrica,
Leadership (Abuja), by Esther Eziashi, Lagos, May 1, 2008
LAGOS -- A pastor in Love and Faith Bible a Church in Lagos has been nabbed by the police for allegedly engaging in homosexual act with six teenage boys who live in the same neighbourhood with him.
The suspect, Ugo Chima, 44 ministered at Love and Faith Bible Church, Buba Marwa Street, Ijegun, Satellite Town.
It was gathered that he had engaged in homosexual acts with them on different occasions since July 2007.
KGAN,
AP
22:58 EDT
April 30, 2008
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- A bankruptcy judge has approved a plan that allows the Davenport Diocese to pay 37 million dollars to dozens of people who claim they were sexually abused by priests.
Judge Lee Jackwig approved the reorganization plan today after a lengthy hearing in Davenport. As part of the settlement, the judge required that the diocese issue annual reports for the next three years showing efforts to prevent future abuse. The diocese will be required to issue apology letters from Diocese Bishop Martin Amos and an online listing of all abusers.
Craig Levien, an attorney for some of the victims, says he is pleased with the settlement.
California Catholic Daily,
~ May 01, 2008
WOODLAND HILLS (CA) -- To help the Los Angeles archdiocese pay off the "crippling debt" accrued from sexual abuse settlements, St. Bernardine of Siena parish in Woodland Hills will donate most of its savings – about $1.5 million – to the archdiocese, the parish bulletin announced on Sunday.
In a letter to the parish, its pastor, Fr. Robert McNamara, said his decision to donate the money came after meetings with the elected parish council and finance committee. The first meeting, he said, featured "some heated exchanges" and a wide "range of opinion," with some in favor of "giving all our savings to giving nothing." The second meeting two weeks later, said McNamara, was "more subdued … We were now more clearly looking at the 'situation,' meaning we were trying to see where we are now as Church, and what we need to do, to move forward." Though the "consensus" was that the parish should give something, there was no agreement on the dollar amount. Finally, said McNamara, the "consensus" was to support whatever decision he made.
McNamara's decision was in response to an archdiocesan recovery strategy to pay its portion of the sexual abuse settlement as well as ease its financial recovery from the settlements. The strategy includes increasing parish assessments by two percent, reducing archdiocesan administrative costs by 10%, and requesting grants, pledges, and loans from parishes. As a last resort, the archdiocese will consider selling additional properties beyond the 51 it has slated for sale.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 1, 2008
5:52 AM]
Des Moines Register
By MASON KERNS, REGISTER CORRESPONDENT, May 1, 2008
DAVENPORT (IA) – A federal bankruptcy judge on Wednesday approved a plan to give $37 million plus nonmonetary compensation to victims of sexual abuse by priests and other employees of the Catholic Diocese of Davenport.
Arbitrators will dole out most of the $37 million to about 120 victims based on the severity of abuse under a plan developed through negotiations between the diocese and the plaintiffs and approved by Judge Lee Jackwig of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Iowa.
The additional 36 of the 156 total claimants will accept $10,000 each and will not have to meet with arbitrators. More than $2 million will be reserved for abuse victims who have yet to come forward.
Church officials must also comply with 18 nonmonetary terms of the settlement. Among other stipulations, the diocese must post on its Web site for nine years the names of all known perpetrators; dispatch diocese officials to appear in parishes where sexual abuse occurred and publicly identify abusers; allow victims to speak in churches where they were abused; install plaques in diocese schools saying that abuse will not be tolerated; and have priests sign statements saying they have not abused and do not know of other abuse.
[Gillespie]
Boston Herald
By Marie Szaniszlo
Thursday, May 1, 2008
BOSTON (MA) -- Clergy sex-abuse victims yesterday called on Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley to rescind a "reckless" decision to return a priest to work after charges he accosted a girl and her mother were dismissed.
At a news conference outside archdiocesan headquarters yesterday, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests challenged O'Malley to hold a public meeting to explain why he placed the Rev. Jerome F. Gillespie at Our Lady of the Assumption in Lynnfield.
Standard-Times
By Peter Machado
(Mr. Machado lives in Fairhaven),
May 01, 2008
MASSACHUSETTS -- I would like to commend the Rev. Martin Buote's courage in submitting his views in the 24 April issue of The Standard-Times. I found it most disappointing that The Standard-Times would publish Sandy Huffaker's misguided cartoon and as well as Jack Spillane's beguiled column (April 17). The Rev. Martin Buote was correct in that there were many distortions presented in Mr. Spillane's column. I would like to shine more light on one other and on Mr. Spillane's apparent ideology.
The method in which Mr. Spillane inserted in his column the reference to Pope John XXIII's 1962 Crimen Sollicitationis leaves the reader with the impression that the sole purpose of this document was to muzzle priests and bishops in speaking to the civil authorities about child abuse, when in fact its intent was to deal with homosexual priests who made advancements to confessors during the sacrament of penance.
Canon scholars have stated that Crimen Sollicitationis was not prepared by the Vatican to "cover up" sexual abuses by priests. In a matter of fact, the document states that anyone with knowledge of a priest abusing the confessional must step forward, and if they do not, they could potentially be excommunicated.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 1, 2008
5:39 AM]
[COMMENT: Well, I'll be darned! Insisting on secrecy, instead of reporting crimes to the police, is okay, if you listen to (unnamed) "canon scholars" -- evidently not canon law scholars, so perhaps they are in the military, with a double "n". And, might I add that "confessors" are the priests HEARING the confessions, from the penitents.
But the more serious mistake in the above is the author's false statement that it is only "homosexual" clergy seeking illicit sex with, presumably, the male gender. Crimen clearly says in Paragraph 73, sex or obscenity etc. with either gender,. AND, the secrecy provisions extend to SEX WITH ANIMALS. Do beasts go into the Confessional Rooms? Check in No. 73, or with a Search Engine, velcum brutis animantibus (bestialitas).
Then, let us ask the RCC, how many more such documents have NOT seen the light of day?
ENDS.]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker ,
Thu May 01, 2008
• Disturbing developments at Catholic Covenant community in Perth; NEWS STORY
Disturbing developments at Catholic Covenant community in Perth; NEWS STORY
Catholica Australia,
www. catholica. com.au/ breakingnews/ 015_bn_020508. php ,
May 2, 2008
AUSTRALIA –
The core purpose of Catholica Australia is not as a news reporting medium. Our prime role is in seeking to establish a community that reaches out to those who have become disenchanted with institutional Catholicism. From time-to-time though we do come across news stories that might require further investigation and since the demise of OnLine Catholics, which provided a source of independent reporting of matters relevant to the Catholic Church in this country, we have by default stepped up to the mark and reported what needs to be reported. The following story reached our ears some weeks ago and we believe it does raise issues of moment that deserve public attention and scrutiny.
The Bethel Covenant Community grew out of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement in the 1970s. It eventually established itself in the Perth Suburb of West Leederville as a Covenant Community with some form of canonical approval (i.e. official Church approval) in the 1980s under the previous Archbishop of Perth, the Most Rev William Foley. At its peak the community involved some 300 members many of whom purchased homes close to the centre of the community which was a converted factory and office block in the inner city suburb of West Leederville close to Subiaco Oval and opposite the West Leederville train station on Railway Parade.
In early April this year allegations of sexual impropriety, financial irregularities and disquiet over "cult-like activities" first began to reach more public attention through the complaints of existing and former members of the community. Some of these were aired on internet blogs. Complaints were made to the Archdiocesan authorities as well as to the police and to the Catholic Church's professional standards investigating authority (set up in the wake of the sexual abuse complaints the Church has been fielding in the last decade). Catholica understands that the investigations of what has happened are on-going and are being treated seriously by the relevant investigating authorities.
The Archdiocese of Perth website still lists the Bethel Covenant Community in its list of lay associations page but the Bethel website itself is no longer available on the net. Some members and/or former members of the community have established a blog site at www.bethelcommunity.vox.com which airs some details of the complaints and as late as last night was carrying fairly vigorous discussion between various parties. There have been a number of forced resignations of leaders of the community in recent months culminating in the resignation or retirement of the founding leaders of the community, Mr Kevin Horgan and Mr Frank Carr. Allegations have been raised on the website of a tardy response by the Church authorities when the allegations were first raised privately with them. Some of the original whitleblowers have also complained, Catholica understands from comments on public blogs, because of injustices inflicted on them through the tardiness of the official responses.
Here at Catholica we initially chose to sit on the story while awaiting further developments from the investigating authorities – both State and Canonical. It has been financial developments in the past week where allegations have been made that some valuable property has been placed on the market through one of the major daily newspapers in Perth that has prompted us to bring this disturbing matter to public attention. I should disclose that as Editor of Catholica, I know many of main players in the unfolding drama personally through my former roles working professionally for the Church in Western Australia. One of the principal people whom allegations have been made against was a friend of my late father and was held in high esteem by him. For that reason it has been very difficult knowing how to handle this story. The immediate cause for concern leading us to publish this story is that allegations have been raised that property might be being disposed of in the event that should any victims be identified in subsequent legal proceedings they would be denied compensation.
[Picture] Map of West Leederville with the main Bethel Covenant Community pinpointed.
Google Map of West Leederville with the main Bethel Community building pinpointed. Subiaco Oval can be seen at the bottom left of the picture.
CLARIFICATION: The main Bethel Community Centre indicated in this picture is NOT the property that has been put on the market. See the clarification note in our forum HERE.
The matter will be difficult and sensitive for Perth's present Catholic Archbishop, Barry Hickey, as the man at the centre of the allegations, the founder of the Bethel Community and its leader for so many years, Mr Kevin Horgan, is a member of a prominent Catholic family in Western Australia which was previously connected with the financial embarrassment the Catholic Church in Perth experienced in the early 1990s. Over the years, that friendship had been repaired and Kevin's brother the prominent Western Australia winemaker, Dennis Horgan, has in recent years been once again seen as a significant benefactor and friend to the Church in Western Australia. Dennis Horgan was also one of the original prominent individuals behind the establishment of the University of Notre Dame and in fact has been credited with the idea of creating a Catholic University in that State rather than the original proposal which was for a less ambitious teachers' training college for the Catholic education system on the Western side of the continent.
Here at Catholica we believe the matters require urgent and full investigation by the relevant State and Church-based investigating authorities. From the information that has been made available to us we believe the allegations are extemely serious and the welfare of individuals and families may have been transgressed in serious ways. If the allegations concerning the disposal of property of high value are true the need for the fullest investigation are all the more urgent.
-- Brian Coyne, Editor and Publisher, Catholica Australia #
[LINK/S: On the Bethel Services website www.bethel services. com.au/ it said "Bethel Covenant Community Website coming soon." There were links on it to three statements dated May 2, 2008, seemingly from the new leadership. One said that the "new leadership of Bethel totally abhors and condemns the abuse which is alleged to have occurred." (Viewed on May 26, 2008).
ENDS.]
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#disturbing_developments_at_catholic
[To this website May 26, 08; May 2, 2008]
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[~ 2007-08 Mr Bonds -NEW*] - RCC (Salesian school). Girl.
CBS 5,
http://cbs5. com/local/ salesian. teacher. sex.2.714 695.html ,
~ May 02, 2008
[with video]
RICHMOND (CA), (CBS 5 / KCBS) – A Salesian High School biology teacher is facing charges that he had a consensual, sexual affair with an underage girl.
The teacher apparently had the girl, who is now 16 years old, as a student within the past year.
"We arrested a 30 year old, Ricky Bonds, for numerous counts of sexual activity with a minor," explained Richmond Police Dept. spokeswoman Bisa French. "He was a teacher at Salesian High School and the 16 year old victim was a student."
Bonds is not a priest, but the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests distributed leaflets nonetheless, in front of school in April, to draw attention to the allegations.
[6mos in 2006 Connolly -NEW* (Franciscan)] - RCC. Probation penalty. Male (prisoner).
PennLive,
The Associated Press, May/2/2008,
EBENSBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Franciscan priest from Altoona is on probation for 23 months for having sex with an inmate at a state prison and supplying him with alcohol.
Sixty-seven-year-old Rev. Gerard Connolly was sentenced to probation at a hearing on Thursday. Connolly was chaplain at the State Correctional Institution-Cresson until March 2007 when his services were terminated.
The victim in the case, William Victor, also became a defendant when he tried to bribe the chaplain.
[? 2000s Mr Jerry Johnson -NEW*] - Christian. Children.
Modesto Bee,
By SUE NOWICKI, ROSALIO AHUMADA rahumada@modbee.com , and
INGA MILLER imiller@modbee.com ,
~ May 02, 2008
CALIFORNIA -- The Riverbank man accused of sexually molesting three youngsters over the past 18 years was described Thursday as a "gentle giant" who was fond of giving candy to children.
Jerry Franklin Johnson, 56, made his first appearance in Stanislaus County Superior Court, where he was arraigned on four felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with children. A judge entered a not guilty plea for him.
All the victims were members of an Oakdale church at which Johnson was a member, and some were Johnson's family members, according to Stanislaus County sheriff's detectives.
- Judaist says too many attacks on RCC.
ConnieTalk,
May 02, 2008
CLEVELAND (OH) -- Sam Miller, prominent Cleveland businessman - Jewish, not Catholic - is fighting mad about the seemingly concentrated effort by the media to disparage the Catholic Church in the United States. The following are excerpts of a speech by well-known Cleveland businessman Mr. Miller at the City Club of Cleveland, given on Thursday, March 6. Even though of the Jewish faith, Miller has been a staunch supporter of the Cleveland Diocese and Bishop Anthony Pilla. It was published in the May-June issue of the Buckeye Bulletin.
Why would newspapers carry on a vendetta on one of the most important institutions that we have today in the United States, namely the Catholic Church? …
But the press is vindictive and trying to totally denigrate in every way the Catholic Church in this country. They have blamed the disease of pedophilia on the Catholic Church, which is as irresponsible as blaming adultery on the institution of marriage. Let me give you some figures that you as Catholics should know and remember. For example, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner; 38% acknowledged other inappropriate sexual contact in a study by the United Methodist Church, 41.8 % of clergywomen reported unwanted sexual behavior; 17% of laywomen have been sexually harassed. Meanwhile, 1.7% of the Catholic clergy has been found guilty of pedophilia. 10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia. This is not a Catholic Problem.
A study of American priests showed that most are happy in the priesthood and find it even better than they had expected, and that most, if given the choice, would choose to be priests again in face of all this obnoxious PR the church has been receiving.
The Catholic Church is bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. The agony that Catholics have felt and suffered is not necessarily the fault of the Church. You have been hurt by a small number of wayward priests that have probably been totally weeded out by now.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 2, 2008
8:09 PM]
[2007-08? Akers -? NEW*] - "Citi Church". Girl.
News Journal
By KIMBERLY GASURAS, ~ May 02, 2008
BUCYRUS (OH) -- Danny Alan Akers, 28, met a teenage girl and her family at the Citi Church in Bucyrus about a year ago.
Today, Akers sits the Morrow County Jail on a $75,000 bond.
"He befriended the family and was caught having sex with the 14-year-old girl. He is facing 42 counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor," Morrow County Sheriff's Detective Stoney Hall said Thursday.
Akers lived in Morrow County at that time, where the victim also lived.
[≤ 2006 Kiffmeyer*] - RCC. 2 youths.
Local 12,
~ May 02, 2008
[with video]
PRICE HILL (OH) -- Some members of a Price Hill Church are leaving the parish because of their new priest. Father James Kiffmeyer was once investigated for alleged sexual impropriates. But he was never convicted of anything.
Local 12 Reporter Jeff Hirsh visits Holy Family Church to explain why some parishioners plan to leave.
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati named Father James Kiffmeyer as Pastoral Administrator yesterday. Members of the parish did have input, but now, some parishioners are talking about output … getting out. It's yet another controversy for the church.
"Are we taking a risk with our kids?"
- Russian Orthodox Church.
[≤ 2004 Mr Dushkin] - 9 convictions.
[~ 2008 Bp Nikolai Soraich] - Tonsured convicted paedophile as Reader. Dismissed whistleblower.
News-Miner
The Associated Press
Friday, May 2, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Bishop Nikolai Soraich, the leader of the Alaska Russian Orthodox Church, is stepping down amid a growing divide within the Alaska church.
Some parishioners had asked for his removal.
The bishop told KTUU-TV on Thursday that he is leaving, so the Alaska church may heal and move forward. Soraich said, despite his departure, he still cares about the Alaska church. But he said he now plans to travel the West Coast to visit with family and friends.
"When I came here the diocese was divided and that was because of the bishop prior to me," Soraich said. "And to divide or to continue to allow that division to be here, I just don't think it's the right thing to do, and sometimes you need to go where you can be appreciated for your talents and your efforts."
- Russian Orthodox Church.
[≤ 2004 Mr Dushkin] - 9 convictions.
[~ 2008 Bp Nikolai Soraich] - Tonsured convicted paedophile as Reader. Dismissed whistleblower.
The Tundra Drums
By ALEX DeMARBAN
10:13AM AKST
May 02, 2008
ALASKA -- A top official in the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Alaska blasted priests who hope to overthrow the bishop, calling some "paranoid" and overly fearful because they're battling alcoholism.
The rebellion comes because the bishop's strict demands clashed with the priests' once-easy lifestyle, said Chancellor Archimandrite Isidore, the diocese's second-ranking official and a close supporter of Bishop Nikolai Soraich.
Their "slanderous" attacks – voiced on Websites, media reports and during an investigation this month by national church leaders
– have saddened Soraich and will likely force him from Alaska, Isidore said.
The Very Rev. Peter Askoar, a village priest from Russian Mission and a Soraich opponent, said clergy aren't angry because of increased work. Alcoholism isn't a factor in their outrage either.
[Miani (Salesian)] - RCC.
City of Angels
By Kay Ebeling, ~ May 02, 2008
LOS ANGELES (CA) – The hearing on First Amendment challenges discussed last post for Monday is continued to Friday June 20th, at 1:45 p.m. in Dept. 308 on Commonwealth, as the Miani cases jury trial will be in session most of May and early June. To Clarify, the motion to compel which was quoted so freely here yesterday, concerns production of documents and evidence for Salesian cases going to trial in August. The brief was from plaintiff attorney Katherine Freberg.
Jury selection continues Monday downtown in Department One as the cases concerning the Salesian priest, Jim Miani progress to trial. The photo above is a preview of an article to come this weekend at City of Angels: Aftermath of the Pope's Visit.
Meanwhile, did anyone notice the FLDS story that began to fill the media a week before the Pope arrived disappeared a week after he left? What news there is now about the arrests on the fundamentalist Mormon sect ranch is embarrassing admissions from law enforcement that they made mistakes. Hmm, could it be the whole thing WAS a setup to try to divert attention from pedophiles in the Catholic Church while the Pope was here -- and it apparently did not work? Or am I hopelessly paranoid seeing plots and schemes everywhere, now that I've watched how the Catholic Church conducts its legal defense.
- RCC.
Catholic League
May 2, 2008
UNITED STATES -- Earlier this week, a media watchdog group, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) ran a story titled, "Pope Gets Pass on Church Abuse History." The self-styled "progressive" group said that in 2001, before Joseph Ratzinger was named pope, the cardinal "sent a letter to church bishops invoking a 1962 doctrine threatening automatic excommunication for any Catholic official who discussed abuse cases outside the church's legal system."
Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented as follows:
"When we pressed FAIR to provide us with the evidence that would substantiate its claims, it cited an English newspaper, the Observer; it also asked us if the paper ever ran a correction. So this is the level of scrutiny that FAIR employs: it does no independent fact checking, relying instead on foreign sources to verify its accusations.
[RESPONSE to this e-mailed from FPP on May 3, 2008]
- RCC. The secrecy "Instruction".
BishopAccountability.org ,
www.bishop-accountability.org/resources/resource-files/churchdocs/CrimenEnglish.pdf
This links to the English version of Crimen Sollicitationis which was promulgated in 1962. BishopAccountabilty.org also has the Latin version.
- Child-sex was part of his childhood environment.
KVIA,
~ May 02, 2008
EL PASO, Texas - Lawyers for convicted child killer David Renteria began wrapping up their case Friday in Renteria's resentencing trial. The defense called their final witness Friday morning, Doctor Mark Cunningham.
Cunningham is a clinical and forensic psychologist who recently interviewed Renteria, members of his family and a former cathedral high school principal about the environment Renteria grew up in, and how it may have shaped the disturbed sexuality that may have led to his abducting and killing 5-year-old Alexandra Flores in 2001.
Cunningham said he uncovered at least three incidents of pedophile activity among priests during the 1980s at Mount Carmel Elementary and Middle school in Ysleta and at Cathedral High School where Renteria, 38, attended school.
Cunningham testified that while Renteria was at Mount Carmel, there was an incident where a priest was caught having sex with a young boy. He also pointed to an alleged event at Cathedral High School where a student was molested by a man identified only as 'Brother Sam.'
[- 2005 Saloy*] - RCC. 3½yrs prison. 600 child porn images.
New York Post
May 2, 2008
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. - A priest was sentenced to about 3½ years in prison Friday after admitting he collected hundreds of child pornography images off the Internet.
Thomas Saloy, 47, an administrator of the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church in Roosevelt, pleaded guilty in November 2006 to federal charges of having more than 600 illegal images on his computer.
He was arrested as part of a national FBI computer pornography sting. A criminal complaint states that when FBI agents seized computer equipment near Milwaukee in September 2005, they found an e-mail from Saloy, depicting sexually explicit images of boys.
[- 2005 Saloy*] - RCC. 3½yrs prison. 1300 child porn images.
Newsday
BY LUIS PEREZ | luis.perez@newsday.com
2:06 PM EDT, May 2, 2008
ROOSEVELT (NY) -- A Roman Catholic priest from Roosevelt was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in federal prison Friday after admitting he stored 600 images of young boys in sexual acts on his rectory computer, officials said.
Thomas G. Saloy, 46, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Joseph F. Bianco in Central Islip on charges of possession of child pornography. As part of his plea deal, Saloy admitted to possessing less than half of the lewd images prosecutors initially found in his possession.
Saloy pleaded guilty after his arrest in a child pornography sting by federal investigators and Suffolk police in November 2006. At the time, prosecutors said they found 1,300 images in Saloy's computer in the rectory of Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church in Roosevelt, where he was the administrator.
- RCC.
AFP,
~ May 02, 2008
SYDNEY (NSW), Australia (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI will holiday at a secret location in Australia before World Youth Day in Sydney in July, event organisers said Friday.
Sydney Archbishop George Pell said the pope would arrive in Australia on July 13 and leave on July 21, taking three days vacation before attending World Youth Day. …
The trip has sparked complaints over the costs involved after it was revealed that taxpayers would contribute 86 million Australian dollars (80.4 million US dollars) towards the event.
New South Wales state Premier Morris Iemma defended spending taxpayers' money, saying it would showcase Sydney to a global audience while generating 150 million dollars in revenue.
- Baptist. Girl.
CBS 42,
CBS 42 Reporter: Annalisa Petralia
Email: apetralia@keyetv.com
Last Update: 5/01 7:29 pm, ~ May 02, 2008
TEXAS -- Pope Benedict XVI's recent visit with victims of church sex abuse cast light on how reports of sexual abuse are handled in other churches.
CBS 42's Annalisa Petralia sat down with an Austin woman who says she was sexually abused at her Baptist Church.
She's a mother, a lawyer, and a victim of sexual abuse in her church. Christa Brown launched a web site and crusade against sexual predators in the Baptist Church.
She shared her story Thursday and talked about how the experience prompted her to help others.
"I want kids in Baptist churches today to be a very great deal safer than I was growing up," Brown said.
[Pelotte] - RCC. "Fallen" bishop resigns.
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola, May 01, 2008
GALLUP (NM) – The latest chapter in the history of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup is now coming to an end.
The Vatican announced Wednesday that Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Gallup's Bishop Donald E. Pelotte. According to a news release issued by the diocese, the pope accepted Pelotte's resignation in accordance with a provision of church canon law that "relates to the resignation of a bishop due to ill health or another serious reason."
Pelotte, 63, has been struggling with medical problems since he was discovered severely injured in his Gallup home on July 23, 2007. He told diocesan officials, emergency room personnel, and Gallup police officers that he had fallen in his home. Pelotte, who reportedly suffered traumatic brain injury, was subsequently treated at medical centers in Phoenix, Houston, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. …
Although the Pelotte era is now over in the Diocese of Gallup, the former bishop will remain in the news due to the legal battle over Gallup Police Department photographs that were taken of his injuries on July 23, 2007. District Judge Grant Foutz is presiding over that civil lawsuit, which involves media requests for access to the photographs.
[6mos in 2006 Connolly (Franciscan)] - RCC. Probation penalty. Male (prisoner).
The Tribune-Democrat
By SANDRA K. REABUCK, ~ May 02, 2008
EBENSBURG (PA) – A Franciscan priest charged with having sexual contact with an inmate at SCI-Cresson received 23 months' probation Thursday in Cambria County Court.
The Rev. Gerard M. Connolly, 67, was put on probation under the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program for first-time offenders.
He will be able to clear his criminal record if he does not get into trouble again while on probation.
Connolly was charged with smuggling alcohol for the prisoner and having sexual contact with him during counseling sessions over a six-month period beginning in summer 2006.
[≤ 2006 Kiffmeyer*] - RCC. 2 youths.
Cincinnati Enquirer
BY DAN HORN | DHORN@ENQUIRER.COM , May 02, 2008
EAST PRICE HILL (OH) -- A priest who faced sexual misconduct accusations six years ago was appointed Thursday to lead Holy Family parish in East Price Hill.
The Rev. James Kiffmeyer became the church's new pastoral administrator after a months-long campaign by his supporters in the parish.
Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk signed off on the appointment, but only after members of the parish held several public and private meetings to discuss whether Kiffmeyer should get the job.
A parish spokesman said the final meeting ended with 92 percent of parishioners in attendance voting to recommend Kiffmeyer.
[1950s Stricker*] - RCC. Boy.
Cincinnati Enquirer
BY DAN HORN | DHORN@ENQUIRER.COM , May 02, 2008
CINCINNATI (OH) -- A Cincinnati priest was suspended Thursday after he was accused of sexually abusing a boy in the 1950s.
Church officials put the Rev. Robert Stricker, 84, on administrative leave pending an investigation into one of the oldest abuse accusations in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
More than a dozen priests have been suspended or removed from ministry because of abuse allegations in the archdiocese, but few of those cases involve claims that date back 50 years or more.
The archdiocese's Child Protection Review Board will investigate the accusation and make a recommendation to Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, who will decide whether to refer Stricker to the Vatican for permanent removal from the priesthood. Pilarczyk already has found that the accusation has a "semblance of truth," the standard the church uses to determine whether a priest should be suspended.
- Russian Orthodox Church.
[≤ 2004 Mr Dushkin] - 9 convictions.
[~ 2008 Bp Nikolai Soraich] - Tonsured convicted paedophile as Reader. Dismissed whistleblower.
KTUU
by Sean Doogan
Thursday, May 1, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The leader of the Alaska Russian Orthodox Church said he is stepping down, and will leave the state within a week.
For months, Bishop Nikolai Soraich has been at the center of a growing divide within the Alaska church.
After seven years in the state, some parishioners asked church officials for his removal.
Thursday, Bishop Nikolai said he is leaving, so the Alaska church may heal, and move forward.
[~ 2007-08 Mr Bonds*] - RCC (Salesian school). Girl.
San Jose Mercury News
By Karl Fischer
West County Times, ~ May 02, 2008
RICHMOND (CA) – Richmond police arrested a biology teacher at a Catholic high school on suspicion of sexually abusing a student, detectives said Thursday.
Rickey Bonds, 30, was jailed Wednesday afternoon with bail set at $2.5 million on charges of continual sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl who was his student within the past year at Salesian High School.
Detectives plan to meet with the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office today to discuss criminal charges.
"About a month ago, we received some information involving a student," Richmond Detective Sgt. Brian Dickerson said. "There were rumors that a teacher had engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with an underage girl."
- RCC has secrecy and power structure problems - Berry.
Courier
May 01, 2008
IOWA -- The Courier's Editorial of April 18, 2008 should have read, "Pope needs significant steps to speed abuse healing."
During his recent trip to the U.S, Pope Benedict spoke about and apologized for the abuse in almost every stop or speech. He called on Catholics to reach out to survivors and instructed Catholics to do everything they can to help clergy abuse survivors and their families heal.
Nonetheless Pope Benedict needs to make significant institutional changes to promote healing for the Church as well as holding Church hierarchy accountable for abuses or complicity in the abuse of thousands of children. To illustrate the lack of accountability and complicity:
n In an ABC News interview with author Jason Berry, who has been tracking the sex abuse scandal, Berry stated recent history has shown us that there is a culture of secrecy within the church. Berry continued, "Priests who abuse children can be removed from the priesthood, but they do not remove bishops, they do not remove cardinals- the problem is the power structure. There is no accountability."
- St James RC church lets faithful in.
Toledo Blade,
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, ~ May 02, 2008
KANSAS, Ohio - When members of the closed St. James Catholic Parish were granted access to their former church, they were so glad to find everything in tiptop shape that they decided to continue their legal battle for ownership of the building.
"It was like time stood still … like that two years and 50 days had never happened," Ginny Hull said.
She reclaimed her two guitars that had been locked inside the church since March 6, 2006, the day the Toledo Catholic Diocese sent a maintenance worker to this rural Seneca County village to halt a round-the-clock prayer vigil and padlock the building.
Former members of the church, which was built in 1889 and ordered closed in 2005 by Bishop Leonard Blair as part of a diocesewide restructuring, sued in Seneca County Common Pleas Court, claiming that the building and grounds belonged to parishioners and not the diocese.
- RCC. Mons McCarthy.
The Star-Ledger
by Bill Swayze / 8:26 PM
Thursday May 01, 2008
EAST HANOVER (NJ) -- An East Hanover church pastor has been vindicated of sexual abuse allegations by the Vatican, which upheld his exoneration following a church trial by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson, according to a statement by the diocese.
Monsignor William McCarthy, formerly of St. Rose of Lima Church in East Hanover, was suspended from the ministry six years ago following claims that he abused two girls 23 years ago.
He now "is a priest in good standing and is free to exercise his priestly ministry as a retired priest," according to a statement released Wednesday to priests and deacons by Monsignor James T. Mahoney.
[≤ 2006 Kiffmeyer*] - RCC. 2 youths.
Cincinnati Enquirer
BY DAN HORN | DHORN@ENQUIRER.COM , May 02, 2008
CINCINNATI (OH) -- A priest who faced sexual misconduct accusations six years ago was appointed Thursday to lead Holy Family parish in East Price Hill.
The Rev. James Kiffmeyer became the church's new pastoral administrator after a months-long campaign by his supporters in the parish.
Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk signed off on the appointment, but only after members of the parish held several public and private meetings to discuss whether Kiffmeyer should get the job.
A parish spokesman said the final meeting ended with 92 percent of parishioners in attendance voting to recommend Kiffmeyer.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 2, 2008
8:11 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Fri May 02, 2008
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[1993-96 Saraswati -NEW*] - Hindu. 2 girls.
Austin American-Statesman,
www. statesman. com/blogs/ content/ shared- gen/blogs/ austin/ blotter/ entries/ 2008/04/26/ barsana_ dham_hindu_ temple_offi. html ;
By Suzannah Gonzales | 01:43 PM, Saturday, April 26, 2008,
TEXAS -- In a statement to the media, officials of the Barsana Dham Hindu temple defended Prakashanand Saraswati, the 79-year-old founder of the Hays County temple who has been charged with 20 counts of indecency with children.
"We believe these allegations to be groundless. There is absolutely no truth to them. And we are deeply saddened by these reports," reads the statement faxed to the newsroom today.
Saraswati, who is known to his followers as Shree Swamiji, "has dedicated his entire life to serving humanity and upholding the tenets of our faith. No one who knows him would ever believe he would do anything such as this," the statement continues.
[1983-85 Bro. Martinez -NEW*] - RCC. Boy.
KFOX,
~ May 03, 2008
[with video]
EL PASO, Texas -- The affidavit, from the David Renteria case, explained a plaintiff, identified as "John Doe 1," accused Brother Samuel F. Martinez of sexually abusing him between 1983 and 1985, while Martinez was principal of Cathedral High School.
This would have been during the time frame when Renteria attended Cathedral.
The document explained, "Br. Sam Martinez sexually abused and exploited John Doe 1, including the showing to plaintiff of pornographic videos. Plaintiff alleges on information and belief that other students were also sexually abused and exploited by Br. Sam Martinez."
In the plaintiff's original petition, filed in 2004, the former student alleged under oath, "Br. Sam Martinez sexually abused and exploited John Doe 1, including the showing to plaintiff of pornographic videos. Plaintiff alleges on information and belief that other students were also sexually abused and exploited by Br. Sam Martinez." …
A history of El Paso priests sexually abusing children is included in a recent book written by Dr. Leon Podles, Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church.
One title of the book is called, "The Rectory Boys of El Paso."
Podles said, "It was one of the oldest, best documented in some ways, one of the worst abuse cases I came across."
[2006-07 Abp Ncube*] - RCC. Lady died. Married woman.
New Zimbabwe,
By Staff Reporter
Last updated 16:57:26
May/02/2008
ZIMBABWE -- ROSEMARY Sibanda, the woman at the centre of the infidelity storm that engulfed Archbishop Pius Ncube, and eventually forced him to quit, died at Bulawayo's Mpilo General Hospital on Friday.
Archbishop Ncube, the former head of the Bulawayo diocese of the Roman Catholic Church and a vocal critic of President Robert Mugabe's government admitted to the adulterous affair with Sibanda shortly before he was reassigned to the Vatican.
Rosemary, whose estranged husband Onesimus Sibanda is suing the former Archbishop for Z$5 trillion, accusing him of adultery, died just after noon on Friday, a family member who asked not to be named said.
Hospital authorities, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told New Zimbabwe.com she had been admitted on April 30 and suffered from pneumonia.
- FLDS. Certificates challenged.
AZCentral,
Associated Press 07:33 AM, May 3, 2008
SALT LAKE CITY (UT) -- Members of an embattled polygamous church have asked Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman to intervene in its fight with Texas authorities over the custody of more than 400 children from the sect.
In a letter sent this week, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints says Texas officials are rejecting Utah-issued birth certificates and other documents as "fake."
The letter, written by FLDS elder Willie Jessop, also accuses Texas authorities of claiming sect members are lying about their ages, legal names and residency.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 3, 2008
9:26 PM]
- RCC still protects seducers.
Party for Socialism and Liberation,
By Eugene Puryear Saturday, May 3, 2008
UNITED STATES -- Pope Benedict XVI arrived in the United States on April 15 for a six-day visit–the first Papal visit to the United States since 1995 and the first such visit to Washington, D.C., since 1979. During his Washington, D.C., and New York stops, Benedict spoke to Catholic educators, abuse victims and tens of thousands of followers at two large baseball-stadium Masses. Predictably the media followed his every move, while crowds flocked to see him in the streets.
Benedict paid lip service to fighting poverty in particular and to other peaceful and progressive causes in general. The Pope is well aware that a number of impoverished people
–including millions of immigrants–draw sustenance from their Catholic faith in their daily struggles. …
Yet, the protection of abusive priests continues. One of the highest-ranking church clergy, Cardinal Bernard Law of the Boston archdiocese, who consistently protected pedophile priests by reassigning them to avoid their prosecution, is now archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, as of May 2004.
Benedict's apology can be best understood in the context of the church's economic crisis created by the massive lawsuit victories and settlements for abuse victims. There was a $650 million settlement in Los Angeles last year alone. The loss of members and billions of dollars of the church's wealth are perhaps the biggest motivation for Benedict's half measure.
- ? Christian Orthodox. Male.
Orthodox Reform,
~ May 03, 2008
[with audio]
BLOOMINGTON (IL) -- The following interview appeared on Thursday on a local radio station in Bloomington, IL:
Monica Iliff shares her son's story about sex abuse that unfortunately ended with his suicide. Eric Iliff was a young man when he attended a seminary in New York state. His family could never imagine his efforts to serve God would end in tragedy, including clergy sex abuse by his mentor.
- Sister Benen Kent case dismissed.
Post-Bulletin
By Janice Gregorson
Rochester MN, ~ May 03, 2008
MINNESOTA -- The Minnesota Court of Appeals has upheld a district court decision dismissing claims brought by one woman alleging sexual abuse as a child by a nun with the sisters of St. Francis.
A year ago, Olmsted District Judge Joseph Chase dismissed all of the claims brought by Karen Britten of Chicago.
That decision was appealed by Britten's attorney, Jeffrey Anderson of St. Paul. The Court of Appeals issued its decision Tuesday.
Britten was one of three women who filed civil lawsuits in 2005 and 2006 claiming they had been repeatedly molested by Sister Benen Kent in the mid-1960s while students in Chicago. At the time, Kent was their piano and music teacher at St. Juliana's parish school in Chicago, they said.
- FLDS.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By BILL HANNA and JOHN MORITZ, ~ May 03, 2008
TEXAS -- Texas appears to be in it for the long haul with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
As state officials await DNA results to help identify the parents of many of the 464 children in state custody, a Utah official said Friday that it will take time to sort out the complex web of relationships within the polygamist sect in Eldorado.
Patricia Sheffield, director of Washington County Children's Justice Center in St. George, Utah, who has dealt with abuse cases involving polygamist families, was one of several out-of-state advisers brought to Texas this week to give guidance to caseworkers overseeing the children removed from the YFZ Ranch after allegations of child abuse prompted a raid on the compound.
"I believe it will probably go into months," Sheffield said. "I don't see how it could not."
- RCC.
Time,
By DAVID VAN BIEMA, ~ May 03, 2008
UNITED STATES -- He may not have been thinking about it at the time, but Pope Benedict, in the course of his recent U.S. visit may have dealt a knockout blow to the liberal American Catholicism that has challenged Rome since the early 1960s. He did so by speaking frankly and forcefully of his "deep shame" during his meeting with victims of the Church's sex-abuse scandal. By demonstrating that he "gets" this most visceral of issues, the pontiff may have successfully mollified a good many alienated believers – and in the process, neutralized the last great rallying point for what was once a feisty and optimistic style of progressivism.
The liberal rebellion in American Catholicism has dogged Benedict and his predecessors since the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65. "Vatican II," which overhauled much of Catholic teaching and ritual, had a revolutionary impact on the Church as a whole. It enabled people to hear the Mass in their own languages; embraced the principle of religious freedom; rejected anti-semitism; [sic] and permitted Catholic scholars to grapple with modernity. …
Not everyone agrees. Says Voice of the Faithful spokesman John Moynihan, "That's funny; I just came from a meeting of COR (Catholic Organizations for Reform), and there were a lot of people very buoyed up. We can now say to people, 'We have made a difference, and if you stick with us we are going to make a further difference'." Adds Peter Steinfels, a former editor of Commonweal, now a director of Fordham's Religion and Culture Center, "I think there is continuity in terms of the issues and the questions about whether Church structures can be altered." He notes that a social justice group, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, formed just three years ago.
- RCs against closures.
Courier-Post
By JOSEPH GIDJUNIS, Courier-Post Staff, May 3, 2008
CAMDEN (NJ) – Praying the rosary, nearly 75 protesters demanded their St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Malaga stay open during a demonstration along the 600 block of Market Street in front of the Diocese of Camden headquarters on Friday.
Members of the rural church of only 250 families oppose last month's decision by Camden Bishop Joseph A. Galante to close, merge or reconfigure nearly half of its parishes from 124 to 66. In his proposal, Galante placed St. Mary's on the list to merge with churches in Landisville, Minotola, Newfield and Collings Lakes.
"There is no such thing as merging. It's closing," said Leah Vassallo, a longtime parishioner. "The real reason he is doing this is because he thinks larger parishes are more vibrant. Where is that? People aren't likely to go to a bigger church, farther from home."
- "Free speech" President BLUSH style.
City of Angels
By Kay Ebeling, ~ May 03, 2008
NEW YORK -- In New York, anyone who looked like a demonstrator was put into a pen during the pope's recent visit, with dump trucks parked in the road to prevent any view of the pope or any view of demonstrators by the pope or anyone else, (click photos to enlarge). The pens aka "free speech zones" did not stop Paul Kellen from Boston and Robert Hoatson from New Jersey.
"When the pope came by, we raised those signs and I'm six feet tall," said Paul Kellen. But to get to a spot where the Pope could see them, Kellen and Hoatson had to battle up the avenue as if they were in a country with no First Amendment right to free assembly.
"The first pen had the atheists, the second had this collection of bigoted Baptists from Kansas," Kellen said. "We had the third pen, and the next pen down was the Communists. So we were between the Communists and the atheists. It's like they label someone as a fringe nut and put them in a pen," Kellen said. "You could move around but to me I might as well be wearing a prison suit. I said, I'm sorry this is disgusting."
Kellen then battled goliaths at every street corner to get closer to the pope. The following is his story, in his own words:
Bob Hoatson and I said we might as well be out of town down here. So he and I took the pictures and we hiked all the way up from 47th to 57th and in New York City those blocks are long.
They tell us you can't go up Fifth Avenue so we go to Sixth Avenue. We talked to one of the cops there and he said we could go to 53rd and go over. But we get to 53rd and you can't go down, 54th, 55th finally at 57th, there were cops there but they didn't stop us.
[- 2005 Saloy*] - RCC. ~ 3½yrs prison. > 600 child porn images.
The New York Times
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 3, 2008
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) – A priest was sentenced on Friday to about three and a half years in prison after admitting he collected hundreds of child pornography images off the Internet.
The priest, the Rev. Thomas Saloy, 47, an administrator of the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church in Roosevelt, pleaded guilty in November 2006 to federal charges of having more than 600 illegal images on his computer.
He was arrested as part of a national F.B.I. computer pornography sting. A criminal complaint states that when agents seized computer equipment near Milwaukee in September 2005, they found an e-mail message from Father Saloy, depicting sexually explicit images of boys.
[Sicoli]
PhillyBurbs
By DIANE SHEA
Bucks County Courier Times, ~ May 03, 2008
PENNSYLVANIA -- In February of this year, the Bucks County Courier Times carried two articles about Dave Sicoli, former priest stationed at Immaculate Conception parish in Levittown. Sicoli was one of the many priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who had been named as a sexual predator in the grand jury report on the Philadelphia Archdiocese.
One article was written by Matt Coughlin, who reported that Sicoli had been defrocked by the Vatican.
This could only have happened if the evidence against Sicoli clearly and unambiguously found him guilty of the sexual abuses of which he had been accused. The second, by Ben Finley, brought attention to the fact that Sicoli has a home somewhere in Sea Isle, N.J., yet his neighbors have no access to knowledge about Sicoli's past.
Both articles made reference to the statute of limitations as the reason for this dreadful reality. What seems to be apparent is the need to support legislation in Harrisburg (House Bill 1574), which has been in committee. But why the holdup? Why has this bill allowing for civil action against these predators not found unanimous support?
I suggest that the best answer can be found in a newly published book, "Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children," written by Marci Hamilton and published by Cambridge University Press. A lawyer and constitutional expert, Hamilton tackles the issue head-on but in language that is clearly written and not full of unnecessary legalese.
[? 2000s Saraswati*] - Hindu. 20 charges.
San Marcos Daily Record,
From staff reports, ~ May 03, 2008
TEXAS -- The leader of a Hindu community that has a shrine in northern Hays County was arrested in Washington, D.C. Thursday, accused of 20 counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact.
Prakashanand Saraswati, 79, who is known to his followers as Shiree Swamiji, was taken into custody around 3 p.m. at Dulles International Airport by the U.S. Marshal's Service, the Hays County Sheriff's Office said in a press release issued this morning.
Saraswati was transported to Alexandria, Va., the sheriff's office said, but has waived extradition and is expected to be brought back to Hays County soon.
The charges stem from a sheriff's investigation that began last August in conjunction with the Hays County District Attorney's Office.
Saraswati is the founder of Barsana Dham center, located in FM 1826 in north Hays County.
[? 2000s Saraswati*] - Hindu. 20 charges.
KXAN
~ May 03, 2008
AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) - Prakashanand Saraswati or "Shree Swamiji" -- released from the Hays County jail on Saturday on a $1 million bond -- is at his temple under tight security and unavailable for interviews from local media.
But his followers let the public into their temple and ashram on Saturday and responded to the allegations. Music, games, Indian cuisine and education on the Hindu religion were all part of an open house for Austinites to immerse themselves in the culture of Barsana Dham.
Shree Swamiji's follower didn't let the accusations against their guru spoil their annual celebration. They vehemently deny Saraswati's involvement in any wrongdoing.
[1993-96 Saraswati*] - Hindu. 2 girls.
Times of India
~ May 03, 2008
NEW YORK: A prominent Indian religious leader with a worldwide following and a huge ashram complex in the US has been arrested on charges of indecency with minor girls emanating from alleged incidents in the 1990s.
Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, 79, founder of Barsana Dham, a 200-acre temple and ashram complex near Austin, Texas, has been accused of groping two underage girls on several occasions between 1993 and 1996.
According to local media reports, detectives began investigating the swami, a votary of the path of devotional love, in August 2007 but indictment on 20 counts of indecency with a child or sexual contact was handed down in April.
Barsana Dham temple vice-president Prabhakari Devi confirmed that their guru was arrested last Thursday at Dulles airport in Washington on his return from Europe where he was receiving medical care.
[1993-96 Saraswati*] - Hindu. 2 girls.
Sify (India)
11:01
Thursday, May 01, 2008
NEW YORK: A prominent Hindu religious leader with a worldwide following and a huge ashram complex in the US, who was detained on charges of indecency with minor girls, is carrying on with his scheduled programme after he was released on bail.
Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, 79, founder of Barsana Dham, a 200-acre temple and ashram complex near Austin, Texas, was accused of inappropriate touch to two underage girls on several occasions between 1993 and 1996.
According to local media reports, detectives began investigating the swami, a votary of the path of devotional love, in August 2007 but charges were framed this April.
[1993-96 Saraswati*] - Hindu. 2 girls.
San Marcos Daily Record
By Anita Miller
News Editor, ~ May 03, 2008
SAN MARCOS (TX) – Followers of a Hindu leader arrested on child indecency charges last week put up $1 million in cash to get him released from Hays County Jail.
The bailout allowed Prakashanand Saraswati, 79, known as Shree Swami to his followers, to arrive at the northern Hays County shrine he founded almost two decades ago in time to speak to those gathered for an annual festival.
Saraswati was taken into custody at Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. April 24 by the U.S. Marshal's Service and extradited to Hays County on Saturday. Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Leroy Opiela said he arrived around 4 p.m. and was booked into jail "on two indictments alleging 20 counts of indecency with a child/sexual contact," Opiela said.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 3, 2008
10:09 AM]
[1993-96 Saraswati*, aka Swamiji] - Hindu. 20 charges. 2 girls.
Press Trust of India
May 3, 2008
UNITED STATES (PTI) -- A Hindu priest has been charged with 20 counts of indecency with a child and released on a whopping USD one million bail bond by a US court.
Prakashanand Saraswati, 79, founder of the Barsana Dham centre in north Hays County in Texas-- one of the biggest Hindu temples in the US-- was arrested at an airport in Washington, D.C. Last week.
Known to his followers as Shiree Swamiji, the priest is accused of groping two underage girls on several occasions in the 1990s.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 3, 2008
9:46 AM]
- RCC. Abp Flynn of "zero tolerance" standing down.
Catholic Online,
~ May 03, 2008
WASHINGTON (CNS) - Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis May 2.
As coadjutor archbishop of the archdiocese for the past year, Archbishop John C. Nienstedt, 61, automatically succeeds him.
The changes were announced in Washington by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States. …
The archbishop also received wide praise for his work as head of what was then the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse at the height of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The committee supervised a two-year review of the sex abuse prevention policies contained in the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People," adopted in 2002. He took a particularly strong stand in favor of the bishops' "zero tolerance" policy under which any priest who admitted or was proven to have committed at least one act of child sex abuse would be removed from all ministry.
- Televangelist [~ 2000s Mrs Roberts*] - Young male. [- 2007 Roberts*] - Luxury, SMSs to young males.
San Francisco Chronicle
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press Writer
16:04 PDT
Friday, May 2, 2008
TULSA (OK), (AP) -- As Oral Roberts University prepares to hand out diplomas to its Class of 2008, Anna Siebring, a junior, will be mailing out applications to transfer to another school. Siebring, a government major, is among many students having second thoughts about staying at Oral Roberts after six months of scandal at the evangelical Christian university.
She and others fear the furor will reduce the value of any degree they earn there. Some graduates worry that they will have to try twice as hard to market themselves to potential employers after Saturday's commencement.
"The reputation of the school means a lot," Siebring said. "I want to be proud of the school that I went to, but I could definitely not say that about the school right now."
[LOOK BACK: October 2007]
- RCC.
WTOV
~ May 03, 2008
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio -- As a prayer service is set this weekend in the Diocese of Steubenville, a local parishioner is speaking out against church closures on the way.
The diocese announced in April that three churches will be closing June 8, and several priests will be reassigned.
This weekend the diocese will be holding prayer services, or holy hours, on the changes to come.
In the meantime, one local parishioner is speaking out, trying to fight the closures and save her church.
"This isn't right," said Merica Petrella, a parishioner at St. Anthony's Parish.
[2000s Barlow*] - FLDS. Warrant dropped. Girl (16).
The Associated Press,
~ May 03, 2008
ELDORADO, Texas (AP) – An arrest warrant has been dropped for a man thought to be the husband of a teenage girl whose report of abuse triggered a raid on a polygamous sect's Texas compound, authorities said Friday.
A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman would not say why the warrant was dropped for Dale E. Barlow, 50, who lives in Colorado City, Ariz. Barlow has denied knowing the 16-year-old girl who called a crisis center.
The girl reported that she was a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and that she was beaten and raped at the sect's Eldorado ranch.
- RCC. Abp Flynn retires.
KAAL,
~ May 03, 2008
MINNESOTA -- It's an end of an era for the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minnesota; after 13 faithful years of service, Archbishop Harry Flynn retired from his position Friday.
Flynn started his final day on the job at 4 a.m. Friday morning. He tells 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he's excited to be at the beginning of a new phase of his life. …
As he went about his day, Flynn remembered the most difficult time of his 47-years in the priesthood: The discovery of sexual abuse of children by priests.
"I think we are the only institution in the country, indeed in the world, which has something in place now for the protection of children," he said.
[2003 Stonewalling.]
The Journal News
By Noreen O'Donnell, Journal News columnist, May 3, 2008
PUTNAM VALLEY (NY) -- You've heard it before - "He's not that kind of man" - and when a Putnam Valley middle school teacher was accused of drugging and raping a 12-year-old student, that apparently was what his friends thought.
And because those friends were school officials, they tried to thwart an investigation into the charges, a state investigation concluded.
"They couldn't believe that something like this might happen," the interim superintendent at the time, Robert Pauline, told the state Commission of Investigation in a report released this week. "They couldn't believe that he was that kind of person, that might (be) involved with young girls in that way … and my sense was that, as I recall, that they were friends enough that they would, if they had the opportunity, stonewall." …
All of this occurred five years ago as the Catholic church was continuing to be battered by its sex-abuse scandal. If ever there was a time to know to listen to children, that was it. No one could have escaped the news that men who children had trusted had callously betrayed them. Six priests in the Archdiocese of New York had been removed from their churches, among them a pastor in Putnam Lake, and a commission headed by former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating was scrutinizing the American bishops' response.
Shortly before Laura Bliss alleged she had been sexually assaulted, a diocese on Long Island had been sued for a total of nearly $2 billion. The men who brought the lawsuits accused the Diocese of Rockville Centre of knowingly concealing information about sexual abuse by priests. If ever there was a time to know not to try to cover up accusations, that was it.
[- 2006 Saloy*] - RCC. ~ 3½yrs prison. 1300 child porn images.
Newsday
BY LUIS PEREZ | luis.perez@newsday.com
May 3, 2008
ROOSEVELT (NY) -- A former Roman Catholic priest from Roosevelt was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in federal prison Friday for keeping 600 sexual images of young boys on his rectory computer, officials said.
Thomas G. Saloy, 46, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph F. Bianco in Central Islip on a charge of possession of child pornography. As part of his plea deal, Saloy admitted to possessing less than half of the lewd images prosecutors initially found in his possession.
Saloy pleaded guilty after his arrest in a child pornography sting by federal investigators and Suffolk police in November 2006. At the time, prosecutors said they found 1,300 images in Saloy's computer in the rectory of Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church in Roosevelt, where he was the administrator.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 3, 2008
7:30 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker ,
Sat May 03, 2008
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[McLaughlin -NEW*] - RCC. Female.
Telegraph Herald,
www.thonline. com/article. cfm?id= 200388 ,
~ May 04, 2008
IOWA -- Another priest of the Archdiocese of Dubuque has been accused of past sexual abuse.
The Rev. William McLaughlin was ordained in 1959 and served locally in the following Iowa cities:
* Dubuque from 1976 to 1987, as the archdiocesan director of religious education.
* New Melleray from 1980 to 1983, at Holy Family and St. Joseph parishes.
* St. Catherine Parish from 1983 to 1987.
* Maquoketa from 1987 to 1993, at Sacred Heart Parish.
From 1959 to 1976, McLaughlin worked in Rockwell and Waterloo.
One woman has claimed that McLaughlin abused her as a minor and indicated there might have been more victims. The archdiocese declined to release information on when or where the abuse occurred or details about the settlement reached with the victim in January.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 4, 2008
7:35 AM]
[2005-06 Saloy*] - RCC. Sentenced ~ 3½yrs prison. 1300 boy porn images.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
May 02, 2008
LONG ISLAND (NY) -- Now that Fr. Saloy has admitted his guilt, it's up to Catholic officials to prod others with information about his crimes to come forward and call the police.
He might well be charged with other offenses, if those who saw, suspected or suffered his crimes are urged to speak up. And there may well be individuals who are suffering because of Saloy who need and deserve compassionate outreach by church personnel.
It's tempting, now that this priest has admitted guilt, to sit back and do nothing. That, however, would be reckless and irresponsible.
[LOOK BACK: ~ Nov 17, 2006]
- RCC. Violence, separation by orphanage.
The Malta Independent
by Lou Bondi, ~ May 04, 2008
MALTA -- Lou Bondi interviews Joseph Raggio, one of the victims, about what went on at Lourdes Home in Gozo.
Joseph lived at the home from birth (1973) and left when he was 11 (1984). Then from 11 to 16 he was at San Guzepp.
He met his biological mother, when he was 20. "I asked for her many times." Sensation when he met her the first time: "Nothing, nothing" No reaction? "No". Why? "It was too late and I couldn't see her as my mother. My adoptive mother is my real mother." …
The first commission, along with Bishop Nikol Cauchi, were "despicable". Why? "It was all a sham. I showed them what the problem was. But all they did was appoint puppets or clowns who pretended to be doing something but everything remained the same. When I gave my testimony, instead of investigating what I said, he told me I was lying."
He was not informed that the report was finished so he was not even informed that the commission was. "I found out that the report came out and that it was a whitewash on Bondiplus." This was six years after the report was commissioned.
Not every nun at Lourdes Home was like that one nun. Why did they not say or do anything? Most of the violence, he says, took place in their absence. But even when they knew they turned a blind eye – just did not act "What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas."
- Churches too.
The Ottawa Citizen,
by Janice Kennedy, Published: Sunday, May 04, 2008
CANADA -- 'Assimilation" is such an antiseptic word. "Policy of assimilation" suggests little more than bloodless bureaucracy. Which goes to show how neatly and tidily language can camouflage bloody reality. To see behind this particular camouflage, try some imagery on for size. Conjure up a child, say six or seven years old, taken far, far away from his home, parents and family. Plunk him down in a foreign setting filled with strangers, including adult outsiders who teach him things but who also punish him for sins he didn't even know were sins.
When he speaks the language he's known since birth, they stick a needle in his tongue. When he doesn't finish what's on his plate, he's forced to eat rotten food, sometimes with maggots. When he has an accident, he has to walk around with his dirty underwear on his head, or wet bedsheets around his body, humiliated.
Any number of other infractions -- it's hard to remember what's forbidden and what isn't -- will earn him a beating, an electric shock, a shoeless walk in the snow or confinement in a dark closet.
[1993-96 Saraswati*, aka Swamiji] - Hindu. 20 charges. 2 girls.
News 8 Austin
By Heidi Zhou
8:10 PM
May/2/2008
[with video]
TEXAS -- Prakashanand Saraswati's temple shows no sign of the trouble its founder faces.
"The human body is very precious," Saraswati told worshippers during a teaching last Saturday. "You can find the best thing–all that is great in this lifetime–if you properly understand and follow the path."
Saraswati, or "Shree Swamiji" as his devotees call him, gave the teaching just hours after his followers paid $1 million to bail him out of the Hays County jail.
The 79-year-old Saraswati teaches seminars in New York, but in Austin, 20 counts of child sexual abuse await his return.
"We are deeply saddened by these accusations. They are completely not true," Barsana Dham spokesperson Prabhakari Devi said after learning of Saraswati's
arrest.
[Various]
Independent Catholic News,
~ May 04, 2008
PHILIPPINES -- Josef Fritzl, 73, imprisoned his own daughter and abused her as a sex slave for 24 years and she gave birth in the cellar dungeon to seven children fathered by him. One died and he incinerated it in a furnace. This is a shocking wake up call for many Europeans and especially the people of Austria. The fact that he was a sex tourist in Pattaya, Thailand, adds to the horrific revelations. Was it there that he increased his addiction to sex with children, even his own? How many more European sex tourists have developed such addictions in the Philippines, abusing children non-stop with impunity and then repeating it in their home countries? His punishment may be just a few years in jail so lenient are the Austrian laws.
Why are we gasping in horror at this latest Austrian case of incest and child abuse? Yes it is particularly horrific, but child abuse and incest is everywhere. Every few days a new case is brought to the Preda children's home for treatment and protection. We are almost beyond shock, although the latest case beats all so far. The sexually abused child is only two years old. The suspect is a 71 year old man and his relatives are covering it up. …
In Eldorado, Texas, more than 463 children were rescued last month from a remote ranch where they were held by a religious Mormon cult. As many as 31 of the 53 girls aged 14 to 17 are pregnant or have given birth. The youngest pregnant child is 13 years old. One imprisoned teenager "married to a 50 year old man said that she was brutally beaten by her 'husband'. The younger children, including boys may have been sexually and physically abused too.
- RCC.
The Tampa Tribune
BY MICHELLE BEARDEN
Published: May 3, 2008
UNITED STATES -- He came, he saw, but did he conquer?
That's the question of the hour regarding Pope Benedict XVI and his first trip to this country last month.
Generally, he scored high marks with his warmth and humility - traits that his detractors did not think he possessed. His surprise meeting with a few victims of sexual abuse by clergymen caught many off-guard, along with his public apology for what all survivors of these crimes have endured.
Those who already favored this pope were thrilled with the way he handled himself during the six-day visit to New York and Washington. And those who had serious reservations about whether his public and private appearances would have any meaningful impact on the state of American Catholicism say they have reason to be cautiously optimistic.
If nothing else, the pope's visit may have rekindled some of the faith of lapsed Catholics.
"We were very encouraged by what he had to say," says Dan Bartlett, president of Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic lay group that claims more than 35,000 members. "He gave a very clear message. Now we're waiting to see if the American bishops take his lead."
- RCC. Bp Braxton accusers might be wrong.
Belleville News-Democrat
Chicago Daily Observer
By Charlie Johnston, ~ May 04, 2008
BELLEVILLE (IL) -- A little over a month ago nearly half the priests in the southern Illinois diocese of Belleville signed a letter demanding the resignation of their Bishop, Edward Braxton. It was the culmination of three years of controversy, in which priests and nuns had publicly attacked the Bishop, accusing him of many things, the most serious of which was the misappropriation of diocesan funds. Bishop Braxton responded on Good Friday with a statement detailing how he had been threatened by priests and warned not to take the appointment even before he was installed. I examined the charges against him in an article here last month and found little substantiation, but some serious problems on the part of the accusers (see Resentment in Search of a Grievance).
The controversy continues to simmer, though it is no longer at the white heat it had reached last month. As claims of misappropriation and "theft" were exposed as ridiculous hyperbole applied to using a wrong fund to pay legitimate church expenses (vestments for new priests and conference tables and chairs), some of the critics changed course slightly and claimed that the bishop had taken money out of the mouths of the poor to pay for these things. But an examination of the budget of Catholic Social Services for Southern Illinois reveals exactly the opposite. In fact, growth in the budget for social services under Braxton has been among the most robust of any diocese in the nation these last three years.
- RCC losing Hispanics to Pentecostals.
The Advocate,
By Stephen P. Clark, Staff Writer, ~ May 04, 2008
STAMFORD (CT) -- For about 50 years, there were three Hispanic Pentecostal churches in Stamford and one Hispanic Catholic parish: Our Lady of Montserrat Church.
Montserrat was founded in 1962, when 50 families saved money to build a church. It grew to more than 1,500 parishioners in the 1990s, which led to a space crunch at its Hope Street address and a long, bitter struggle with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport over a church expansion.
In 2000, the diocese merged Montserrat with St. Benedict's Church at its building in the Cove neighborhood and converted the Hope Street site into the Haitian-American Catholic Center of Stamford, sparking an outcry in the Hispanic community.
At the same time, the number of Pentecostal churches in the Hispanic community soared.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 4, 2008
6:15 PM]
- FLDS.
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Brooke Adams, ~ May 04, 2008
TEXAS -- Avoid red toys and clothes. Give them useful chores. Don't take offense at any prejudicial comments or attitudes.
Those are among tips caregivers received from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services two weeks ago as it moved about 460 children from a polygamous sect to group homes and shelters.
They got a second round of advice this week in a two-day workshop crammed with experts on cults, child abuse, trauma, foster care and critics of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. …
Texas officials say the FLDS have had more-than-normal involvement with their children given that this is an ongoing abuse investigation. But John Walsh, a religious studies scholar who is an expert in fundamentalist Mormons, said his overtures to help were rejected.
"CPS wasn't interested in even talking to a Texas resident with a Ph.D. with special expertise on fundamentalist Mormonism," said Walsh, who testified at a two-day hearing earlier this month for an attorney representing FLDS fathers. "If I was investigating a Roman Catholic family for child abuse, I think I personally would be more interested in a Ph.D. for background information than I would in someone who had been molested by a priest."
[≥ 100yrs]- Indigenous children.
The Standard,
~ May 04, 2008
CANADA -- The federal government will likely face a class-action lawsuit from residential school survivors whose claims for compensation payments have been rejected, national Grand Chief Phil Fontaine.
Fontaine told the Winnipeg Free Press in a report out of Ottawa that most of the applicants who were denied compensation were rejected because they were day students, not residents.
Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada rejected applications from 17,226 survivors as of April 21. That is more than one in every five applications received by the agency of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
[≥ 100yrs] - Provincial governments and Churches. Indigenes.
The United Church Observer
By Mike Milne, ~ May 04, 2008
CANADA -- This spring, as churches, the federal government and Aboriginal groups prepared to take part in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into Canada's residential school legacy, the words of Bob Watts began to ring true. A year ago, Watts, the interim executive secretary of the commission, told a conference that "before the truth can heal, it may hurt," and that reconciliation "may be a messy task and it may bring out uncomfortable truths."
For the United Church, the task initially meant confronting sensational allegations from Kevin Annett, a self-styled crusader, filmmaker and former United Church minister. In March, as Moderator Rt. Rev. David Giuliano and other church and Aboriginal leaders toured Canada to build momentum for the coming truth and reconciliation process, Annett and a small group of Native supporters picketed Toronto church offices and briefly occupied the city's Metropolitan United. They demanded information about children who died at residential schools and called the schools an "Aboriginal holocaust." Later, the group announced its own inquiry into 28 sites across Canada alleged to be "mass graves" containing the bodies of Native children.
Annett, who resigned as minister of St. Andrew's United in Port Alberni, B.C., in 1995 and was subsequently delisted from the United Church's ordered ministry, has alleged United Church involvement in pedophile rings, murder and secret burials, as well as church and government cover-ups. The General Council Office has twice issued statements refuting many of Annett's claims. Now, it is helping to formulate a response to his oft-repeated assertion that upwards of 50,000 Native children died or disappeared at about 130 church-run residential schools. Messy indeed.
- Churches and Governments.
The Chronicle Herald
By PETER DUFFY, Hindsight, 6:15 AM
Sun. May 4, 2008
CANADA -- IT'S going to be a long and painful process but it has to be done, for all our sakes.
This week, Ottawa named the man who'll lead the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Two more members will be named shortly and come June, the $60-million tribunal will begin its five-year mission to remove a terrible stain on Canada's past and heal a dreadful wound that numbs the aboriginal soul. Residential schools were sanctioned in the 19th century by government and administered by the churches. For almost 100 years, well into the mid-20th century, aboriginal children were taken from their families and subjected to what was, essentially, a cultural transplant.
In all, an estimated 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children passed through the doors of these schools, and now stories of physical, sexual and emotional abuse are legion among the 90,000 survivors.
- Mons. McCarthy cleared.
Daily Record
By Abbott Koloff, May 3, 2008
NEW JERSEY -- A longtime East Hanover pastor was reinstated into the Catholic priesthood this week after a church trial found no proof of allegations that he sexually abused children decades ago, and the Vatican closed the case, church officials said on Friday.
Monsignor William McCarthy said he was told on Monday that he now is allowed to function as a priest after spending the past five years banned from wearing the priestly collar, celebrating Mass or even identifying himself as a priest.
"I was totally exonerated," McCarthy said in a telephone interview on Friday from his apartment in Sayreville.
He said he is writing a book about his case, saying he hopes it becomes "an inspiration" to priests wrongly accused of crimes. …
McCarthy said he doesn't blame Catholic Church officials, adding that they were trying to rid the church of priests who had molested children.
"This was a terrible thing in the church and it had to be rooted out," he said. "Unfortunately, I got caught up in it."
- Jeffs, and FLDS.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By JACK DOUGLAS Jr., ~ May 04, 2008
TEXAS -- As his polygamist followers in Texas undergo one of the most intensive child abuse investigations in the nation's history, sect prophet Warren Jeffs sits in a small jail cell in Arizona, emaciated and under a suicide watch, as he awaits trial on charges of criminal incest and sexual assault in a desert town that was once the home of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Jeffs, 52, is alone in his cell 23 hours each day, allowed out only to shower and use the telephone. He is given two 30-minute visitation periods a week. Those who come to see him are usually his wives from Texas who, one sect expert said, have a "vested interest in his retaining his leadership."
But Jeffs' rule over the estimated 10,000 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is believed to be eroding, observers and former sect members say.
- RC buildings majestic, and lonely.
The Boston Globe,
By Brian R. Ballou / May 4, 2008
MASSACHUSETTS -- They are majestic structures, repositories of valuable stained-glass windows, antique pipe organs, and community history. But most churches in the state hold insurance policies that cover only about a quarter of the worth of their property, leaving their congregations to scramble for donations when fires or other catastrophes strike.
Three years after a devastating blaze left First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain a gutted shell, the church is continuing to reach out to the community for donations to help pay for rebuilding.
In Marlborough, the congregation of St. Anargyroi Greek Orthodox Church was able to rebuild their burnt-out church only by tapping funds set aside for a new parish house, forcing them to begin raising money anew for that project. …
Some denominations, such as the United Church of Christ and the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, have insurance boards or risk management offices that secure policies that cover full replacement costs. …
Cobble said that up to two-thirds of all churches nationwide secure policies from companies that specialize in church insurance, such as The Church Mutual Insurance Co., based in Wisconsin.
The clergy sexual abuse scandals that gained national attention and led to multimillion dollar lawsuits have prompted churches across the country to give more consideration to risk management, he said. "That raised awareness that churches are vulnerable, and by extension raised other kinds of risk management issues."
As a result, Cobble said, more churches across the country are reevaluating their fire coverage, as well as liability and other types of coverages.
- RCC diocese, slow cleanup.
The Eagle-Tribune
by Dan Yetter, ~ May 04, 2008
NEW HAMPSHIRE -- As a cradle Catholic and someone who has been involved in my parish for 40 years, I was encouraged by Pope Benedict's acknowledgment that the sexual abuse crisis was "very badly handled." He also told the bishops "to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out to those so seriously wronged." By meeting with representatives of the abused, the pope displayed a Christlike behavior which made me feel proud to be Catholic, since Jesus was more about love and compassion than anything else.
I pray that this is not the end of the healing for the abused. They deserve much more of our compassion, respect, and support.
To the Church's credit, in its third and latest annual audit, the New Hampshire attorney general did report "significant progress" by the Diocese of New Hampshire toward compliance with the terms of an agreement which kept the diocese out of criminal court. Also reported were "positive changes with respect to the tone at the top and oversight of the compliance program."
However, diocese policy language is still not in place which would remove someone accused of abuse when an allegation is reported, and, in previous audits, the diocese had challenged the agreement.
[Pastors who see more than the Good Book, and see Whore of Babylon.]
The New York Times
By FRANK RICH
May 4, 2008
UNITED STATES -- BORED by those endless replays of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? If so, go directly to YouTube, search for "John Hagee Roman Church Hitler," and be recharged by a fresh jolt of clerical jive.
What you'll find is a white televangelist, the Rev. John Hagee, lecturing in front of an enormous diorama. Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice. The woman is "the Great Whore," Mr. Hagee explains, and she is drinking "the blood of the Jewish people." That's because the Great Whore represents "the Roman Church," which, in his view, has thirsted for Jewish blood throughout history, from the Crusades to the Holocaust.
Mr. Hagee is not a fringe kook but the pastor of a Texas megachurch. On Feb. 27, he stood with John McCain and endorsed him over the religious conservatives' favorite, Mike Huckabee, who was then still in the race. …
When Rudy Giuliani, still a viable candidate, successfully courted Pat Robertson for an endorsement last year, few replayed Mr. Robertson's greatest past insanities. Among them is his best-selling 1991 tome, "The New World Order," which peddled some of the same old dark conspiracy theories about "European bankers" (who just happened to be named Warburg, Schiff and Rothschild) that Mr. Farrakhan has trafficked in.
Nor was Mr. Giuliani ever seriously pressed to explain why his cronies on the payroll at Giuliani Partners included a priest barred from the ministry by his Long Island diocese in 2002 following allegations of sexual abuse. Much as Mr. Wright officiated at the Obamas' wedding, so this priest officiated at (one of) Mr. Giuliani's. Did you even hear about it?
[1963 & 1972-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Burlington Free Press
By Sam Hemingway, Free Press Staff Writer, May 4, 2008
VERMONT -- A former altar boy at Christ the King parish in Burlington claims the Rev. Edward Paquette fondled him during games of "pony ride" and "carry ride" at the church in the late 1970s, according to court papers in a case set for trial Monday.
The man, now an unemployed construction worker from Lakewood, Colo., also told lawyers in a deposition, or pre-trial interview, that the molestations occurred about once a week and that Paquette was sexually aroused while the activity was taking place.
"My worst memory is one incident where I was changing," the man said at one point during the deposition. "I was instructed to take my pants off. I still had my underwear on; I still had the white altar boy collar on. And he approached me … and gave me a carry ride for one of the longer periods of time."
- RCC group wants churches kept open.
Republican & Herald
BY STEPHANIE LASOTA
slasota@republicanherald.com
5:18 AM EDT
Sunday, May 4, 2008
MIDDLEPORT (PA) – Local Catholics said Saturday the impending closure of several county parishes is due to corruption in the church, including the sexual abuse scandal and a passive attitude toward abortions.
About 14 Catholics met at 7 a.m. at Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church on Washington Street at the start of a 50-mile walk to the Diocese of Allentown office. With the walk, they said, they hope to persuade the Most Rev. Edward P. Cullen, diocese bishop, to keep churches open in Schuylkill County.
In April 2007, the diocese released a timeline for planning consolidations, restructuring Catholic parishes and recommending to Cullen which parishes to close. The restructuring must be completed by June 2009, but some churches may know their fate as early as this summer, according to some protesters.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 4, 2008
6:51 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Sun May 04, 2008
• Child abuse accused given job by Church.
Church finds ‘on balance of probabilities’ that abuse occurred but re-employs former priest
[1970s McMahon] - RCC. From professor to abuse counsellor! Boy.
Child abuse accused given job by Church
The West Australian,
www.thewest. com.au ,
by GARY ADSHEAD, p 3, Monday, May 5, 2008
AUSTRALIA –
A WA man who says he was molested by a former Catholic priest when he was four years old is devastated by the Church's decision to re-employ him despite an internal inquiry finding that "on the balance of probabilities" the sexual abuse occurred.
Anthony McMahon recently quit his job as a university professor to become a director of the Church's Centacare organisation in Queensland, which provides counselling for child abuse victims as one of its services.
On top of the Church's own inquiry in 2005 and offers of compensation to the alleged victim, Mr McMahon was also investigated by WA detectives over claims he sexually assaulted the boy while working in Kwinana as a parish priest during the 1970s.
A police file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in 1999, but two years later the DPP recommended against charging Mr McMahon because so much time had passed since the alleged offences and there were no witnesses to support the claims of the alleged victim, Leo McVeigh, now 36.
But several Catholic Church documents, including a report prepared for its internal investigations unit, accepted that Mr McVeigh was the victim of child abuse when he was left in the care of Mr McMahon and a Sisters of Mercy nun.
There is no suggestion the nun had any involvement in the alleged sexual abuse and Mr McMahon has always denied the allegations. "Mr McVeigh reported this to the Church and I reported it to the police," Mr McMahon said yesterday. "It's been dealt with. I have no comment."
Mr McMahon has been the brother-in-law of Attorney-General Jim McGinty since resigning from the priesthood at the end of 1977 and marrying the Sisters of Mercy nun, Sue Mr McGinty, who also quit the Church that year.
"My whole family just can't believe he's been given this job," Mr McVeigh said. "To think that I am offered a cheque for $5000 for what I say, and they accept, happened to me and then the Church pays him up to $100,000 to run a place where abused kids go for help. It's the final slap in the face."
In 2005, after the Catholic Church interviewed the former priest, Sue McGinty, Mr McVeigh, his family and other witnesses, a cheque for $5000 compensation was sent to Mr McVeigh on the condition he drop the case against the Church. He refused to accept the payment and a later verbal offer of $20,000 to settle.
Mr McVeigh's police statement alleges he was sexually assaulted in a toilet during a visit to Perth Zoo with Mr McMahon in 1977 and when his parents were away on a church course the same year.
"On the weekend that Leo's parents were at marriage encounter Sue McGinty babysat the children and Tony McMahon visited the home," the Church's internal report said.
[Picture] Anthony McMahon
"On the basis that there was an opportunity in these arrangements for the abuse to occur as well as the strong testimony of the dramatic change in Leo's behaviour following this weekend, I believe on the balance of probabilities that abuse occurred."
Mr McVeigh said his recollections of the alleged sexual abuse only became clear when he reached his 20s, but he was reluctant to go to the police because he was a devout-Catholic and was considering joining the priesthood.
Mr McVeigh reported this to the Church and I reported it
to the police. It's been dealt with.
FORMER PRIEST ANTHONY MCMAHON
Church leaders were made aware of the allegations in 1993, offered Mr McVeigh counselling and opened a file on the case, which included a note that Sue McGinty was the sister of Mr McGinty, at the time a frontbencher in the Labor Opposition.
"The Church has a moral duty to have the whole matter looked into, particularly to ensure that no children are exposed to possible danger," internal Church correspondence read.
"It appears that he (Leo McVeigh) has had to summon up a high level of personal courage to put his complaint into writing in the way that he has, and that having done this he fears that he may be isolated and forgotten about by the Church."
[Picture] Devastated: Leo McVeigh is upset that the man he says molested him is running an organisation where abused children go for help. Picture: Barry Baker
During interviews with both Church and police investigators, Mr McMahon rejected all the allegations against him and denied taking Mr McVeigh on a trip to the zoo in 1977. Sue McGinty claimed to Church investigators that she and her husband had been harassed over the allegations and that Mr McVeigh had always been encouraged to go the police. She could not recall going to the zoo and said Mr McMahon was never left alone with the children while they were babysitting.
Mr McVeigh's case became political in 2004, when then Liberal MP Sue Walker raised concerns in State Parliament about the response of police and the DPP to requests by Mr McVeigh for written explanations supporting the decision not to prosecute Mr McMahon.
Since then, DPP Robert Cock has spoken several times to Mr McVeigh and written at least twice outlining the reasons the case was not taken to court.
"The allegations you make against Anthony McMahon are not sufficiently supported to justify a criminal prosecution," Mr Cock wrote in 2006. "I acknowledge how difficult that must be for you, as in particular it prevents you ever achieving some closure and this may well make it difficult to move on with your life."
This week the Catholic Church's Townsville Diocese, where Mr McMahon is employed, refused to comment. "Since the matters you have raised could be the subject of civil or criminal legal action, the diocese is unable to comment," a statement read. "The Church abhors any form of abuse and works to ensure protection of those vulnerable to abuse, especially children. #
[COMMENT: Although this is Page 3 lead newsitem, it does not seem possible to find it on the World Wide Web. The allegation is of one alleged incident with a boy aged 4 at the South Perth zoo. Opponents of "hush-ups" and hypocritical clergy are more concerned with repeated seductions of, and sexual activity with, children, and its effects.
COMMENT ENDS.]
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#child_abuse_accused
[May 5, 08]
• ["Crime of Solicitation" so private almost unknown in U.S. R.C. dioceses; later power taken to Vatican.]
[“Crime of Solicitation” so private almost unknown in U.S. R.C. dioceses; later power taken to Vatican]
District Court of Tarrant County, Texas;
Deposition of Rev. John P. Beal III, JCD (Roman Catholic canon lawyer), regarding Vatican Instruction Crimen Sollicitationis, "Crime of Solicitation,"
Selections out of 293 pages, Tuesday, August 24, 2004
WASHINGTON (DC) U.S.A. – [In the deposition transcript, nearly every line has a line number. THESE LINE NUMBERS HAVE BEEN REMOVED. To see each and ever line as set out in the deposition transcript, please ask to have a copy e-mailed.]
Page 1:
CAUSE NO. 141-198356-93;
In the District Court of Tarrant
County, Texas, 141st Judicial District;
JOHN DOE I AND JOHN DOE II,
Plaintiffs,
v.
ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF FORT
FORT [sic] WORTH; BISHOP JOSEPH P. DELANEY,
INDIVIDUALLY AND AS BISHOP, HIS
PREDECESSORS AND SUCCESSORS; FATHER
THOMAS H. TECZAR; ROMAN CATHOLIC
BISHOP OF WORCESTER, A CORPORATION
SOLE; AND BISHOP GEORGE E. RUEGER,
INDIVIDUALLY,
Defendants.
Washington, D.C.,
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Deposition of REVEREND JOHN P. BEAL
III, JCD, business address Department of Canon
Law, Catholic University of America,
Washington, D.C. 20064, 202-319-5492, […]
Page 27:
It's not a big deal, as I had
consulted, you'll note, a doctoral dissertation
that had been prepared at the Catholic
University back in 1954, which was prior to
"Crimen Sollicitationis," but it referred
extensively to previous versions of "Crimen
Sollicitationis" going back to Benedict XIV's
"Sacrum Poenitentiae" in 1741. So that
dissertation was written in Latin and one of
the hazards of being a canon lawyer is we have
to have a working knowledge of Latin.
Page 69:
THE WITNESS: The constitution of
Benedict XIV, the 1741 confession, is the
culmination of a number of previous, mostly
post-Tridentine, attempts by the church to
respond to what they perceived as a problem of
predatory confessors. However, this crime
emerged fairly late in canonical history
because of the peculiar history of the
sacrament of penance in the church. It wasn't
really until the twelfth century that private
confession as we know it was normative, and it
wasn't until after the Council of Trent that
confessionals in our modern sense of the term
were in common use.
Prior to the Council of Trent,
confessions were heard at a confessional chair
in an open part of the church,
Pages 159-160:
And I think you talked
about the Council of Elvira in 306. Can you
tell the jury what, what your knowledge of
that, the Council of Elvira and its connection
to clerical sexual abuse of minors, the issue
of clerical sexual abuse of minors?
A. Historically, the Council of Elvira,
though it's often set in about 309 in some
place in Spain, is a bit shadowy. It was a
local council that was pretty rigorous with
regard to matters sexual, but it did have a
canon that called for penalties for clerics who
molested boys, pueri.
Page 161:
Perhaps the most scathing denunciation is the
somewhat exaggerated account of Saint Peter
Damien in the eleventh century.
Q. Is that "The Book of Gomorrah"?
A. "The Book of Gomorrah."
But it keeps resurfacing in a variety
of forms and it keeps getting enacted into
legislation and penalties are provided for the
punishment.
Page 162:
Q. Then after "The Book of Gomorrah," do
we have "The Horrendum" of Pope Pius V? Does
that reference sexual misconduct against minors
A. Yes, that is --
Q. -- by clergy?
A. It includes that, but if I recall
it's one of the sources that is cited by
Benedict the XIV. He also spends some time
with emphasizing the fact that solicitation in
the confessional can be same sex or opposite
sex.
Q. And then we have the Pope Benedict
XIV, his "Sacramentum" --
A. "Penitentiae."
Q. -- "Penitentiae." […]
Pages 206-07:
THE WITNESS: If by "authenticate"
you mean can I say that it corresponds to one
of the originals put out by the Holy Office in
1962, I cannot. I can only trace it back to a
photocopy that I temporarily had in 1990-
something, 1990 approximately, and of which I
made a photocopy that I made available to you
people today.
Page 227:
THE WITNESS: No, but it did cross my
mind from time to time that it was too bad that
they squirreled it away, because it meant that
with each year that passed from the actual
dissemination of the original fewer and fewer
people, particularly outside the academic
canonical community, knew anything about it.
Page 243:
Q. And it's your understanding that, at
least as of May 18, 2001, that the "Crimen"
document is a relic of the past?
A. As of that date, yes.
Pages 271-72:
A. It's at the end, "quia instructio."
It goes on the [? to] say "recognoscenda erat novis
codicibus canonicis promulgatis."
"Recognoscenda" means "revised." The
Commission for the Revision of the Code of
Canon Law was known as the "Commission Codicis
Iuris Canonice Recognescendo." "Recognescenda"
in its various Latin appearances means
"revision."
Page 275:
… . Now, this 2001 document is
considerably different in that the bishop
proceeds to a certain point whether he has
investigated the initial complaint and then he
sends the whole package to the congregation and
awaits instructions on what to do. That's a
major change, revision.
BY MR. SHEA:
Q. So in fact then, what -- at least
what appears to be paragraph 6 seems to be
modifying the jurisdictional relationship
between CDF and the bishop?
Pages 287-88:
Q. Does the 1962 document that we've
been talking about today discuss sexual
misconduct with minors and the church's
procedures for handling these cases?
MR. BENNETT: Object, form, asked and
answered.
THE WITNESS: Yes, it does.
By MS. MERRITT:
Q. Okay. Was the existence of that
document itself kept secret from the public
until the Washington Post published that, the
existence of that document, in 2003?
MR. BENNETT: Object. I'm going to
object to the form of that question.
THE WITNESS: It was not widely known
outside of canonical circles. I would not call
it "kept secret." Those who needed to know
could find it.
Page 289:
A. With some modification, with some
modifications. For example, whether the
document refers to the procedural canons of the
1917 code they would have to be replaced by the
comparable procedural canons of the 1983 code.
Perhaps the most notable difference is that the
1983 code abolished the obligation and threat
of penalty to a solicited person who does not
denounce. So the penalty and the requirement
that a confessor tell people they had to
denounce the soliciting confessor, that was
abrogated by the 1983 code […]
[RECAPITULATION:
It wasn't really until the twelfth century that private
confession as we know it was normative, and it
wasn't until after the Council of Trent that
confessionals in our modern sense of the term
were in common use.
Prior to the Council of Trent,
confessions were heard at a confessional chair
in an open part of the church, […]
[…] So the penalty [of Crimen Sollicitationis] and the requirement that a confessor tell people they had to denounce the soliciting confessor, that was abrogated by the 1983 code […]
ENDS.]
[COMMENTS: CONFESSION: And, if you look closer at religious history, you'll find that the early followers of Jesus, according to their writings, were "dead to sin." So no sin-cleaning process was, theoretically, needed -- and there wasn't one for many, many years!
SECRECY: The Roman Catholic Church has never officially, at highest levels, denied that the secrecy policy of the Instruction "The Crime of Solicitation" (Instructio Crimen Sollicitationis) was for many years a valid piece of Vatican religious law, preventing any person who knew of the crime from telling the civil authorities or any other person, under threat of excommunication, i.e., doomed to hell fire. It defied the civil law, and as the sorry cases of certain priests seducing five, ten or 40 boys (mainly) proves, it did nothing to stamp out this potent cause for people to abandon full belief in the Roman Catholic faith. The reader may judge if the priests and bishops involved in the game of transferring offenders believed even partially in the RC faith, or Jesus, or God.
ORDER TO DENOUNCE REMOVED: The second "Recapitulation" above has both a positive and a negative likely result. The negative result is that the hope of having the seducers denounced was theoretically reduced. However, as far as is known publicly from an Australian case, it was revealed in January 2004 that a priest was confessing his boy sex to other priests regularly, and was, as far as is known publicly, not denounced by a fellow priest, and told bishops, and was not denounced.
CONFESSION, FORGIVENESS, ETC.: As some serious scriptural and early Church scholars know, it is probable that early Christians confessed their faults to one another -- not to one "ordained" person. See the "Religion" section of this website for links to information about the early Christians' beliefs about what they saw as the "impossibility of removing sin" after baptism, even delaying baptism for years or until it looked as if death was near. The other part of such conflicting beliefs was that, after the Jesus teaching that children are of the Kingdom of Heaven had been put aside, some leaders taught that babies were in "Original Sin" until baptised, and if they died first they went to hell fire. Then gradual changes and somersaults in those subjects took place, right up to the 2000s, but the RCs still teach that babies are born in Adam and Eve's "Original Sin." Always remember that in the early years after Jesus had been killed, the early faithful expected the fulfilment of the prophecy by Jesus that he would return during their lifetime.
ENDS.]
[QUOTE of the Instruction, and COMMENT, both from Kathy Shaw, dated May 5, 2008: Check paragraph 73:
"To have the worst crime, for the penal effects, one must do the equivalent of the following: any obscene, external act, gravely sinful, perpetrated in any way by a cleric or attempted by him with youths of either sex or with brute animals (bestiality)."
The document does deal with crimes in the confessional but further on there is a section that apparently deals with sex abuse of minors in general by clerics. This is where the brute animals come in. So I am sure they were not bringing brute animals into the confessional.
ENDS.]
[FIND CLAUSE 73: It is on page 23 of both the English translation and the Latin original (page 20 of the PDF):
73. Crimini pessimo, pro effectibus poenalibus, aequiparatur quodvis obscoenum factum externum, graviter peccaminosum, quomoducumque a clerica patratum vel attentatum eum impuberibus cuiusque sexus velcum brutis animantibus (bestialitas).
ENDS.]
[THE VATICAN had taken the power of holding trials etc. away from local bishops -- and it was left to Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict 16th) and his team to handle! As the U.S. exposure showed, they acted like the bishops, by NOT dismissing the criminal seducers from the clergy, brotherhoods and female orders. Neither were they reporting them to the police, as laid down in the laws of some US states and some nations.
ENDS.]
[ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Kathy Shaw of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, U.S.A. ENDS.]
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#crime_of_solicitation_so
[Deposition taken August 24, 2004; E-mail received May 5, 2008]
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
• Former pastor sentenced in domestic case
[2008 Weisser -NEW*] - Baptist. Adult female.
Deseret News,
http:// deseretnews. com/article/ 1,5143,6952 76672,00. html ,
~ May 05, 2008
SALT LAKE CITY (UT) -- Scott Martin Weisser, the former pastor of First Baptist Church of Salt Lake, has pleaded no contest to two criminal charges against him and has been put on probation.
Weisser, 52, originally was charged with first-degree felony attempted rape and class B misdemeanor assault in connection with a March 16 incident involving an adult female in his Midvale home.
Weisser on May 1 pleaded no contest to reduced charges of sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor, and simple assault, a class B misdemeanor.
[2007 Flowers -NEW* and Ms Bassit -NEW*] - Christian. Dragged girl.
KRIS,
~ May 05, 2008
[with video]
CORPUS CHRISTI (TX) -- A hung jury was declared on Friday in the trial of a pastor and a boot camp worker, who allegedly abused a 15-year-old girl at a camp near Banquete. KRIS 6 News was the only station to interview a witness who said she saw the girl being dragged behind a vehicle.
Last July, Camp Director Pastor Charles Flowers and employee Stephanie Bassitt allegedly tied the girl to the back of a van and dragged her down a dirt road, resulting in bruises, according to an arrest affidavit.
Bobbi Greer was at the camp during the alleged abuse. She described it as horrific, adding, "I saw this girl drug behind a van. It was horrible. I can't see up close. I don't have any problem. It was a horrible horrendous crime. And this man and this girl should go to prison for it."
[~ 2000s Mr Wagner -NEW*] - Christian. Minor.
Anchorage Daily News,
The Associated Press, ~ May 05, 2008
KENAI, ALASKA -- A church youth leader facing various sex charges involving minors has entered pleas of not guilty.
Richard Wagner, 46, of Kenai is charged with sexual abuse of a minor, indecent exposure and possession of child pornography. His lawyer entered pleas of not guilty this week in Kenai Superior Court.
[≤ 1990-2006 Inametti (Paulist)] - RCC. 4yrs prison. 2 more women.
PRNewswire,
May 5, 2008
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Vincent Inametti, a Roman Catholic priest, who worked as a chaplain at Federal Medical Center (FMC) Carswell in Fort Worth, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means to 48 months in prison, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Judge Means also ordered Inametti, 48, who pled guilty in November to two counts of sexual abuse of a ward, to pay a $3000 fine. Inametti is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was ordained in his native country, Nigeria. He was immediately remanded into custody to begin serving his sentence.
The Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General, (DOJ-OIG) received a complaint in March 2007 that Inametti was sexually involved with a particular inmate, "D.D." Subsequent investigation by DOJ-OIG agents revealed that Inametti was also sexually involved with another inmate, "E.R." Both inmates were serving federal prison sentences for drug distribution conspiracy convictions.
"D.D." became acquainted with Inametti in August 2004 when she began attending Catholic services, joining the choir and participating in Bible study classes at FMC Carswell. "E.R." became acquainted with Inametti a few months later, in November 2004, as a result of her assignment as a clerk for the Religious Services Department at FMC Carswell.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 9:23 PM]
[~ 1990s-2000s Rodis] - RCC. ≥ US$1m gone. Mail fraud, money laundering. Has wife and children too.
WCAV,
May 5, 2008
[with video]
LOUISA COUNTY (VA) -- Former Louisa County Priest Rodney Rodis has been indicted by a grand jury in Louisa County on 13 counts of embezzlement.
Rodis is accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from his parishes. He was sentenced to five years in prison back in February after pleading guilty to money laundering and mail fraud in federal court.
In that case a judge ordered Rodis to repay the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond more than $590,000. Rodis will now face 13 counts of embezzlement in a Louisa County Courtroom.
["Prophet" Jeffs] - FLDS.
The Salt Lake Tribune
Posted: 12:25 PM, ~ May 05, 2008
ARIZONA -- FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs has been placed under suicide watch in Arizona, where he awaits trial on charges of criminal incest and sexual assault.
The Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reports that Jeffs is described as emaciated as he waits, 23 hours a day and alone, in his cell.
- RCC.
Lex 18,
~ May 05, 2008
LEXINGTON (KY) -- A priest at a Catholic church in Lexington says that someone robbed the church overnight, making off with thousands of dollars that had been collected in weekend offerings from parishioners.
The robbery happened sometime before 7:15 a.m. Monday at Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary on Clays Mill Road. Father Joseph Muench says he arrived at the church at 7:15 a.m. to prepare for morning mass and discovered the work of a thief instead.
"I noticed something wrong with the lock but nothing major," said Father Muench. "And then I opened the door and discovered the room was in disarray."
[1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
NECN,
by Anya Huneke, ~ May 05, 2008
[with video]
BURLINGTON (VT) -- A former altar boy is suing Vermont's Roman Catholic Diocese. He says he was molested by a priest and he believes the Diocese is to blame.
NECN's Anya Huneke explains.
Script:
Jerry O'Neill: "We are suing the diocese because it refuses to accept any responsibility…"
In his opening statement, attorney Jerry O'Neill listed a number of reasons Vermont's Roman Catholic Diocese should be held accountable for what happened to his client three decades ago.
Jerry O'Neill: "We're suing the Diocese because it decided to protect priests, rather than protect children." …
Kaveh Shahi: "These events happened 30 to 40 years ago, and over that time, we've grown more understanding and sensitive of that issue."
Shahi says the Diocese followed the advise of mental health experts, who believed Paquette's issues could be addressed through treatment. He also says, too much time has passed since the molestation occurred for the case to be tried fairly.
[~ 1990s-2000s Rodis] - RCC. ≥ US$1m gone. 13 charges reinstated. Mail fraud, money laundering. Has wife and children too.
Richmond Times-Dispatch,
By CALVIN R. TRICE, May 05, 2008
LOUISA COUNTY (VA) -- A Louisa County grand jury yesterday reinstated 13 theft counts against a former Catholic priest convicted in federal court of defrauding two local churches of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Rodney L. Rodis, 51, was sentenced in February to five years in federal prison for diverting for personal use money donated to the Louisa County parishes he headed. The panel also indicted a suspended Howard University soccer coach accused of using the Internet to solicit sex from a minor, said Thomas A. Garrett, Louisa's commonwealth's attorney.
Louisa County authorities initially charged Rodis with 13 felony embezzlement counts last year after church officials realized he had stolen donation money. Then-prosecutor R. Don Short dropped the state counts to allow the federal case to proceed.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Burlington Free Press,
~ May 05, 2008
VERMONT -- A monsignor who was a high-ranking official in the state's Roman Catholic diocese when former Rev. Edward Paquette was hired in 1972 said he had no idea Paquette had molested boys in one of two other dioceses before coming to Vermont.
That testimony was presented today in Chittenden County Superior Court as the latest priest-abuse trial opened.
The trial revolves around a former Burlington altar boy's claims that former Rev. Edward Paquette fondled him repeatedly during the late 1970s.
…
Monsignor John McSweeney told the jury of eight men and four women the diocese was unaware of Paquette's previous misdeeds before his arrival in Vermont. McSweeney, now 77, served as the Vermont diocese's chancellor under then Bishop John Marshall when Paquette was hired and said he helped do the background check on Paquette prior to the hiring.
Later, McSweeney was shown diocesan letters addressed to him describing how Paquette had molested youths in the Fall River, Mass., diocese in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He conceded no background check was done to find out more about what happened in Massachusetts.
[COMMENT: Didn't know, but letters were addressed to him. Perhaps someone else opened them and put them away in the filing cabinet, unread !?!? Or is this another case of "mental reservation," allegedly approved by some theologians?
ENDS.]
- 326 survivors' names read out aloud.
City of Angels
By Kay Ebeling, ~ May 05, 2008
UNITED STATES -- At the vigil run by A Matter of Truth in New York while the pope was in town, Robert Costello read 326 names of victims of sex crimes in the Catholic Church outside an exhibit of Crosses. "Reading the names into the wind was the most dramatic part," Costello said. "I don't know if these names have ever been spoken out loud before," he said.
So Costello is taking names and moving forward. If you are a victim of a sex crime in the Catholic Church, you can email your name to survivor.names@verizon.net and be added to the list of names to be read at the next A Matter of Truth event, probably in LA with another showing of Crosses. Send your name and city to that email address linked above, and if you prefer to just be John or Jane Doe or Roe from your city, that is fine, he will add your name in that manner to the list.
Paul Kendrick in Maine didn't get down to New York but pointed out an irony not reported anyplace else: "The pope met with three Birmingham victims and then went upstairs for dinner with McCormack who worked for Law and helped cover up the allegations against Birmingham.* Sure he met with five victims but what about the eight thousand members of SNAP?"
[Sica] - RCC. Lies.
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Mario F. Cattabiani, May 05, 2008
HARRISBURG (PA) -- A Dauphin County judge has been ordered to determine if grand jury secrecy rules were violated in the investigation of a casino owner and a Catholic priest.
The state Supreme Court last week instructed Judge Todd A. Hoover, who supervised the grand jury investigating Mount Airy Casino Resort owner Louis DeNaples, to conduct an immediate hearing on the alleged leaks and to conclude within 90 days whether a special prosecutor should be appointed.
Dauphin County prosecutors, acting on recommendations from the grand jury, charged DeNaples in late January with four counts of perjury, saying he lied to gambling regulators about his personal and business relationships with organized crime figures and people linked to the Philadelphia City Hall corruption investigation.
Prosecutors also charged the Rev. Joseph Sica, a DeNaples confidant, with one perjury count, saying he lied to the grand jury about his ties to the late Russell Bufalino, who was the head of a Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family. No trial dates have been set.
[≤ 1990-2006 Inametti (Paulist)] - RCC. 4yrs prison. 2 more women prisoners.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, ~ May 05, 2008
FORT WORTH, Texas -- A Roman Catholic priest was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for having sex with two inmates while a chaplain at a women's prison.
Vincent Inametti, 48, worked at Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth for seven years until last fall. He pleaded guilty in November to two counts of sexual abuse of a ward.
U.S. District Judge Terry Means said Inametti had violated trust as an employee of the federal prison - and as a priest.
"For this he will face a higher authority than this one," Means said.
[Banko] - RCC.
The Star-Ledger
by Ralph Ortega / 2:43 PM, Monday May 05, 2008
NEW JERSEY -- A former Milford priest accused of child sex abuse wanted to postpone his trial because, his lawyer argued, it is too soon after the Pope's apology over the clergy sex abuse scandals that have rocked the church.
A request for an adjournment, however, was denied by a judge who started the latest trial of John M. Banko in Flemington today.
Hunterdon County Public Defender Peter Abatemarco, representing Banko, asked Judge Roger F. Mahon to put off the trial for a few more months.
Banko, Abatermarco said, was concerned Pope Benedict XVI's apology would impact his case.
[≤ 1990-2006 Inametti (Paulist)] - RCC. 2yrs prison. 2 women prisoners.
The Canadian Press
~ May 05, 2008
FORT WORTH, Texas – A Roman Catholic priest who had sex with two inmates while working as a chaplain at a women's prison was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison.
Vincent Inametti, 48, was taken into custody after he was sentenced, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported in its online edition Monday.
Inametti, who is originally from Nigeria, had worked at Federal Medical Centre Carswell in Fort Worth for seven years until last fall, according to documents filed in the case.
He pleaded guilty in November to two counts of sexual abuse of a ward.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
WCAX,
May 5, 2008
VERMONT -- Another priest sex abuse case involving the Roman Catholic Diocese got underway in Burlington Monday.
Perry Babel, 40, a former altar boy at Christ the King parish in Burlington claims Reverend Edward Paquette fondled him at the church in the late 1970s. Babel claims the church-- that was led by Bishop John Marshall-- should be held liable for putting Paquette in a position to molest the victim.
"You will find nothing, nothing in any of the pages of documents we give to you where the diocese expresses any concern for the children Father Paquette molests," said Babel's lawyer, Jerry O'Neill.
"Based on what (Bishop Marshall) was told at the time, and based on the information that he had, he followed precisely what Dr. Hillibran recommended," diocese lawyer Kaveh Shahi said, referring to the treatment recommended by the psychiatrist who counseled the priest for the diocese.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
.
The Boston Globe,
By John Curran, Associated Press Writer / May 5, 2008
BURLINGTON, VERMONT –A lawyer for a former altar boy who says a priest molested him in the 1970s told jurors Monday it could have been prevented if the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington didn't coddle pedophile priests at the expense of children.
The case, the second against the statewide Diocese to come to trial, focuses on a 40-year-old former altar boy's claim that a parish priest at Christ the King church in Burlington abused him dozens of times over a two-year period and that the Diocese bears responsibility because it knew of molestation allegations against the Rev. Edward Paquette before employing him and moved him from parish to parish as more claims surfaced afterward.
The Diocese ignored a recommendation that Paquette be assigned somewhere where he wouldn't have regular contact with children and installed him at parishes in Rutland, Montpelier and Burlington, according to plaintiff's attorney Jerome F. O'Neill. …
Diocesan lawyers don't dispute the abuse occurred but contend that the suit was filed too late for Vermont's statute of limitations and that it can't be held liable for Paquette's actions.
In church documents shown to jurors Monday as the trial opened, an Indiana bishop told Diocese of Burlington officials before they hired Paquette in 1972 that there were allegations he had molested boys in Indiana.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Burlington Free Press
~ May 05, 2008
VERMONT -- Opening arguments were presented this morning in Chittenden County Superior Court in the latest priest-abuse trial.
The trial revolves around a former Burlington altar boy's claims that former Rev. Edward Paquette fondled him repeatedly during the late 1970s. …
Jerome O'Neill, attorney for the plaintiff, stated in opening arguments today that five Catholic dioceses in three states looked at Paquette's history of alleged abuse in Massachusetts and Indiana and chose not to hire him prior to Burlington's hiring of the priest.
[≤ 1990-2006 Inametti (Paulist)] - RCC. 4yrs prison. 2 more women.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By BRYON OKADA
okada@star-telegram.com , ~ May 05, 2008
FORT WORTH (TX) -- A Catholic priest who had sex with two inmates at Federal Medical Center Carswell is headed to a prison cell of his own.
Vincent Inametti, 48, who worked as a chaplain at Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Terry Means on Monday morning to 48 months in federal prison. He was taken into custody at the end of the sentencing.
According to documents filed in the case, Inametti worked as a Catholic chaplain at FMC Carswell from August 13, 2000 to September 26, 2007. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was ordained in his native country, Nigeria.
He pleaded guilty in November to two counts of sex abuse of a ward.
- FLDS.
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Brooke Adams and Nate Carlisle, ~ May 05, 2008
TEXAS -- Attorneys for FLDS parents say they are striking out in getting any issues raised before Tom Green County Judge Barbara Walther - even as state officials say there is widespread confusion about the purpose of hearings set to begin in two weeks.
Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said the 60-day hearings that begin May 19 are to review service plans developed for each child, check medical care and hear how the children are faring in foster care.
"This is not going to be a redo of whether abuse or neglect occurred," Crimmins said.
[Hawkins] - Anglican. 8 boys.
The Advocate
By CHRIS PIPPOS, ~ May 05, 2008
TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA -- A FORMER Devonport Anglican priest who sexually abused eight boys was being reintegrated into the community yesterday - five days before his Parole Board hearing.
It is understood Garth Hawkins was allowed "reintegration" time after being released from Risdon Prison for about four hours.
The Advocate understands he spent time in the Hobart (including the waterfront) and Glenorchy central business districts.
At least two of Hawkins' victims recently criticised the Department of Justice Victims Support Service for failing to contact them about supplying a victim impact statement before Friday's hearing.
- RCC to deplete nearly all US$1.5m.
LA Daily News
Article Last Updated
10:28:13 PM PDT
May/04/2008
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- One can never say that the Catholic community lacks generosity.
Whether it's Catholic Charities USA reaching out to those in need of all faiths or Catholic Relief Services providing food and clothing in the wake of disaster such as the 2004 Asian tsunami, Catholics have a rock-solid track record of giving.
Like the parishioners at St. Bernadine of Siena in Woodland Hills, who backed their pastor, the Rev. Robert J. McNamara, in a plan to deplete nearly all of the church's savings -- $1.5 million -- to help the Archdiocese of Los Angeles pay the more than $720 million settlement owed to sex-abuse victims.
The archdiocese had asked the 101 L.A. parishes with reserves in excess of $1 million to help pay the settlement balance not covered by loans, property sales, etc. But St. Bernardine's contribution went beyond that call, signaling both a sense of obligation to the archdiocese and a desire to soothe the wounds of those abused within the diocese over the years.
[< 30yrs David Smith] - Church of England. 6 youngsters.
Evening Post
BY HEATHER PICKSTOCK
07:00 - 05 May 2008
UNITED KINGDOM -- The new vicar at a Clevedon church rocked by a sex abuse scandal wants to help the community forget the past and look to the future.
The Rev Roger Jackson, 50, was officially welcomed as the new parish priest at St John's Church in an induction service led by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Right Rev Peter Price, and the Archdeacon of Bath, the Venerable Andrew Piggott.
Mr Jackson, previously parish priest for three villages in Buckinghamshire, has taken over from the Rev David Smith, who was jailed for five-and-a-half years last May for grooming and molesting six youngsters over a period of nearly 30 years.
- RCC.
The Journal News
By Gary Stern, May 5, 2008
BRIARCLIFF MANOR (NY) -- The Rev. Donald Cozzens, a prominent Catholic priest and scholar who has written several frank and controversial books about challenges facing the priesthood, will speak tonight at St. Theresa's Catholic Church.
In his latest book, "Freeing Celibacy," Cozzens argues that priestly celibacy should be optional because celibacy is a gift or power bestowed by the Holy Spirit and can't be expected of all priests.
Optional celibacy would induce many former priests to return, he said.
[COMMENT: In the New Testament, it is stated in two books that the clergyman shall be the husband of one wife. In another place, it is stated that to prevent fornication, every woman ought to have her own husband, and vice versa. If the Bible is not being followed, why are we hearing scriptures during church services, etc.?
ENDS.]
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
WCAX,
May 5, 2008
BURLINGTON, VERMONT -- Another trial begins today against the Roman Catholic Diocese over sex abuse by clergy.
40-year-old Perry Babel, a former altar boy at Christ the King parish in Burlington, claims Reverend Edward Paquette fondled him at the church in the late 1970s.
But what makes this trial different is the priest is not one of the defendants. It is the church being held responsible for allegedly putting the priest in a position to molest the victim. The church says it shouldn't be held liable for the priest's actions.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Vermont Public Radio
(AP), ~ May 05, 2008
BURLINGTON, VERMONT -- A trial is set to begin today in one of 32 priest sex abuse cases filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington since 2002.
Five of the cases have been settled out of court. One has gone to trial.
A former altar boy at Christ the King parish in Burlington claims a priest abused him at the church in the late 1970s.
• IMPORTANT: Tom Doyle Comments on Pope's US Visit
- RCC. IMPORTANT.
Voice from the Desert,
http://reform- network. net/?p=1638 ,
by Thomas Doyle, J.C.D., C.A.D.C. ;
April 28, 2008
UNITED STATES -- Pope Benedict surprised many by his emphasis on the clergy sex abuse issue during his visit to the United States. Although the highlight of his visit was billed as an address to the United Nations, his words and actions in regard to abuse captured the attention of the media and the masses. He spoke directly to the issue before his plane had even landed in Washington on April 16. He went on to address it forthrightly in his talk to the assembled bishops at vespers on April 16 and again in his homily at the open-air Mass on April 17. Without doubt the most surprising and meaningful acknowledgment was his private meeting with a small group of clergy abuse survivor/victims at the Vatican embassy on April 17.
It is well worth noting that Pope Benedict said more and did more relative to the worldwide plague of clergy sexual abuse in five days than his predecessor did in two decades. John Paul II was aware in detail of the sex abuse issue from the time it emerged from hiding in late 1984. For reasons unknown he waited until 1993 before he publicly acknowledged it and between then and his death in 2005 he spoke publicly to the issue eleven times. Over the years individual victims and victims' groups had repeatedly asked to be received in audience by the pope. Not only were none of these requests honored but they were not even acknowledged. For all practical purposes, the victims of the worst scandal in church's history since the dreadful days of the Spanish Inquisition were non-persons as far as the Vatican was concerned. Not so with Benedict XVI.
A bit of historical context is in order. In 2002 when the Boston revelations made clergy abuse an unavoidable reality for the hierarchy both here and in Rome, Benedict, then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was interviewed and gave the usual party line:
I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower. … Less than 1% of priests are guilty of acts of this type. … Therefore, one comes to the conclusion that it is intentional, manipulated, that there is a desire to discredit the Church
In 2004 Judge Anne Burke and two other members of the U.S. Bishops' National Review Board by-passed the U.S. Church's episcopal leadership and arranged a visit with the cardinal. Judge Burke described her visit in an address at the 2005 gathering of Voice of the Faithful in Indianapolis. Not only did he reply to her request for an audience almost immediately but he devoted at least two hours to listening to the three lay persons from the U.S. Whether or not he agreed with their critical remarks was not the point. He was willing to listen and, according to Judge Burke, he gave every indication of hearing and understanding. …
When some bishops persist in narcissistic denial with the ludicrous claims that "there may have been some bishops who mishandled it, but that was done I'm sure without malice, "(Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre) or "I personally do not accept that there has been a broad base of bishops guilty of aiding and abetting pedophiles…" (Cardinal Levada, April 18, 2008) they need to be reminded that the pope told them all that it had been badly handled. The disconnect between their collective self-serving denial and reality will not be easily repaired and therefore it must continually be challenged. [***]
- FLDS.
Houston Chronicle
By TERRI LANGFORD and LISA SANDBERG,
Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, ~ May 05, 2008
TEXAS -- State authorities are investigating whether younger boys taken from a polygamist ranch in West Texas were sexually abused by older boys, not adults, a state official clarified Thursday.
Documents taken from the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado indicate that younger boys were molested by older boys at the ranch, said the official, who asked not to be identified. No other details about the alleged abuse were available.
Meanwhile, the adult followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have begun leaving their 1,700-acre ranch and scattering across the state to be closer to their children, who were sent by the state into residential foster homes last week.
- "Yearning for Zion".
Globe and Mail (Canada),
By ROBERT MATAS, May 5, 2008
SAN ANGELO, TEX. -- The federal government should intervene to speed up the return to Canada of a 17-year-old girl who was apprehended during a raid of the Yearning For Zion polygamist compound in Texas, the parents' lawyer says.
The Canadian teenager was among 463 children under 18 years old who were taken into custody during a raid of the isolated compound run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 523 kilometres southwest of Dallas.
Texas authorities said they found underaged children who were pregnant and some who already had their own children. They alleged that the evidence indicated sexual abuse and a pervasive pattern of grooming young girls for underage sex.
[~ A century] - Canadian governments and Churches.
Packet & Times
~ May 05, 2008
CANADA -- The appointment last week of Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Harry LaForme to head the national commission on residential schools marks the beginning of what is surely going to be a long and painful disclosure of abuse of aboriginal children over a decades-long policy of assimilation by the Canadian government.
The commission, based on the model established in South Africa following the downfall of apartheid, will hear stories from aboriginals who were taken from their families and placed in residential schools run mainly by the Catholic and United churches, and funded by the federal government.
The clear intent was to bring an end to native societies' way of life throughout Canada.
But many children were subject to physical and sexual abuse at the schools. Eighteen years ago, Phil Fontaine, who is now the chief of the Assembly of First Nations, revealed how he had suffered in such a school. Said Fontaine in 1990: "In my Grade 3 class … if there were 20 boys, every single one of them … would have experienced what I experienced. They've experienced some aspect of sexual abuse."
[1993-96 Saraswati*, aka Swamiji] - Hindu. 20 charges. 2 girls.
Deccan Herald (India)
~ May 05, 2008
TEXAS -- A Hindu priest has been charged with 20 counts of indecency with a child and released on a whopping USD one million bail bond by a US court.
Known to his followers as Shree Swamiji, the priest is accused of groping two underage girls on several occasions in the 1990s.
Sheriff's spokesman Sgt Leroy Opiela said, the priest was booked "on two indictments alleging 20 counts of indecency with a child or sexual contact."
[1994-95 Banko] - RCC. Again.
The Star-Ledger
by Ralph R. Ortega/The Star-Ledger Sunday
7:08 PM
May 04, 2008
NEW JERSEY -- A former Milford priest, already serving a 15-year-sentence for sexually molesting an altar boy, goes on trial today on a new set of child molestation charges.
John M. Banko, 62, is charged with abusing a boy who was younger than 16 years old when he was pastor at St. Edward's Roman Catholic Church in Milford between Sept. 1994 and May 1995.
A grand jury indictment charged Banko on separate counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child in the latest case.
- RCC. Some definitions.
Standard-Times
By EDWIN S. ZOLIK (Dr. Zolick is professor emeritus of psychology, DePaul University, Chicago. He lives in Falmouth);
May 05, 2008
MASSACHUSETTS -- Overall The Standard-Times deserves applause and can be proud of its extensive coverage of the pope's visit to the United States, knowing that one cannot be all things to all people.
I consider the injection of the celibacy cartoon a play for audience reaction in a community known for its conservatism. Interesting and provocative. However, celibacy is not correlated with sexual abuse of children.
The sexual abuse was the result of homosexual rapes and attacks (90 percent) and pedophilia (10 percent) (see "Bless Me Father for I Have Sinned: Perspectives on Sexual Abuse Committed by Roman Catholic Priests," edited by Thomas G. Plante). It is estimated by knowledgeable church officials that homosexuals comprise 30 to 50 percent of Catholic clergy (see "The Changing Face of the Priesthood," by the Rev. Donald Cozzens).
One should try to understand why celibacy is an issue for some clergy and laity and why they link it to sexual abuse.
While in flight to the United States, the pope said, "I would not speak at this moment about homosexuality, but pedophilia, which is another thing." This delimitation of abuse to the pedophiliacs unfortunately has not been followed up on by the press. Pedophilia cannot be used to cover all sexual abuse as most hierarchs and clerics are prone and desirous to do.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 7:12 AM]
[COMMENT: Whatever technical names the experts call it, the old RC teaching was that all such behaviour was a "mortal sin." And the New Testament repeats an Old Testament teaching: "Remove the wicked from among yourselves." (1 Cor. 5:13) It is not easy to follow the path of Jesus -- but if the RCC leaders had done so, there would be less people giving up religion, and probably there would be enough clergy.]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Mon May 05, 2008
• Archbishop denies role in job for ex-priest.
Archbishop denies role in job for ex-priest
The West Australian,
www.thewest.com.au ,
By GARY ADSHEAD, p 10, Tuesday, May 6, 2008
PERTH, W. Australia –
WA's Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey says he was unable to intervene in a recent decision by the Church to re-employ a former priest found "on the balance of probabilities" to have sexually abused a child in 1970s.
The alleged victim of former Kwinana priest Anthony McMahon spoke out in yesterday's The West Australian against his appointment as director of Centacare in Townsville, north Queensland.
Now 36, Leo McVeigh alleged he was four years old when Mr
McMahon molested him. A 2005 internal Church report into the complaints accepted Mr McVeigh was a sex abuse victim and a $5000 compensation offer was made and rejected.
Mr McMahon, who resigned as a priest in 1977, has denied the allegations to Church and police investigators. In 2001, Director of Public Prosecutions Robert Cock recommended against charging Mr McMahon because of the amount of time since the alleged offence and the lack of witnesses.
Archbishop Hickey is aware of the case, which has been documented within Church files since 1993, but told The West Australian it was not his place to pass judgment on the employment of Mr McMahon.
"This is a matter for the judgment of the Bishop of Townsville, who had access to the confidential Church report," Archbishop Hickey said. "I cannot interfere with his decision."
The diocese of Townsville has refused to comment on the appointment for legal reasons and Mr McMahon, the brother-in-law of Attorney-General Jim McGinty, has told The West Australian the allegations made by Mr McVeigh were dealt with and he would make no further comment.
But Advocates for Survivors of Child Abuse WA spokeswoman Michelle Stubbs attacked what she said was the Church's head-in-the-sand mentality. #
[AND WATCH THIS SERIES: May 2, 2008
; May 6, 2008, May 26, 2008;
July 5, 2008 (x2);
Sep 17, 2008;
Oct 2, 2008 (labelling Archbishop Barry Hickey a "hypocrite"); Oct 12, 2008; Oct 15, 2008;
Dec 26, 2008;
Apr 1, 2009.
ENDS.]
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#archbishop_denies_role
[May 6, 08]
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[2008 Unnamed priest -NEW*] - Jain. Boy.
Times of India,
http://times ofindia.india times.com/ Pune/Priest_ booked_for_ abusing_boy/ articleshow/ 3017136.cms ;
~ May 06, 2008
PUNE, INDIA: A 12-year-old boy was allegedly confined in a room and sexually abused by a priest of Godaji Pashavnath Jain temple at Phulwala chowk in Guruwar Peth on Tuesday.
Assistant commissioner of police Suresh Pote said the boy had gone to the temple for listening religious sermons by the priest.
He said that the 40-year-old unidentified priest took the boy to the room after the sermons, offered him eatables and sexually abused him.
The boy later reported the incident to his parents, who sought the help of a non-governmental organisation, for registering a complaint against the priest. The priest, who has been booked under sections 342 (wrongful confinement) and 377 (unnatural offence) of the Indian Penal Code, is at large, Pote said.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 6, 2008
9:31 PM]
[1960s McLaughlin -NEW*] - RCC. Several girls.
Courier,
By PAT KINNEY, Courier News Editor, May 05, 2008
WATERLOO (IA) – A deceased priest who played a prominent role in Roman Catholic education in Waterloo-Cedar Falls in the 1970s had been added to the Archdiocese of Dubuque's list of priests accused of sexually abusing minors.
The Rev. William G. "Bill" McLaughlin, who served 12 years at Columbus High School – five of them as director of Catholic education in Waterloo-Cedar Falls – was added to the archdiocese's "Table of Accused Priests" after a claim involving him was settled in January. He was accused of abusing several female minors in the 1960s.
McLaughlin served at Sacred Heart Church in Rockwell from 1959 to 1964, his first assignment after ordination, and at Columbus from 1964 to 1976. While at Rockwell, McLaughlin also served on the faculty at Newman High School in Mason City, according to Courier files.
[1950s, 1963 & 1972-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Burlington Free Press
By Sam Hemingway, Free Press Staff Writer, May 6, 2008
BURLINGTON (VT) -- The Rev. Edward Paquette was suspended from parish work by the Fall River, Mass., diocese early in his career after police found him parked in a car with a boy, a jury at a clergy sex abuse trial was told today.
"He had been picked up by the police while parked with a teen-age boy," the Rev. Timothy O'Connor of Westfield, Mass., wrote in a letter to an Indiana bishop in 1963 who was thinking of hiring Paquette. "He was held at the station until the arrival of his pastor, but was not booked."
The letter was among a number of confidential documents made public for the first time today during questioning of Vermont diocesan officials by Jerome O'Neill, the attorney for a former Burlington altar boy who has sued the diocese on claims he was molested by Paquette between 1976 and 1978.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - An apocalyptic Church. 3 girls.
Las Cruces Sun-News
By DEBORAH BAKER Associated Press Writer
11:09:39 AM MDT
May/06/2008
SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO –The leader of an apocalyptic sect in northeastern New Mexico was arrested Tuesday and charged with felony sex crimes against children.
State police arrested Wayne Bent, 66, on three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Peter Olson.
Bent was being held on $500,000 bond at the Union County Detention Center in Clayton and was scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.
According to the affidavit for the arrest warrant, Bent is alleged to have touched three girls in 2006 and 2007. All of them were under 18 at the time, and one of them was 12.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - An apocalyptic Church. 3 girls.
ABC News
By DAVID SCHOETZ
May 6, 2008
NEW MEXICO -- A self-described Messiah was arrested on sex charges involving minors two weeks after state officials took three teenagers from his New Mexico compound amid allegations of sexual abuse, authorities in New Mexico confirmed to ABC News today.
State police and criminal agents are interviewing Wayne Bent right now," Peter Olsen told ABC News.
Olsen had few details beyond Bent's initial arrest, which happened without incident sometime this morning at Strong City, Bent's compound in New Mexico's rural northeastern corner.
Chief Scott Julian of the Clayton Police Department confirmed that Bent was charged with three counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He is being held at the Clayton-Union County Consolidated Detention Facility, Strong confirmed to ABC News.
[Miani (Salesian), Rucker] - RCC.
City of Angels
~ May 06, 2008
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- While jury selection goes on downtown LA in the Salesian cases concerning Fr. Jim Miani, we have tracked down a selection of post papal visit videos which are on topic, including "Church of the Child Molester." Producer Mark McKay of Toronto says his on-target short was banned from his regular program on MTV Live.
Also featured: LA Plaintiff Cynthia Falter turns a web cam on herself to rap about rape by George Neville Rucker in El Segundo in first to third grade, and the continued mental rape from going through six years of a lawsuit, ending in the LA Archdiocese settlements last year. Her raw video is a preview of more stories to come about Cyndy's case and other cases, here at City of Angels Network.
We also searched YouTube and filtered out the truly distasteful, to find recent uploads that relate to the pope's recent visit and how it impacted the 500,000 victims of sex crimes in the Catholic Church. You can watch them without leaving the blog by clicking the video bars above.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - An apocalyptic Church. 3 girls.
The New York Times
By John Holusha, ~ May 06, 2008
NEW MEXICO -- Law enforcement officials in the Southwest are once more on the offensive against a leader of a fringe religious group accused of sex with children.
This time the action is in New Mexico, where today the state police arrested Wayne Bent, also known as Michael Travesser, who claims to be the Messiah foretold in the Bible. The Associated Press reports that Mr. Bent was taken into custody without incident at his remote ranch in the northern part of the state.
Child welfare officials said there were allegations of inappropriate contact between him and children at the compound. They recently removed two girls and a boy from the site. Mr. Bent faces three charges of criminal sexual contact.
[1974-83 Cloutier] - RCC. Boys.
The Sudbury Star,
Posted By Bob Vaillancourt, ~ May 06, 2008
CANADA -- A preliminary hearing is underway at the Sudbury courthouse this week into allegations a Roman Catholic priest sexually assaulted several young boys over a decade-long period at various parishes in Northern Ontario.
It is alleged the incidents involving Father Bernard Cloutier began in 1974 and continued until April 1983.
A preliminary hearing is held to determine if there is sufficient evidence to put Cloutier on trial on the charges. The hearing is expected to last all week.
Cloutier, 66, is being represented by North Bay lawyer Gregory Ellies, who has asked the court to ban the publication of evidence given at the hearing.
[1999-2006 Fay*] - RCC. $US 1.4m. 37mos prison. Live-in male. On RC abuse board!
Hartford Courant
Associated Press
May 6, 2008
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A Darien priest convicted of embezzling $1 million from his parish received a judge's permission Tuesday to report to prison seven weeks later than scheduled while he continues undergoing cancer treatment.
U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton ruled that the Rev. Michael Jude Fay could go to prison on July 8. He had been due to surrender May 19.
The delay came after Dr. Ethan Basch said Fay was showing some signs of improvement since he began taking an experimental drug in January. He is due for another evaluation next month.
- Russian Orthodox Church.
[≤ 2004 Mr Dushkin] - 9 convictions.
[~ 2008 Bp Nikolai Soraich] - Tonsured convicted paedophile as Reader. Dismissed whistleblower.
Kodiak Daily Mirror,
By Ralph Gibbs Monday, May 5, 2008
ALASKA -- When this week comes to a close, so too will another chapter in the history of the Orthodox Church in America Alaska diocese.
In a May 1 interview with KTUU television in Anchorage last week, Bishop Nikolai Soraich said he would step down as diocese leader by the end of this week.
"I'm going to be leaving Alaska and taking some time to visit family and friends whom I've neglected for the last seven years since I've been in Alaska," the bishop said.
[Banko]
The Star-Ledger
by Ralph Ortega/The Star-Ledger 3:48 PM, Tuesday May 06, 2008,
NEW JERSEY -- Attorneys gave opening statements today in the latest child sex abuse trial of a former Milford priest, who already is serving a 15 year sentence on an earlier conviction.
Assistant Hunterdon County Prosecutor Dawn Solari told the jury in Flemington that the victim, now an adult, remained silent for almost a decade after he had been sexually abused at ages 9 and 10, by John M. Banko.
Banko, the former pastor at St. Edward's Roman Catholic Church in Milford, was accused by the victim of committing the molestation on numerous occasions in a church bathroom between September 1994 and May 1995, Solari said.
Fearful and intimidated because of his young age, the victim was unable to report the abuse until he was an adult, Solari told the jury. First he told his mother, Solari said, and then he reported the molestation to authorities in January 2005.
Hunterdon County public defender Peter Abatemarco, who is representing Banko, advised the jury not to decide the case, based on sympathy for the victim.
[1999-2006 Fay*] - RCC. $US 1.4m. 37mos prison. Live-in male. On RC abuse board!
The Darien Times
By Susan Shultz, Times Reporter, BREAKING NEWS 2:05 p.m., ~ May 06, 2008
NEW HAVEN (CT) – The Rev. Michael Jude Fay today was again granted more time for his experimental cancer treatment before he has to report to federal prison.
Fay, the former pastor of St. John Roman Catholic Church, pleaded guilty last year to stealing more than $1 million from the church. Federal Judge Janet Bond Arterton granted Fay an extension until July 8 to report to prison. When he was originally sentenced to 37 months in prison, Fay was to report in April. But he has been granted extensions three times. Today was the first time he had to appear in court to get the extension.
[1999-2006 Fay*] - RCC. $US 1.4m. 37mos prison. Live-in male. On RC abuse board!
The Advocate
by Donna Porstner
02:40:18 PM EDT, May/06/2008
NEW HAVEN (CT) - A federal judge has again postponed the date a priest convicted of embezzling from his Darien church must report to prison.
The Rev. Michael Jude Fay, former pastor of St. John Roman Catholic Church on the Post Road, was scheduled to begin serving his three-year sentence May 19 but was granted a reprieve until July 8.
U.S. District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton said it should be enough time to determine whether the federal Bureau of Prisons will allow Fay to participate in a clinical study for a new cancer drug.
["Michael"]
CNN,
AP, ~ May 06, 2008
CLAYTON, New Mexico (AP) -- For 16 years, he followed a man who calls himself Michael, finally settling along with other families on a former ranch in a remote corner of New Mexico.
John Sayer talks about his experience as a member of an apocalyptic church he left in 2005.
There were red flags along the way, but John Sayer didn't break away from the apocalyptic church until late 2005.
Michael "said God told him that he was supposed to sleep with seven virgins," recalled Sayer, 36. Two were to be Sayer's daughters, then 14 and 15.
"I just told him no. … I'm not in agreement. I don't see it's right," Sayer said.
Sayer, his wife and daughters left the compound, although his daughters returned. His youngest was still living there when she was removed by the state Children, Youth and Families Department last week, Sayer said.
Two girls and one boy, all under 18, were taken from the compound amid allegations of inappropriate contact between minors and the sect's 66-year-old leader. State officials are investigating. Sayer said he's spoken with his daughter by phone, but has been advised not to discuss the state custody case.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - An apocalyptic Church. 3 girls.
KOB,
~ May 06, 2008
[with video]
NEW MEXICO -- The head of an apocalyptic cult based in far northeastern New Mexico was arrested this morning by state police.
Wayne Bent, the head of the Lord Our Righteousness Church, was charged with three counts of criminal sexual contact.
Bent currently is being interviewed by law enforcement officials in the town of Clayton
Three children under the age of 18 were taken from the cult's compound north of Clayton last month because of allegations of inappropriate contact between the children and the 66-year-old Bent.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - An apocalyptic Church. 3 girls.
The Associated Press
~ May 06, 2008
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – New Mexico state police say they've arrested the leader of an apocalyptic church on sex charges.
State police spokesman Peter Olson says 66-year-old Wayne Bent was picked up without incident Tuesday at the remote former ranch where he and his followers live. He's facing three charges of criminal sexual contact.
Bent goes by the name of Michael Travesser and claims to be the Messiah. State child welfare officials say there have been allegations of inappropriate contact between Bent and children at the northeastern New Mexico compound.
- FLDS.
Deseret News
By Ben Winslow, ~ May 06, 2008
TEXAS -- The judge handling the massive custody case involving children taken from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch has ordered the Texas Attorney General's Office to prosecute any potential criminal cases involving the polygamous sect.
Court clerks said the order was signed for the magistrate case, which was the case involving the initial search warrants for the FLDS compound.
"The state prays this honorable court appoint the office of the attorney general of the state of Texas as special prosecutors to assist with the prosecution of any criminal cases that may arise in relation to the above numbered search warrant investigations," Tom Green County District Attorney Stephen Lupton wrote in a motion obtained by the Deseret News Tuesday.
[1999-2006 Fay*] - RCC. $US 1.4m. 37mos prison. Live-in male. On RC abuse board!
Newsday,
May 6, 2008
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A Darien priest will be in New Haven federal court for a hearing on when he should report to prison for embezzling $1 million from his parish.
The Rev. Michael Jude Fay was sentenced in December to 37 months in prison. He has sought to delay the start of the jail term while he undergoes an experimental cancer treatment that his attorney says is not available in prison.
Lawrence Hopkins, Fay's attorney, says Fay will die behind bars if he cannot complete his treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Prosecutors had asked Judge Janet Bond Arterton to require Fay's doctor to testify about whether the treatment could be provided in prison and why a six-month delay in reporting to prison rather than one month is necessary.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Bennington Banner
The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
BURLINGTON, VERMONT (AP) – A lawyer for a former altar boy who says a priest molested him in the 1970s told jurors Monday it could have been prevented if the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington didn't coddle pedophile priests at the expense of children.
The case, the second against the statewide Diocese to come to trial, focuses on a 40-year-old former altar boy's claim that a parish priest at Christ the King church in Burlington abused him dozens of times over a two-year period and that the Diocese bears responsibility because it knew of molestation allegations against the Rev. Edward Paquette before employing him and moved him from parish to parish as more claims surfaced afterward.
The Diocese ignored a recommendation that Paquette be assigned somewhere where he wouldn't have regular contact with children and installed him at parishes in Rutland, Montpelier and Burlington, according to plaintiff's attorney Jerome F. O'Neill.
[Ncube]
Afrik (France),
from our correspondent in Harare, ~ May 06, 2008
ZIMBABWE -- ROSEMARY Sibanda, the woman at the centre of the infidelity storm that engulfed the then Archbishop Pius Ncube, and eventually forced him to quit, died at Bulawayo's Mpilo General Hospital on Friday.
Ncube, the former head of the Bulawayo diocese of the Roman Catholic Church and a vocal critic of Robert Mugabe's government admitted to the adulterous affair with Sibanda shortly before he was reassigned to the Vatican.
Rosemary, whose estranged husband Onesimus Sibanda is suing the former Archbishop for Z$5 trillion, accusing him of adultery, died just after noon on Friday.
Hospital authorities say she had been admitted on April 30 and suffered from pneumonia. "She looked very frail when admitted. We tried to save her life but it was too late" said one nurse at the state run but poorly equipped hospital. …
Monica Tshuma a close friend of Rosemary at St Mary's says she died a lonely woman, abandoned by both Ncube and her husband. "She was heartbroken" she says "Rosemary had stopped coming to church. She was now living a destitute life. She never used to get food like when Pius was still around"
Continued Monica's friend "One day she told me how she regretted being used to cause the downfall of Ncube. She felt used by the government as he [? she]got nothing from the deal but humiliation"
[Ncube]
Nehanda Radio
By Fortune Tazvida, May 06, 2008
ZIMBABWE -- Rosemary Sibanda the woman at the centre of adultery claims against Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, died last week Friday of pneumonia.
She was admitted to Mpilo Hospital on Wednesday before succumbing to the disease 2 days later.
Sibanda shot to prominence after admitting on state television that she had an affair with fierce Mugabe critic Archbishop Ncube.
- Judaism.
The Australian Jewish News,
~ May 06, 2008
AUSTRALIA -- It is an ugly fact of life that the very nature of authority guarantees its abuse. And in too many cases, those who exert authority, along with those in whom it is invested will not only abuse it, they will also get away with doing so.
In Jewish life, the corrupt power-brokers have often been our rabbis.
Intended to be men of God, increasingly they have been exposed as having feet of clay.
And those who dare to unmask them risk community opprobrium along with personal discredit and humiliation.
[Jeffs] - FLDS.
Deseret News
By Brian West
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
UTAH -- It has been a busy month for Carolyn Jessop.
In addition to myriad media interviews, promoting a best-selling book and taking care of her family, she just returned last week from her third trip to Texas helping educate government workers, volunteers and professionals about the unique culture of the Fundamentalist LDS Church.
Jessop, Shannon Price and other Utahns have been sharing their insights into the religion with Texas authorities. Both Jessop and Price still strongly believe Texas is doing the right thing by placing more than 450 children into state custody and investigating allegations of abuse. …
Jessop has no doubt that the troubles the group is facing in Texas are because of one man – Warren Jeffs, considered by FLDS to be their prophet.
"The Warren era has completely taken this community apart," she said. "There are so many fundamental values that held us together for generations that he wiped out." …
Jessop recalls being appalled at Jeffs' alleged actions involving alcohol, which she said is allowed by many in the church but not in excess. She described some of his pregnant wives "self-medicating" with alcohol at his encouragement.
"They had happy little drunk babies very often," Jessop said. "In my opinion, that was child abuse."
- Success story amid the sadness.
The Calgary Herald
by Richard Wagamese, For The Calgary Herald,
Published: Sunday, May 04, 2008
CANADA -- Residential schools are Canada's shame. For roughly 100 years, their aim was to break the back of family, community, history and spirituality. Their aim was to end Canada's "Indian problem," to invoke the might of the right of the white to eradicate a people's sense of themselves and their rightful place in the history of the country.
Some call it genocide. Others call it a holocaust. More refined thinkers label it mere assimilation. Whatever the label, the grievous hurt that was inflicted on Canadian consciousness festers even now, long after the last of the schools was closed.
Now a touring commission will allow the survivors of that system to tell their stories. When the federal government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission begins its nationwide trek, Canadians will brace themselves for an onslaught of woe and terror, neglect and secret invasions of mind, body and spirit unparalleled in this country. They are prepared for bleak disclosure.
But there are other stories that need to be told, as well. Stories like my mother's. My mother is 75 and attended the Cecilia Jeffery School outside Kenora, Ont. In the 60-some years that have passed since her experience, she has become a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She lives in a small house on a reserve outside Kenora.
When you enter my mother's house, there's one thing more than anything that strikes you. It's incredibly neat.
She cleans fastidiously. Every surface in her home gleams and everything is organized and arranged to make the most out of the living area. There is a cross on the wall, a Bible by her bed and a picture of Jesus in the living room.
[~ 1990s-2000s Rodis] - RCC. ≥ US$1m gone. Mail fraud, money laundering. Has wife and children too.
The Free Lance-Star
BY ELLEN BILTZ, May 06, 2008
LOUISA (VA) -- The Louisa priest who stole as much as $1 million from parishioners at two churches, was indicted yesterday on 13 counts of embezzlement in Louisa County Circuit Court.
Rodney Rodis, 51, was convicted of mail fraud and money laundering in federal court last October and was sentenced to 63 months in prison in February.
He was also ordered to pay close to $600,000 in restitution to the Richmond Diocese, although very little has been paid, according to federal prosecutors.
When the federal charges were brought last year, Louisa Commonwealth's Attorney Don Short dropped the 13 charges Rodis was being held on in the county.
Short lost re-election last year to Thomas Garrett, who took over in January.
[~ 1990s-2000s Rodis] - RCC. ≥ US$1m gone. Mail fraud, money laundering. Has wife and children too.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
By CALVIN R. TRICE, May 06, 2008
LOUISA COUNTY (VA) -- A Louisa County grand jury yesterday reinstated 13 theft counts against a former Catholic priest convicted in federal court of defrauding two local churches of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Rodney L. Rodis, 51, was sentenced in February to five years in federal prison for diverting for personal use money donated to the two county parishes he headed.
County authorities initially charged Rodis with 13 felony embezzlement counts last year after church officials realized he had stolen donation money. Then-prosecutor R. Don Short dropped the state counts to allow the federal case to proceed.
- RCC church closures.
f
Laconia Citizen
By GAIL OBER
gober@citizen.com , ~ May 06, 2008
NEW HAMPSHIRE -- Parishioners eager to hear the proposal for the local Catholic Church consolidation gathered at Our Lady of the Lakes Parish in Lakeport Sunday afternoon and for the foreseeable future, it appears the future of the Catholic community in Laconia will entail one parish, two priests, and three churches.
According to the Rev. Robert Gorski the area known as Cluster 10, which consists of St. Joseph Church in Belmont; St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Tilton; St. Paul Church in Franklin and the three Laconia parishes of St. Joseph Church, Sacred Heart Church, and Our Lady of the Lakes Church will reorganize under four priests – one in Belmont, one to be shared by Tilton and Franklin, and two to minister in a new combined parish in Laconia.
The future of St. Helena Church in Weirs Beach, a seasonal church operated by Our Lady of the Lakes, will be studied for two years.
- FLDS just took minor girls across the border.
Globe and Mail
By ROBERT MATAS
May 6, 2008
CANADA -- The raid on the remote Texas compound of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints sparked calls yesterday for the Canadian government to crack down on the movement of young girls across the border for so-called celestial marriages.
The border crossing, minutes away from the polygamist community of Bountiful, B.C., does not consistently enforce passport controls, Audrey Vance, who lives near the border and is involved with an anti-polygamist group, said yesterday in an interview.
It's a quiet border in an agricultural area with much of the traffic going to the U.S. for shopping or for the casino. "We're never asked for a passport or ID [when returning to Canada]. It's so easy to come into Canada," Ms. Vance said. "You just drive up. … They ask where you have been. You say shopping and they wave you on."
- "Acts II Church."
Neosho Daily News,
By John Ford
05:41 PM CDT
Mon May 05, 2008,
NEOSHO (MO) -- Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland and deputies with the sheriff's department were standing guard Sunday in front of Acts II church in an effort to warn parents and church members about allegations against Randall "Danny" Russell, the church pastor.
The sheriff and deputies Andy Pike and Steve Bock, were standing on Mulberry Road about 100 yards from Acts II.
On Wednesday, Russell, 49, was charged with second-degree statutory rape, second-degree statutory sodomy, and child abuse. The charges stem from allegations made by a woman now in her early 20s who said Russell had sexual contact with her when she was 16 years old.
"Our main objective is to make sure that everyone knows what the allegations are on him," said Copeland. "We want the parents to know what's going on out here, as well as 16-year-olds who can drive themselves out here. We'll be confronting them and telling them we're going to be calling their parents."
- Brave Keating among them.
The Huffington Post
by Sam Stein, May 05, 2008
UNITED STATES -- Religious affiliations have proven, in the course of this campaign, to be a tricky business for politicians -- none more so than Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the controversial former pastor of Sen. Barack Obama.
But John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, also has religious figures associated with his campaign that could pose problems for his electoral hopes. And they extend beyond the two infamous endorsers who have received the most attention: Pastor John Hagee -- who once called the Catholic Church the "great whore" -- and Reverend Rod Parsley -- who accused the government of enabling "black genocide" through legalizing abortion.
McCain's own "Catholics For McCain National Steering Committee" includes several figures that, while not personally connected to the senator (a la Wright to Obama), nevertheless create thorny issues for his candidacy.
Chief among these individuals is Deal W. Hudson, publisher of the Roman Catholic journal Crisis, and one of the more influential Catholic figures in Republican circles. Hudson rose to political fame during the Bush administration as he worked with Karl Rove to target Catholic votes from a strict anti-abortion and anti-gay posture.
But in August 2004, it was revealed that Hudson had an affair with an 18-year-old Fordham University student while he was a teacher at that institution. The sordid story, reported first by the National Catholic
Reporter, involved Hudson joining a group of students at a pre-Lenten "Fat Tuesday" party in Greenwich Village, bringing the drunk student back to his office, and ultimately, exchanging sexual favors. When the affair, which cost Hudson his tenured position, was exposed, he resigned from the Bush reelection team. …
Frank Keating, the former Oklahoma governor, serves as one of two Catholics For McCain Co-Chairs. In June 2003, Keating was forced to resign from a Catholic Church review board after he suggested that the bishops were engaging in Mafia-like activities in their efforts to obstruct investigations into the child sexual abuse scandal. "To act like La Cosa Nostra and hide and suppress, I think, is very unhealthy," he told the Los Angeles Times. The comments earned him some plaudits among critics (and there were many) of the church. But they were also viewed as unnecessarily antagonistic. Keating refused to apologize.
[≤ 1990-2006 Inametti (Paulist)] - RCC. 4yrs prison. 2 more women.
Star-Telegram
By BRYON OKADA, ~ May 06, 2008
FORT WORTH (TX) -- A Roman Catholic priest who had sex with two female inmates at Federal Medical Center Carswell is headed to a prison cell of his own.
Vincent Inametti, a missionary from Nigeria who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, worked as a chaplain at the medical center in Fort Worth from Aug. 13, 2000, through Sept. 26.
He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Terry Means on Monday morning to 48 months in federal prison on two counts of sexual abuse of an adult ward in custody.
Inametti, 48, was also ordered to pay $3,000 in fines and will be on supervised release for two years after his incarceration.
[Foley] - RCC. Lured kids with "police car."
Washington Post
By Michelle Boorstein
Page B06
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
ARLINGTON (VA) -- A small group of clergy sexual abuse survivors met outside the Catholic Diocese of Arlington yesterday to push church officials for more information about a Connecticut priest thought to be living in Northern Virginia.
Representatives of the regional offices of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) say they are upset that diocesan officials didn't tell the public when they learned in March that the Rev. Stephen Foley, 66, was living in Chantilly.
The Archdiocese of Hartford has made payments to 12 men who said they were victims of Foley's, including a single $599,000 settlement in March. A former state police chaplain, Foley drove a Ford Crown Victoria -- a common police vehicle -- until last year, when the Hartford archbishop reportedly ordered him to sell it. Alleged victims said he used the car to lure children.
[Banko] - RCC.
The Star-Ledger
By RALPH R. ORTEGA Tuesday, May 06, 2008
FLEMINGTON (NJ) | A former Milford priest wanted to postpone his second trial on child sex abuse charges, his lawyer argued Monday, because proceeding with the case now may be too soon after the pope's apology for the clergy sex abuse scandals.
"His concern was that people might rush to judgment and not focus on his case in particular," said Peter Abatemarco, the Hunterdon County public defender representing John M. Banko, who already has a 2002 conviction for a separate child sex abuse case.
Despite Banko's concern, Judge Roger F. Mahon rejected Abatemarco's request for an adjournment Monday.
Mahon proceeded with jury selection and assured Abatemarco the selection process should help detect any effect last month's papal visit to the United States might have on jurors.
[≤ 1990-2006 Inametti (Paulist)] - RCC. 4yrs prison. 2 more women.
United Press International
May 6, 2008
FORT WORTH, Texas, (UPI) -- A prison chaplain convicted of sexually abusing female inmates at a Fort Worth, Texas, medical center was sentenced to four years in prison Monday.
U.S. District Judge Terry Means sentenced Vincent Inametti, 48, a Catholic priest, to 48 months in prison on two counts of sexual abuse of a ward. He also is to pay a $3,000 fine. Inametti was immediately remanded into custody to begin serving his sentence.
Inametti, plead guilty to the charges, is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was ordained a priest in his native Nigeria, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Times Argus
By Kevin O'Connor, Rutland Herald, May 6, 2008
BURLINGTON, VERMONT – Vermont's Catholic Church doesn't dispute that former priest Edward Paquette repeatedly molested altar boy Perry Babel 30 years ago. So how can the state's largest religious denomination say it's not liable toward the now 40-year-old Burlington native in a negligent supervision lawsuit?
Church lawyers faced that question Monday with the start of a Chittenden Superior Court trial that may bring a call for damages of more than $1 million – and the threat of equally costly verdicts in 17 similar cases.
"When we look back to what happened 30, 40 years ago, I think the general consensus is the issue of clergy abuse was badly handled," diocesan counsel Kaveh Shahi told a jury. "The decision-makers were ill-advised and did not have the understanding and sensitivity that we have now. But we have to keep in mind the information and knowledge that was available at that time was limited."
Earlier, Babel's lawyer, Jerome O'Neill, read personnel records that showed the diocese had transferred Paquette to his client's Burlington parish without telling anyone it knew the priest had molested boys in Indiana, Massachusetts and the Vermont cities of Montpelier and Rutland. As a result, Paquette was free to fondle Babel, then a fourth- and fifth-grader, an alleged 40 to 100 times.
[RECAPITULATION: But we have to keep in mind the information and knowledge that was available at that time was limited.]
[COMMENT: What, a Church about 1600 years old, with holy spirit leading and sacraments to strengthen, doesn't understand sex abuse! Pull the other leg!]
- RCC.
Albany Times Union
By ROBERT GAVIN,
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
ALBANY (NY) -- Archbishop Harry J. Flynn, a Schenectady native who became a key figure in the Catholic Church's early efforts to root out clergy abuse, has retired from his post in Minnesota.
Flynn, one-time pastor of St. Ambrose parish in Latham and leader of the 650,000-member Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, resigned Friday upon turning 75, the church's mandatory age of retirement for archbishops.
Flynn will remain in Minnesota, where he maintains an office at the campus of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. He will chair a board of trustees and co-chair a capital campaign, according to the Star-Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Burlington Free Press
By Sam Hemingway, May 6, 2008
VERMONT -- A former high-ranking official in the state's Roman Catholic diocese told a Burlington jury Monday that the diocese did not look into reports that the Rev. Edward Paquette molested boys in Massachusetts years before coming to Vermont.
Monsignor John McSweeney, who was chancellor of the Vermont diocese and handled details of priest hirings for then-Bishop John Marshall in the 1970s, testified that he did not know about such allegations until he reviewed church documents recently.
The documents, which chronicle the steps the Vermont diocese took while considering whether to hire Paquette in 1972, include several mentions of the alleged misconduct in letters from out-of-state church officials to
McSweeney.
"Wasn't that a red flag for you to say the diocese ought to take a look at this," attorney Jerome O'Neill asked McSweeney.
"In retrospect, yes," McSweeney said. …
Kaveh Shahi, a lawyer for the diocese, told the jury during his opening statement that what Paquette did was "wrong, immoral and illegal" but said it was an oversimplification to apply today's standards to events that occurred in the 1970s.
"The decision makers were ill advised and did not have the understanding and sensitivity that we now have, that society has gained over the years," Shahi said. "These events happened 30 to 40 years ago."
[ALL TRUTH, and FORECASTING THE FUTURE: Saint John's Gospel, 16:13: "But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth. For he shall not speak of himself ; but what things soever he shall hear, he shall speak. And the things that are to come, he shall shew you."
(Douay-Rheims RC version, A.D. 1582.)
SCRIPTURE ENDS.]
[1974-83 Cloutier] - RCC. Boys.
The North Bay Nugget
~ May 06, 2008
CANADA -- A preliminary hearing has started for a Roman Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting several young boys over a decade at various parishes in Northern Ontario.
It is alleged the incidents involving Bernard Cloutier began in 1974 and continued until April 1983.
He has pleaded not guilty to the 22 charges he is facing.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 6, 2008
5:49 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Tue May 06, 2008
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[April 28, 2008 Carter -NEW*] - Baptist. Woman.
Ledger-Enquirer,
www.ledger- enquirer. com/news/ story/315 789.html ,
BY ALAN RIQUELMY - ariquelmy@ledger-enquirer.com , AND LILY GORDON -
lgordon@ledger-enquirer.com , ~ May 07, 2008
COLUMBUS (GA) -- The pastor of Canaan Baptist Church was arrested Monday on charges of inappropriately touching a church employee and holding her down to the floor.
James Harold Carter, 74, was taken into custody at 10 a.m. on charges of sexual battery and false imprisonment, Columbus police said. He was freed on a $10,000 bond.
The 41-year-old woman who made the claims against Carter told officers the pastor touched her and held her down April 28 in the church at 2835 Branton Wood Drive, said Police Lt. John McMichael. She told police that day, and Carter was arrested on a warrant Monday at the Public Safety Center.
[2008 Mr Bonds -? NEW*] - RCC. Girl.
California Catholic Daily,
~ May 07, 2008
RICHMOND (CA) -- A Catholic high school that has several times been embroiled in the clergy sexual abuse crisis is in the news again because of new accusations of abuse. Since its beginnings as a minor seminary in the 1950s, Salesian High School in Richmond has had six clergymen connected with it accused of sexual abuse of minors, while three others were accused after they left the private school. This time, however, it is not a priest or brother but a lay teacher who has been accused of -- and arrested for -- sexually abusing one of his students.
About a month ago, Richmond police received information that Salesian High School biology teacher Rickey Bonds, 30, (a Salesian graduate) was engaged in a sexual relationship with an underage girl. Rumors spread by students reached police, as well as the group, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. Members of the group on April 11 distributed leaflets outside the school to draw public attention to the rumors.
"I got several calls from several students saying there was ongoing abuse there and that everybody knew about it, and what my biggest question to the faculty there is why wasn't this reported before?" said SNAP's Joey Piscitelli, according to a May 2 CBS 5 news report.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 7, 2008
7:45 AM]
[JOKE: He WAS teaching biology - practical biology! ;-)]
[~ 1970s-80s 4yrs Daleo -NEW* (Capuchin)] - RCC. Boy.
The News Journal,
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal, May 7, 2008
DELAWARE -- A 39-year-old Wilmington man filed suit this morning in Delaware Superior Court, alleging that he was abused for four years by a Capuchin friar while a student at St. Edmond's Academy, a private Catholic school in Brandywine Hundred.
In the 48-page suit, Matthias C. Conaty alleges that the Rev. Paul Daleo molested and sexually abused him from fourth through seventh grades -- sometimes while performing as a "Christian Clown" at various school and church events.
In addition to Daleo, defendants include the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, the Capuchin Friars, the Brothers of the Holy Cross, and St. Edmond's Academy.
"No child should have to suffer the shame and overwhelming pain that Matt, and then his family, had to endure," said John C. Manly, one of the attorneys representing Conaty. "Paul Daleo used his position to earn the trust of children and their families. Then he used that trust to rape and molest innocent kids. The facts in this case are shocking, and everyone - the school, the diocese and the Capuchins - who knew that Daleo was a predator and let him have unfettered access to kids, must be held accountable."
- FLDS.
The Salt Lake Tribune
May/07/2008
TEXAS -- The American Civil Liberties Union has weighed in on the raid on a polygamous sect's ranch in Texas, saying that the men, women and children of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have fundamental rights that may have been compromised.
The ACLU said that while Texas authorities have the obligation to protect children from physical or sexual harm, the April 3 raid raised questions about the state's actions regarding the sect's right to freedom of religion and due process of law.
"Based upon news reports and other available information, the ACLU has serious concerns that the state's actions so far have not adequately protected the fundamental rights at stake," the national organization said in a May 2 posting on its web site.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 7, 2008
5:06 PM]
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - An apocalyptic Church. 3 girls.
Wake Up America,
~ May 07, 2008
[with video]
NEW MEXICO -- The leader of the apocalyptic church, Lord Our Righteousness, In New Mexico's Strong, has been arrested for three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Two weeks ago it was reported that three children had been removed from a Strong City, New Mexico compound because of allegations that the leader, Wayne Bent also known as Michael Travesser, 66, a self proclaimed "Messiah", had inappropriate sexual contact with the minors living at the church compound.
On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, Bent/Travesser was arrested on three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to Peter Olson who is a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - An apocalyptic Church. 3 girls.
FindLaw
~ May 07, 2008
NEW MEXICO -- This links to the affidavit for an arrest warrant naming cult leader Wayne Bent, who has been charged with sexual offenses involving minors.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - An apocalyptic Church. 3 girls.
United Press International
May 7, 2008
ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, (UPI) -- Police in New Mexico are holding the self-professed Messiah of a doomsday cult on multiple charges of sexual contact with minors.
Wayne Bent, also known as Michael Travesser, 66, said in an Internet posting that he has committed no crime and compared his arrest to the persecution of Jesus, The Albuquerque Journal reported Wednesday.
State police arrested Bent at his Strong City, N.M., compound Tuesday on charges of criminal sexual contact with a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - An apocalyptic Church. 3 girls.
Las Cruces Sun-News
By DEBORAH BAKER Associated Press Writer
Article Launched 01:39:21 PM MDT
May/07/2008
SANTA FE, N.M.–A self-described Messiah arrested for alleged sex crimes against minors remained jailed Wednesday, refusing to eat or drink, authorities said.
Wayne Bent, 66, was in the city-county jail in the small northeastern New Mexico town of Clayton, awaiting his first court appearance.
The leader of an apocalyptic sect headquartered in a remote area near the New Mexico-Colorado line, Bent was charged Tuesday with three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
According to an affidavit for the arrest warrant, Bent–who calls himself Michael Travesser–touched three underage female followers, one of whom was 12, when they lay naked with him.
[2004-05 Ward*] - RCC. "Godtalk" ex-priest about to admit porn charges.
NBC 11,
~ May 07, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) -- Former KGO radio talk show host Bernie Ward, who pleaded not guilty to distributing and receiving child pornography in December, is expected to change his plea in a federal court on Thursday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The former host of "God Talk" is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Thursday to change his please [pleas] one-month before the case is scheduled to go to trial, the newspaper said.
Ward, 56, is accused of three counts of receiving child pornography, knowingly distributing it and attempting to distribute it in December 2004 and January 2005. …
Ward, a former Catholic priest who is married and has four children, previously hosted a nighttime 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. show Monday through Friday and a Sunday morning show called Godtalk on KGO.
[LOOK BACK: ~ Dec 6, 2007]
- RC retired Bishop Geoffrey Robinson wants RCC leader to say "sorry".
Scopical, www.scopical. com.au/ articles/ News/ Australia/ 5377/Bishop_ says_Pope_ should_ apologise_ for_sex_ abuse_in_ Australia ;
~ May 07, 2008
AUSTRALIA -- The Pope should apologise to victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Australia, according to a Sydney Bishop.
Pope Benedict XVI is due to arrive into Australia during July for the Catholic Church's World Youth Day event.
While the event is the main focus, there are now growing calls for the Pope to apologise to those sexually abused within the Church in Australia.
Fairfax Media reports that Bishop Geoffrey Robinson - a victim of sexual abuse - said he expected the issue of an apology to be considered.
[2008] - RCC. No permit requested by "healing" priest.
Inquirer
By Jeannette Andrade
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:10:00 May/07/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Not in my turf.
This was the statement on Wednesday of Malolos bishop Jose Oliveros upon learning that Canada-based "healing priest" Fernando Suarez plans to return to the country this month to resume his work.
Oliveros said he can deny the priest access to his diocese in the same manner that Suarez was banned by the Archdiocese of Toronto from even entering its jurisdiction after he was found to have conducted healing masses without first obtaining the permission of church authorities there. …
"He (Suarez) should be able to observe the norms of the Church and part of that is to seek permission from the head of the diocese where he plans to hold healing masses," the bishop said.
"The reason why this is explicit in the church laws is to ensure that the healing masses adhere to the norms of the church and to enable the bishop to curtail possible abuse," Oliveros explained, adding that the abuse usually comes with the collection of money during such services.
[Banko]
The Star-Ledger
by Ralph Ortega / 1:04 PM, Wednesday May 07, 2008
NEW JERSEY -- A retired janitor came forward to say there was no lock on a church bathroom where a sex abuse victim claimed he was sodomized as a child by a priest in Hunterdon County, a lawyer said in court today.
The witness statement, made to the Hunterdon County Public Defender's Office, could end up being used by the defense to introduce reasonable doubt in the latest trial of John M. Banko.
The 62-year-old Banko, a former Milford priest already serving a 15 year sentence on a previous child sex abuse conviction, is again on trial after another victim was identified. The victim, now 23 and living out of state, testified today that he was locked in a church bathroom as a child and sodomized by Banko, several times in the 1990s.
[~ 1970s-80s 4yrs Daleo* (Capuchin)] - RCC. Boy.
CBS 3,
AP, ~ May 07, 2008
DOVER (DE) -- A New Castle County man has filed a lawsuit claiming a Franciscan priest sexually abused him when he was a child.
Matt Conaty claims in the Superior Court lawsuit that the Reverend Paul Daleo abused him while Conaty was a student at Saint Edmond's Academy in Wilmington.
- RCC.
NEWS.com ,
By Garry Linnell 12:59am
May 08, 2008
AUSTRALIA -- THE Pope is set to make an historic apology when he visits Sydney in July - to the tens of thousands of Australians sexually and physically abused by predatory Catholic priests.
Church sources have told The Daily Telegraph there is mounting expectation that Pope Benedict XVI will use his Australian trip to express his shame and regret over the church's long-running abuse scandal - and may also meet victims.
The likelihood of an apology increased yesterday when one of the Catholic Church's most senior figures, the Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle Michael Malone, gave his backing for a papal apology.
Bishop Malone said the Pope had set a precedent by apologising to American abuse victims on a recent tour of the US and "I would certainly be supportive" of an Australian apology.
- RCC.
Sydney Morning Herald,
12:14AM
May 8, 2008
AUSTRALIA -- The Pope is set to make an apology in Sydney to the tens of thousands of Australians sexually and physically abused by Catholic priests.
Church sources have told News Limited there is a mounting expectation that Pope Benedict XVI will use his trip during World Youth Day in July to express his shame and regret over the church's long-running scandal.
He may also meet some of the victims.
Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle Michael Malone gave his backing for a papal apology and said the Pope had set a precedent to apologising to victims on a recent trip to the US.
[Abano]
Inquirer (Philippines),
By Rodel Rodis, INQUIRER.net , First Posted 16:27:00 May/06/2008
NEW JERSEY -- When Pope Benedict XVI [Ratzinger] delivered a homily at the Nationals Stadium in Washington DC on April 17, 2008, he asked the congregation to "love your priests and to affirm them in the excellent work that they do."
A few hundred miles north of that stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey, the faithful parishioners of the St. Frances Cabrini Parish led by Joseph Cicerella, are doing just that. They fervently love their parish priest, Fr. Edgardo Abano, and they're waging a holy war against the local Bishop to get him back.
Last year Bishop Paul Gregory Bootkoski of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen, N.J. informed Fr. Abano that the diocese will be closing down St. Frances Cabrini Catholic School because enrollment was down, the school was underused and St. Frances Cabrini Church was subsidizing the school. …
In the middle of this dispute in September last year, the diocese contacted the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office in New Jersey to report that Glenn Obrero, a Filipino diocesan employee and a seminarian at the Immaculate Conception Seminary, had filed a complaint of sexual misconduct against Fr. Abano in 2005. Obrero, who had been petitioned by the diocese for a work visa in 2005, complained that Fr. Abano had inappropriately touched him in the chest and buttocks when he first started working for the diocese.
- RCC.
New Oxford Review
~ May 07, 2008
Sexual abuse is a horrific crime. Sex-abuser priests, especially pedophile priests, are criminals of the lowest order. They should be punished as such.
Sex-abuser priests have indeed squandered their inheritance. But the tried-and-found-guilty priest, especially the defrocked priest in prison, presents a unique pastoral problem. It is a problem that led Charlene C. Duline to wonder, "Does the Catholic Church remember its fallen priests who molested children and are now serving time in prison?" (National Catholic Reporter, July 20, 2007).
Duline was herself a victim, as a child, of sexual abuse by a priest. "Rape," she says, "is a vile, violent act. I weep for the children who were abused by priests. I know their pain." Yet, over time, she has come to "feel sorry for these fallen priests, despite the desire for revenge that still burns deep in my heart." And she "wondered if our church ministered to them in any form."
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - An apocalyptic Church. 3 girls.
eFluxMedia
By Ona Zachary
12:16, May 7th 2008
NEW MEXICO -- Wayne Bent, who also goes by the name of Michael Travesser, is the leader of an apocalyptic sect called The Lord Our Righteousness Church.
According to The Associated Press, Bent was arrested Tuesday on three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, Department of Public Safety spokesman, Peter Olson, said.
The arrest took place two weeks after state officials had removed two girls and one boy from Bent's New Mexico compound.
The church leader has updated the sect's website to reassure its members.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - An apocalyptic Church. 3 girls.
Inquirer (Philippines)
Agence France-Presse LOS ANGELES
First Posted 09:12:00 May/07/2008
NEW MEXICO -- The leader of an apocalyptic church was arrested at a remote ranch in New Mexico early Tuesday as part on a child sex abuse investigation, police said.
Wayne Bent, 66, the head of the doomsday Lord Our Righteousness Church, was detained after agents arrived at the compound where the leader and his followers are based near Clayton, northeast New Mexico.
New Mexico State Police spokesman Peter Olson said Bent was facing three charges of criminal sexual contact, but did not provide further details.
[González Rios]
Yakima Herald-Republic
By JANE GARGAS
~ May 07, 2008
YAKIMA (WA) -- A former Catholic Diocese of Yakima seminarian will be released from federal custody pending payment of a $25,000 bond, an immigration judge ruled Tuesday.
Juan Jose González Rios, who has been held in the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma for the last week, will be heading back to his home in Tieton as soon as bond is posted.
He should be released today or Thursday, said Yakima attorney Jerry Talbott of Talbott Simpson & Davis who represented González in the immigration hearing.
[1993-96 Saraswati*, aka Swamiji] - Hindu. 20 charges. 2 girls.
Times Nows (India),
~ May 07, 2008
TEXAS -- There is more trouble in store for Swami Prakashanand Sarawati, who was arrested last month in the US on charges of child abuse. The Hays County Sherif's Department, which is investigating the case, has said the charges would be "taken seriously" as the victims were underage.
Mike Thielen, spokesperson for the county sherif's department said, "These charges do stand back to when the individuals that came forth with the outcry were under the age of adulthood. And so we do take those charges seriously."
Swami Prakashanand had some reprieve when was released on a $1 million bail, after being arrested Texas on charges of 20 counts of child abuse.
The case stems from an investigation that started last May. Sealed indictments were issued in April, after which an arrest warrant was issued against Sarawati who founded the Barsana Dham shrine in Hays County in 1990.
[1999-2006 Fay*] - RCC. $US 1.4m. 37mos prison. Live-in male. On RC abuse board!
The Advocate
By Donna Porstner
Article Launched May/07/2008
NEW HAVEN (CT) -- A federal judge again postponed the date a priest convicted of embezzling $1 million from his Darien church must report to prison.
The Rev. Michael Jude Fay, former pastor of St. John Roman Catholic Church on the Post Road, was scheduled to begin serving his three-year sentence May 19 but was granted a reprieve until July 8.
U.S. District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton yesterday said that should allow enough time to determine whether the federal Bureau of Prisons will allow Fay to participate in a clinical study for a new cancer drug.
Fay, who has prostate cancer, is being treated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
AllAfrica
The Herald (Harare)
May 7, 2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- MRS Rosemary Sibanda, the woman at the centre of a sex scandal involving the disgraced former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, has died.
She died last Friday at Mpilo Central Hospital where she had been admitted. At the time of her death, Mrs Sibanda was lonely and miserable after being abandoned by Ncube and fellow parishioners.
She was buried at West Park Cemetery yesterday where members of the Catholic Church were conspicuous by their absence.
Neighbours said when news of her adulterous relationship with Ncube was broken by the media last year, she was deserted by people close to her. Even members of the Catholic Church had no time for her anymore.
As for the funeral wake at her Iminyela home, it was only attended by a few people mainly from her burial society.
Tellingly, the pastor who led yesterday's proceedings at the cemetery was from the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
The Republican
By SAM HEMINGWAY The Burlington Free Press Wednesday, May 07, 2008
BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Rev. Edward O. Paquette, now of Westfield, Mass., was suspended from parish work by the Fall River, Mass., diocese early in his career after police found him parked in a car with a boy, a jury at a clergy sex abuse trial was told yesterday.
"He had been picked up by the police while parked with a teen-age boy," the Rev. Timothy O'Connor, of Westfield, Mass., wrote in a letter to an Indiana bishop in 1963 who was thinking of hiring Paquette. "He was held at the station until the arrival of his pastor, but was not booked."
The letter was among a number of confidential documents made public for the first time yesterday during questioning of Vermont diocesan officials by Jerome O'Neill, the attorney for a former Burlington altar boy who has sued the Roman Catholic diocese on claims he was molested by Paquette between 1976 and 1978.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - An apocalyptic Church. 3 girls.
The New York Times
By NEIL GENZLINGER
Published: May 7, 2008
STRONG CITY (NM) -- There is much to make the jaw drop in "Inside a Cult," a timely documentary about the Strong City sect in New Mexico being shown on Wednesday on the National Geographic Channel. But by its end you may feel that the most stunning thing is that this film exists at all. Why would these people have let a documentarian get so close to their exceedingly eccentric world?
The cult consists of about 50 followers of Michael Travesser, a gaunt, scraggly man who says he is the Messiah (something he says God revealed to him back in 2000, when his name was Wayne Bent). The film is no archival cut-and-paste job; Ben Anthony, the director and cinematographer, was admitted to the group's compound and invited to interview both leader and followers.
His camera catches one incredible detail after another: it was God's will that Mr. Travesser, 66, sleep with other men's wives, including his own daughter-in-law, and that assorted young women and under-age girls lie nude with him. As the interviewees talk about such things, you might find yourself thinking, "These people obviously didn't understand the power of the medium or how insane they would sound on film." But think again: the cult is thoroughly media-savvy, maintaining an extensive Web site ( strongcity.info ) full of video and blogs.
- RCC.
The Boston Globe,
~ May 07, 2008
BOSTON (MA) -- Pulitzer-Prize winning Boston Globe reporter Sacha Pfeiffer is moving to WBUR-FM, a National Public Radio affiliate in Boston, next month as a health and science reporter.
Pfeiffer, 36, has worked for the Globe for 13 years and covered a variety of beats, from the the state court system to philanthropy.
As a member of the Globe's Spotlight investigative team, she helped expose a pattern of sexual abuse among clergy in the Catholic Church.
- FLDS.
Deseret News
By Geoffrey Fattah
Published 12:16 a.m. MDT
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
TEXAS -- Two prominent Utah legal minds say there is little members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church can do to stop the momentum of Texas' investigation. In other words: The train has left the station.
The main reason is that states typically give broader powers to state officials regarding child welfare than criminal investigations.
"We tend to view this as a criminal investigation, but the authorities down in Texas are involved in a child welfare action," said former federal judge and University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell.
Cassell said when it comes to making sure children are safe, the court will want to review any evidence possible to ensure what it's doing is in the best interest of the children.
- RCC.
Sunday Catholic Weekly
Fr Pawel Rozpiatkowski ~ May 07, 2008
POLAND -- The visit of the Holy Father Benedict XVI to the United States on 15-20 April 2008 was unique in many ways. The Pope visited a superpower, which influenced the fates of the world, regions and particular countries. He visited the Church regaining its strength after the wounds of the sin that the world had learnt about six years ago. …
The millions who observed the pilgrimage asked these questions. It all began aboard the plane when Benedict XVI came to the journalists representing world media one hour after the plane had taken off. He answered three questions. But reporters did not remember his three answers. The agencies mainly focused on the clergy sexual abuse scandal that had wounded the Church in America so seriously. The Holy Father clearly said that he was not going to avoid that question, which was according to his motto 'Co-workers of the truth.' He did not dismiss the matter with phrases of compassion, harm, restitution but he clearly stated that he was ashamed of what had happened. 'We will absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry.' 'Pedophilia is absolutely incompatible with the priesthood', the Pope said aboard Boeing 777, which Alitalia called 'Shepherd One', certainly by analogy to the name of the American President's plane 'Air Force One'.
[1974-83 Cloutier] - RCC. Boys.
The North Bay Nugget
~ May 07, 2008
CANADA -- A preliminary hearing has started for a Roman Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting several young boys over a decade at various parishes in Northern Ontario.
It is alleged the incidents involving Bernard Cloutier began in 1974 and continued until April 1983.
He has pleaded not guilty to the 22 charges he is facing.
He was a parish priest at Saint-Agnes Church in North Bay when the initial charges were laid.
A preliminary hearing is held to determine if there is sufficient evidence to put Cloutier on trial on the charges.
The hearing is expected to last all week.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Vermont Public Radio
AP, ~ May 07, 2008
BURLINGTON, VT -- A high-ranking former Diocese of Burlington official says the Diocese didn't fully look into the background of a priest who allegedly went on to molest boys in Vermont -- even though the church was warned by the priest's former bishop.
Reverend John McSweeney took the stand yesterday in Chittenden County Superior Court.
McSweeney said Diocesan officials never looked into the Reverend Edward Paquette's time in the Fall River, Massachusetts diocese. Paquette was accused of molesting boys before being transferred to Indiana and finally Vermont. Instead, he says, church officials relied on representations made by psychiatrists who thought Paquette could be cured.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Bennington Banner,
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
BURLINGTON VT, (AP) – A lawyer for a former altar boy who says a priest molested him in the 1970s told jurors Monday it could have been prevented if the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington didn't coddle pedophile priests at the expense of children.
The case, the second against the statewide Diocese to come to trial, focuses on a 40-year-old former altar boy's claim that a parish priest at Christ the King church in Burlington abused him dozens of times over a two-year period and that the Diocese bears responsibility because it knew of molestation allegations against the Rev. Edward Paquette before employing him and moved him from parish to parish as more claims surfaced afterward.
The Diocese ignored a recommendation that Paquette be assigned somewhere where he wouldn't have regular contact with children and installed him at parishes in Rutland, Montpelier and Burlington, according to plaintiff's attorney Jerome F. O'Neill.
- RCC.
ABC News,
Posted 14:38:00, May 7, 2008
AUSTRALIA -- A Catholic bishop is supporting calls for the Pope to make a public apology to Australian victims of paedophile priests.
Several sexual abuse victims in the New South Wales Hunter Valley are demanding Pope Benedict make an apology when he visits Sydney for World Youth Day in July.
Some of the victims are keen to meet the Pope personally.
The Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Michael Malone, says the Pope has set a precedent by apologising to American victims of paedophile priests.
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Wed May 07, 2008
• Lapses in incest case: Minister.
[Fritzl 24yrs raping, kidnap, false imprisonment: No religion link reported.]
Lapses in incest case: Minister
The West Australian,
www.thewest. com.au ,
p 35, Thursday, May 8, 2008
VIENNA – The Austrian Government admitted for the first time yesterday to lapses in a probe into the disappearance of a woman kept prisoner and raped by her father for 24 years in a windowless dungeon.
Josef Fritzl, 73, who has admitted subjecting his daughter Elisabeth to years of sexual abuse in a bunker under the family home in Amstetten in eastern Austria. A prosecutor is due to begin questioning him.
Elisabeth Fritzl, now 42, bore seven children to her father who had told authorities at the time that she had run away at 19 to join a religious sect.
"I consider that there was a certain credulity (on the part of the authorities), particularly concerning the story of the sect by which the suspect explained the disappearance of his daughter," Justice Minister Maria Berger was quoted as saying in the Standard newspaper yesterday. "Today it would certainly be examined more closely."
It was the first time that authorities had conceded any shortcomings in the grim case that has shocked the nation.
Fritzl had been convicted of rape in 1967 and spent 18 months in jail.
But authorities did not examine his criminal record when he later adopted three of the children he fathered with Elisabeth, pretending that she had left them on the doorstep, according to press reports.
Fritzl was an "extreme pervert" who scared prostitutes with his controlling ways, the Osterreich newspaper reported a brothel barman as saying.
Fritzl was in the top "2 per cent" of deviants who visited a brothel in the city and often would be turned away by the women who worked there, the barman in Linz claimed.
The man, identified only as Christoph R, told the paper: "I have been working there for over six years and Fritzl was always a regular. He was bossy with everyone. He was treating the girls with champagne, but after some time he would start behaving like a teacher in school and say things like 'Sit up' or 'Don't use that language'.
"Ninety-five per cent of the guests are normal and three per cent are somewhat volatile. But Fritzl belonged to the two per cent of extreme perverts, who are nothing but mentally ill."
MPs were due to debate yesterday stricter punishments for sex offenders and making their criminal records available to social services because Fritzl was allowed to adopt three of the children by claiming they were his grandchildren. In Austria, records on sex offences become outdated after 15 years.
[RECAPITULATION: Fritzl had been convicted of rape in 1967 and spent 18 months in jail. […] In Austria, records on sex offences become outdated after 15 years.
ENDS.]
[COMMENT: Now, I wonder how come that Western Australia has a similar silly law to "quench" some convictions, passed under the WA Inc Premier Brian Burke? Where DO they get these ideas?
COMMENT ENDS.]
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#lapses_in_incest
[May 8, 2008]
• Sect leader charged with sex crimes.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - "The Lord Our Righteousness Church." 3 girls.
Sect leader charged with sex crimes
The West Australian,
www.thewest. com.au ,
by AUTHOR, p 35, Thursday, May 8, 2008
NEW YORK – A US doomsday sect leader has been arrested on sex charges.
New Mexico police charged Wayne Bent with three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and three of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
They did not say whether the charges were related to the recent removal of three children – two girls and a boy, all under 18 – from a compound in an area near the Colorado border.
Mr Bent, 66, also known as Michael Travesser, claims to be the Messiah and leads The Lord Our Righteousness Church, which moved to the site in 2000.
He was arrested on Tuesday at the former ranch where he and followers live.
A church website posting, attributed to Mr Bent's son, Jeff, said his father was arrested on "false charges".
Mr Bent has admitted having sex with followers – including his daughter-in-law – and lying naked with virgins.
But he has denied sexually abusing children or adults at the community, which his followers call Strong City.
A former sect member has estimated about 50 people live in the compound.
Mr Bent, who predicted the world would end last October 31, accused the State of kidnapping the children. #
[RECAPITULATION: Mr Bent, 66, also known as Michael Travesser, claims to be the Messiah […]
Mr Bent … predicted the world would end last October 31 …
ENDS.]
[COMMENT: "Only in America"? No, check on this webpage to read about the Bethel cult in Western Australia, whose leader allegedly said: "I am the oracle, so to speak, and all knowledge comes through me." Or do an internet search for the Australian "Little Pebble" cult -- and there is/was another elsewhere in the world. There's one born every minute! Most such leaders have non-standard sexual habits, it seems.
COMMENT ENDS.]
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#sect_leader_charged
[May 8, 2008]
• Officer in court over sex photos.
[~ 2008 Det-Sgt Curran] - No religion link reported.
Officer in court over sex photos
The West Australian,
www.thewest. com.au ,
by PHILIPPA PERRY, p 51, Thursday, May 8, 2008
PERTH, W. Australia –
A Warwick police officer who allegedly recorded himself having sex with a woman and emailed the photos to other people without her consent, appeared in court yesterday.
Det-Sgt John Lawrence Curran, 45, has been charged as part of a Corruption and Crime Commission investigation into allegations he misused his position in dealings with women.
Sgt Curran faces one count of corruption, two of playing a police video record of interview to an unauthorised person, two counts of taking photographs of a private activity without consent and two of communicating records of private activity without consent.
CCC lawyer Brett Tooker told Perth Magistrate's Court the accused used an optical surveillance device to record himself engaged in sexual activity with the woman.
Sgt Curran was not required to plead to the charges and was remanded to appear again on May 28.
Magistrate Peter Malone granted him a $20,000 personal bail with a $10,000 surety on the condition he did not contact three witnesses, not attend police premises and not access^ police computer systems.
A police spokesman said Sgt Curran had been stood down from duty with full pay pending the outcome of the investigation.
A CCC spokesman urged women who had had dealings with Sgt Curran to contact the CCC. #
[COMMENT: Note that his rank is Detective-Sergeant. That is, not only is he supposedly cleverer than run-of-the-mill police, and so was promoted to be a detective, he was then promoted to be a leader of detectives. And yet he evidently thought that taping, and then disseminating, his lovemaking, could be done safely. Doesn't he listen to or read the news about worldwide networking of police forces, leading to the exposure of many similar people?
COMMENT ENDS.]
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#officer_in_court
[May 8, 08]
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[~ 2008 Fereday -NEW*] - Church of England. Making child porn, etc.
The Star,
www.thestar. co.uk/news/ Vicar-on- child-porn- charges. 4061949.jp ,
By Amy Burns, May 08, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM -- A SOUTH Yorkshire vicar has been charged with 17 child porn offences, including making and possessing indecent images of children.
Rev Adrian Fereday, aged 50, serves the Rotherham parishes of Firbeck and Woodsetts, as well as Letwell near Worksop, and is believed to live in the Letwell area.
He has been charged with 16 counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing indecent images of children.
[~ 1990s Baird - ? NEW*] - "Covenant Church". Boys.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
PITTSBURGH (PA) -- Testimony began yesterday for a former youth minister charged with sexually assaulting three boys under his tutelage.
A jury was sworn in yesterday morning, and testimony began in the afternoon in the case against the Rev. David Baird, 45, of West Deer.
He faces more than 20 charges, including statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person under age 16, sexual assault, indecent assault, indecent assault of a person under 16 and indecent exposure.
Mr. Baird was youth minister at Covenant Church of Pittsburgh in Wilkinsburg in 1999 when an East Hills boy, the first to file a complaint, was recruited to participate in programs.
[? 1980s David Taylor -NEW*] - RCC. Child.
Peterlee Mail,
~ May 08, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM -- A CATHOLIC priest who served in St John's Church, in Billingham, has been arrested as part of an investigation into child abuse claims.
Father David Taylor, who has served in parishes across North East England, has been questioned by Durham Constabulary in connection with what it has called an "historic child abuse allegation".
Fr Taylor was removed from his church of St Peter's, in Low Fell, at the end of February as the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle investigated his past.
Although no arrest was made at the time, authorities said they were liaising with officers from Durham.
[2004-05 Ward* (Precious Blood Society)] - RCC. "Godtalk" ex-priest admits one porn charge.
KGO,
with video, By Dan Noyes, ~ May 08, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (CA), (KGO) -- As expected, former KGO Radio talk show host Bernie Ward pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of distributing child pornography. Ward did not comment as he left the federal courthouse in San Francisco Thursday afternoon, but he did, though, admit to a judge that he sent a sexually-explicit image of a child over the Internet. After his arrest in December, Ward claimed he was researching a book.
The judge agreed to hold off on accepting Ward's plea until his sentencing in August. That's so Ward can attend his son's high school graduation. He faces a minimum of five-years in federal prison.
The ABC7 I-Team has been following this case and exploring Ward's time as a Catholic priest.
It's the same old story -- Catholic priest gets in trouble for complaints of sexual activity with minors. Only this time, it's Bernie Ward. …
The I-Team has been able to confirm two sexual misconduct complaints against Ward when he was a priest. First, Rosanne Schwab. Father Bernie got her parents' approval to take her to the beach for a day when she was 17.
…
We don't know for sure if Ward left the priesthood on his own or was forced out. He served under the Society of the Precious Blood and officials at the headquarters in Ohio tell us they checked Ward's file and found no information about sexual misconduct.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 8, 2008
6:35 PM]
[2004-05 Ward* (Precious Blood Society)] - RCC. "Godtalk" ex-priest admits one porn charge.
KGO,
~ May 08, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (CA), (KGO) -- Former KGO Radio talk show host, Bernie Ward, pleaded guilty this afternoon to one count of distribution of child pornography.
"I engaged in exchanging an image of a minor engaging in sexually explicit activity," said Ward.
Ward will later have to report to the probation department, which will prepare a pre-sentencing report. He'll have to return to court for sentencing at a later date.
[2004-05 Ward* (Precious Blood Society)] - RCC. "Godtalk" ex-priest admits one porn charge.
San Francisco Chronicle,
by Bob Egelko, 15:02 PDT, May 08, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) -- Bernie Ward, a prominent radio talk show host and reporter in the Bay Area for more than two decades, admitted today to distributing child pornography in a plea deal that will send him to federal prison for at least five years.
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker was prepared to accept Ward's guilty plea at a hearing in San Francisco to one count of distributing child pornography, but agreed to hold off at the request of Ward's attorney, Doron Weinberg. Had the guilty plea been officially submitted today, Ward could have been sent to prison immediately.
Instead, Ward is to be sentenced Aug. 28. Weinberg said federal prosecutors intend to ask Walker to send the former talk show host to prison for nine years. Under federal law, the minimum term Ward could receive is five years.
WBZ
~ May 08, 2008
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A support group for people who were sexually abused by Catholic clergy is launching an ad campaign to reach out to victims.
The Maine director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said Thursday that the group will run ads in the Maine Sunday Telegram and other newspapers urging victims to step forward so they can receive help.
[Hanley] - RCC.
The Star-Ledger
by Jeff Diamant / 5:14 PM, Thursday May 08, 2008,
NEW JERSEY -- James Hanley, the former Catholic priest at the center of New Jersey's worst clergy sex abuse case, pleaded guilty today to a bail-jumping charge stemming from a missed December court date in an assault case.
The guilty plea, in state Superior Court in Jersey City, could lead to an end to the case that originated in assault charges against Hanley after a March 2006 incident at a Secaucus motel.
Hanley pleaded guilty last October in that case, to the reduced charge of unlawful possession of a weapon. He admitted using an aluminum bat to intimidate three employees at the Extended Stay Hotel.
[2004-05 Ward* (Precious Blood Society)] - RCC. "Godtalk" ex-priest admits one porn charge.
NBC 11
~ May 08, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) -- Former KGO radio talk show host Bernie Ward, who pleaded not guilty to distributing and receiving child pornography in December change that plea Thursday in court.
Ward pleaded guilty to charges that he distrubted child pornography.
The former host appeared in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Thursday to change his please one month before the case was scheduled to go to trial, the newspaper said. …
Ward, a former Catholic priest who is married and has four children, previously hosted a nighttime 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. show Monday through Friday and a Sunday morning show called Godtalk on KGO.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - "The Lord Our Righteousness Church." 3 girls.
NECN,
~ May 08, 2008
[with video]
NEW MEXICO, (NECN/ABC) - The leader of the Strong City Cult, Wayne Bent, is behind bars and now, for the first time, his son is speaking out for the Lord Our Righteousness Church. The compound for the cult is in a remote New Mexico area near the Colorado border.
"For him personally, jail is not a big deal. But what's weighing heavily on him right now are the false accusations."
Jeff Bent says his father did not molest three children living at the church compound near the New Mexico/Colorado border.
"I know my dad very well. He has no drawings or natural inclinations that way. It's something that God gave him to do, when he would touch the person on their heart. When they would ask to lay naked on his bed, that was something that he would only do by their request and by God's command…not because it was something he wanted to do."
[Jeffs]
Meadville Tribune
By Stephen Dick
THE HERALD BULLETIN, ~ May 08, 2008
ANDERSON, Ind., UNITED STATES – The raid on the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado, Texas, that liberated 400 children from a life of abuse a few weeks ago was just the latest in a sorry history of messianic cults in the land of the free.
The sect's leader, Warren Jeffs, is in prison for raping children. With him gone there was apparently no leader, but also no shortage of men to keep the outfit and its philosophy going. It was a 911 call that brought police to the compound. Presumably made by a 16-year-old girl in the compound, no one has identified the caller and some speculate the call might have been bogus. Still, the call accomplished what it intended – to bust up a sect where men enjoyed the sexual services of numerous women and children, including boys.
The compound was part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of Mormonism that believes in polygamy and practices it. Mormons outlawed polygamy more than century ago, but radical sects, like the one run by Jeffs, kept it going because the men loved the power and variety of partners.
All of these sects have one thing in common: sex. That's all they are about, and the leaders use religion and fear to keep the women and children in place. Think of David Koresh who ran the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. He was using the Lord to gain as many sexual partners as possible. He read in the Bible about a woman with no breasts and concluded he had to have sex with a 12-year-old girl.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - "The Lord Our Righteousness Church." 3 girls.
KDBC
2:05 PM ET
Associated Press - May 8, 2008
CLAYTON, N.M. (AP) - A judge has rejected a request by a self-described Messiah accused of sex crimes against minors to be released on his own recognizance.
Union County Magistrate Ilene Taylor cut 66-year-old Wayne Bent's bond from $500,000 to $50,000.
Bent says he doesn't have any money to pay for an attorney, so he's been assigned a public defender, who tried to enter a plea of not guilty.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - "The Lord Our Righteousness Church." 3 girls.
Radar
~ May 08, 2008
[with video]
NEW MEXICO -- If it wasn't clear before now that starting a cult, moving to the desert, and claiming to be the son of God was just the long way to get young chicks to get nekkid with you well past your prime, it is now. Last night, the National Geographic Channel aired its documentary on the Lord Our Righteousness Church and it's self-proclaimed prophet (and physical hybrid of Chuck Manson and Kris Kristofferson) Wayne Bent, aka Michael Travesser. (Jezebel has obsessive footage and roundups on this case.)
"Nakedness is another symbol of our relationship with God," Bent says. "We are naked and unashamed." He posted messages to his followers suggesting it was the way get right with the Lord and, by the way, he was next best thing to the Big Guy (Neil Strauss never negged like this!)
Young women in the cult read between the lines and came to him to lie naked. "God came down on them and told them to do it." Authorites have doubts. Bent was arrested Tuesday on three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after allegedly touching three underage girls in his New Mexico compound, Strong City. The youngest of the girls was 12.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - "The Lord Our Righteousness Church." 3 girls.
ABC 13,
15:56 EDT, May 08, 2008
CLAYTON, N.M. (AP) -- A New Mexico judge has reduced the bond set for the leader of an apocalyptic sect.
Wayne Bent is accused of sex crimes against minors.
A county magistrate cut Bent's bond from half a-million dollars to $50,000, but rejected his request to be released on his own recognizance. Bent has been returned to jail, where authorities say he has refused to eat or drink since his arrest two days ago.
Bent goes by the name of Michael Travesser and claims to be the Messiah. He is accused of touching three underage female followers when the lay naked with him. One of the girls was 12 at the time.
- RCC.
Herald Sun
for May 09, 2008
AUSTRALIA -- NEWS that the Pope may apologise to Australians who were sexually and physically abused by Catholic priests is welcome.
Church sources believe Pope Benedict will make the apology during his visit to Sydney in July for World Youth Day festivities.
Such a gesture would be timely, coming after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's historic apology to our indigenous citizens.
The Parliament's acknowledgment of past sins against Aborigines set a new course on the path to reconciliation.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Burlington Free Press
May 8, 2008
VERMONT -- A former Burlington altar boy testified today that abuse by a parish priest 30 years ago has left him "a very angry man."
The plaintiff's testimony came on the fourth day of a trial at Chittenden County Superior Court in a civil suit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington.
The man, a 40-year-old Burlington native now living in Colorado, said he never complained to anyone about the abuse by former Rev. Edward Paquette because he believed that priests were the next thing to God and his way to heaven.
[González Rios]
The Oregonian,
The Associated Press, 9:05 a.m., PDT May/8/2008
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) – A federal immigration judge has decided a former seminarian charged with viewing child pornography can be released to face charges in Oregon.
Juan Jose Gonzalez Rios was charged in March with viewing child pornography while studying to be a priest in Oregon. He is set to be arraigned on those charges on June 5.
A native of Jalisco, Mexico, Gonzalez emigrated to the United States more than 15 years ago. He was working at the St. Peter Retreat Center in Cowiche under a religious visa, but it expired in 2005.
- RCC.
NEWS.com
02:04am
May 09, 2008
AUSTRALIA -- VICTIMS' rights groups have outlined plans to protest the Catholic Church's handling of sex abuse cases at this year's World Youth Day festival.
Their comments came as pressure mounted on Pope Benedict XVI to repeat an apology to abuse victims, which he made in New York recently.
The Pope will arrive in Sydney in July along with up to 125,000 overseas pilgrims.
While Maitland-Newcastle Bishop Michael Malone has said he would "be supportive" of a papal apology, World Youth Day director of liturgy Father Peter Williams yesterday said it was impossible to know whether one would be forthcoming while the Pope was in Australia.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
The Boston Globe,
May 8, 2008
BURLINGTON, Vt.–A former altar boy suing the Diocese of Burlington over sexual abuse he says he suffered at the hands of a priest says he never reported it because he believed that priests were the next thing to God.
Taking the stand in his civil suit filed in 2005, the 40-year-old Lakewood, Colo., man described for jurors the way he says Father Edward Paquette would give him and other altar boys "pony rides," groping them and pressing them against his genitals.
The man, a Burlington native who attended Christ the King school, says the church was negligent in not protecting him from Paquette, who, according to documents introduced in the trial, was a known child molester before he was hired by the Diocese.
- FLDS.
San Angelo Live
~ May 08, 2008
ELDORADO (TX) -- Randy Mankin says the last thing he could imagine is having throngs of corporate media descend on his little town of 3,000 inhabitants, chasing the story about the ongoing tragedy at the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) compound just north of town. When Mankin's newspaper, The Eldorado Success, first broke the news in 2004 that the polygamist cult was building a large, self-sustaining village in their midst, no one outside of Eldorado seemed to care.
But in April 2008, when Texas Child Protective Services, the Texas Rangers, and legions of SWAT teams, the local sheriff, and even an armored personnel carrier borrowed from Midland County Sheriffs' Department swarmed the compound to rescue 462 children from the FLDS compound, every media person wanted to be Mankin's best friend.
He was the man with the background and the story. "Well actually, my wife Kathy is the biggest expert on these people," Mankin says. Kathy is. She has everything, from pictures to facts, and articles searchable on her personal computer. Ask her about any character in this sordid mess and she'll let you know everything about them.
Randy has a degree in political science from Texas Tech. "So I could go back into the oil fields after I graduated on the eight-year plan," he jokes. But with an eye for news and the writing ability to report it, he and Kathy purchased Eldorado's only newspaper in 1994. In 2005, they added the Big Lake Wildcat newspaper to their portfolio.
- RCC.
PollieGraph
By Mark Bahnisch, ~ May 08, 2008
AUSTRALIA -- The Pope had a lot to say about sexual abuse when he was in America recently.
It's now being reported that there's "pressure" on him to repeat his apology to victims specifically in the Australian context, when he's out here for World Youth Day.
I have no doubt Benedict will, and I suspect the pressure in this instance isn't needed.
While an apology promotes healing for individuals directly damaged by clerical sexual abuse, it doesn't address the broader problem, and nor do the protocols the church now has in place for dealing with complaints and reparations, welcome as they are.
What should be quite familiar to Benedict is the concept of "structural sin" - something originating in liberation theology which he in his incarnation as Cardinal Ratzinger acknowledged as a valid manifestation of human evil and wickedness, even as he disagreed with the political and some of the theological overtones of liberation theology as theorised and practiced in Latin America (and in - significantly - Germany).
- General community.
Catholic News Agency
01:47 pm / May 7, 2008
BRASILIA, Brazil (CNA).- Two bishops in northern Brazil have denounced the increase in human trafficking and said that authorities have not been able to prevent pedophilia and the sexual exploitation of minors.
Bishop Flavio Giovenale of Abaetetuba and Bishop Jose Luiz Azcona of Marajo met with human rights leaders in Brasilia to warn them of the critical situation in the Amazonian state of Para.
Bishop Azcona said he denounced human trafficking and pedophilia two months ago to Brazilian officials but "so far I have not received any response."
- RCC archbishop versus the Rev Tom Doyle.
Voice from the Desert,
by Thomas P. Doyle, J.C.D., C.A.D.C.;
~ May 08, 2008
I. Background
ST. LOUIS (MO) -- I believe it is necessary that I present a response to Archbishop Burke's "extrajudicial decree" which was published in the Catholic paper in St. Louis. In doing so I will not get into detail about the various canonical issues involved. I do not intend this response to be part of any form of debate with the archbishop or the archdiocese nor do I intend it to be a personal attack on him.
I was approached in 2006 by members of the Board of Directors of St. Stanislaus Parish in St. Louis and asked to serve as their canonical advisor. At that time I learned that Archbishop Raymond Burke had imposed the canonical penalty of interdict on board members. Several months later he declared that they had been automatically excommunicated. I assisted the board members in preparing their appeals from these penalties, using the procedures provided by the Code of Canon Law.
After first appealing to the archbishop to amend his decrees, the board then directed their appeal to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. I cannot serve as their appointed advocate before this Vatican congregation because their procedural rules require that any advocate be first accredited to the Congregation and also, that the advocate reside in Rome. However I have continued to act as advocate on the local level and have assisted the board members in preparing the various documents required.
The core issue has been the refusal of the board of St. Stanislaus, acting according to the wishes of the majority of parish members, to transfer ownership of the parish properties and other material resources to the archbishop. At the end of the 19th century Archbishop Kenrick gave direct ownership to the parish. This arrangement worked well until the present archbishop insisted that the board turn these resources over to him. …
The "penalty" which he imposed on me means nothing to me and has no effect on my relationship with the board members or pastor of St. Stanislaus. No one from St. Stanislaus has a case before the St. Louis tribunal. Although Archbishop Burke has excluded me from formal advocacy, I will continue to support the people of St. Stanislaus, the members of the board and Fr. Bozek and will continue to act as their canonical advisor. Secondly, I never accepted any payment from Mrs. Krauze or Mr. Rozanski. No payment was requested or expected.
[COMMENT: Remember, a few other U.S. bishops in the RCC are transferring assets TO THE PARISHES. (It is thought this is a misguided attempt to avoid having to pay huge sums in compensation to the survivors of clergy child seduction and abuse.) One judge, hearing the claims, approved the move, but added that the compensation would come out of the parishes if the bishop could not pay! To expect any man-made organisation to be completely united and logical is, it seems, expect too much. ENDS.]
[2006 Edmonds] - Apostolic Church. Girl.
West Virginia Record
By Lawrence Smith - Kanawha Bureau
7:30 AM
May/8/2008
CHARLESTON (WV) -- An apparent settlement has been reached in the sexual abuse civil case brought by a Hernshaw couple against a Chesapeake Pentecostal church, and one of its alleged youth pastors.
On April 29, a mediation hearing was held in the case of James and Debbie Green v. Chesapeake Apostolic Church, the Upper Kanawha Valley Christian School and Timothy C. Edmonds. The session occurred at the law offices of Jackson Kelly, which is representing the church and the school, with Charleston attorney Robert Allen serving as mediator.
According to their suit, the Greens allege that Edmonds sexually abused their then-16-year old daughter in 2006. The alleged abuse occurred "both at Chesapeake Apostolic Church building proper and at a house located at 11937 MacCorkle Ave."
[Decades - Marciel Maciel-Degollado] - RCC. Seminarians.
Voice from the Desert
by William Cleary, ~ May 08, 2008
Author Jason Berry has just produced a film on DVD, available for purchase and public use entitled Vows of Silence on the life of the late Marciel Maciel-Degollado. This one-hour production documents how a gifted but deeply troubled Mexican boy a hundred years ago, though observed in compromising actions early in life, how this boy through his gifts of immense cleverness with individuals and officials rose in the Church to be an intimate friend and lunch companion of the pope, a favorite consultant with Cardinals, a founder of a religious order, and one of the church's most successful fund raisers in history, building churches, seminaries, shrines and schools throughout the world.
The documentary is roughly based on the book "Vows of Silence," written by Jason Berry and religion reporter Gerald Renner of the Hartford Courant. Both Berry and Renner began writing about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in the 1980s, and are interviewed in the film.
In 1992, Berry published "Lead Us Not Into Temptation," a book about a priest in Louisiana guilty of widespread sexual abuse.
The new documentary chronicles the life of Rev. Maciel from youth to death, along with the stories of those many men who claim he abused them, then absolved their "sin," all vowed to silence. It ends with the 2006 communiqué from the Vatican that formally finished the investigation into claims of sexual abuse by Maciel, but also ended Maciel's career.
- FDLS.
Crime Scene KC
~ May 08, 2008
UNITED STATES -- Great post here from the CrimeRant blog, via guest blogger Stephen Singular, who wrote a book about Warren Jeffs, "WHEN MEN BECOME GODS."
One answer is, FLDS men are highly industrious and very successful in the construction business. They have numerous companies spread across the Southwest, which until recently has seen a building boom, and their earnings are funneled back into the church and its leadership. The sect excels at underbidding other construction outfits, because it employs boys from its own community without having to pay them much–or nothing at all. Some have called this "slave labor." The FLDS has undercut its competition not just in the private marketplace, but also in government contracts.
Many men in the sect have been officially married to one wife, but might have a dozen or more unofficial "spiritual wives" who could qualify for welfare payments–another way to drain money from the government. The sect calls this tactic "bleeding the beast."
- "Integrity" priest Msgr. Breslin dies.
Voice from the Desert,
~ May 08, 2008
OHIO -- A message from Kristine Ward, the chair of the Survivors Support Working Group of Voice of the Faithful (VOTF), received via email.
Monsignor Lawrence Breslin, who was nationally recognized as a Priest of Integrity by Voice of the Faithful at its 2005 convocation, died Tuesday, April 29, 2008, the feast of St. Catherine of Siena.
Voice of the Faithful, Dayton Affiliate and the National Survivor Support Working Group are profoundly grateful for Monsignor Breslin's life.
-RCC. Book description.
Voice from the Desert
From an email received from author Timothy D. Lytton, May.6.2008.
UNITED STATES -- Holding Bishops Accountable: How Lawsuits Helped the Catholic Church Confront Clergy Sexual Abuse is published by Harvard University Press.
The sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy is arguably the most acute crisis Catholicism has faced since the Reformation. The prevalence of clergy sexual abuse and its shocking cover-up by church officials have obscured the largely untold story of the tort system's remarkable success in bringing the scandal to light, focusing attention on the need for institutional reform, and spurring church leaders and public officials into action.
Stories of the tort system as an engine of social justice are rare. Holding Bishops Accountable tells one such story by revealing how pleadings, discovery documents, and depositions fueled media coverage of the scandal. Timothy Lytton shows how the litigation strategy of plaintiffs' lawyers gave rise to a widespread belief that the real problem was not the actions of individual priests but rather the church's massive institutional failure. The book documents how church and government policymakers responded to the problem of clergy sexual abuse only under the pressure of private lawsuits.
As Lytton deftly demonstrates, the lessons of clergy sexual abuse litigation give us reason to reconsider the case for tort reform and to look more closely at how tort litigation can enhance the performance of public and private policymaking institutions.
[2005 Gillespie*] - RCC. Asked lady and girl (12) for oral sex.
Voice from the Desert
~ May 08, 2008
BOSTON (MA) -- My Maine friend Paul Kendrick brought a recent (4.28.2008) VOTF press release to my attention. The release is about VOTF's position on Fr. Jerome Gillespie. The Boston Globe reported that Gillespie is to return to parish work in the Archdiocese of Boston, after a court dismissed charges that he drunkenly propositioned a 12-year-old girl and her mother for oral sex in a Boston area restaurant three years ago.
I was struck by the tepid press release from VOTF. VOTF could not find the voice to say that Fr. Gillespie allegedly offered to pay a 12-year-old girl and her mother for oral sex. Is a priest soliciting a 12-year-old girl for oral sex too much of a gritty reality for VOTF? Are they afraid that people will object to certain language?
- RCs oppose church closings.
The Times-Picayune,
By Bruce Nolan, Thursday, May 08, 2008
NEW ORLEANS (LA) -- About two dozen parishioners from five Catholic parishes scheduled to be closed within the year held their first organizational meeting Wednesday and emerged vowing to resist the Archdiocese of New Orleans' closure plans.
"We are going forward, to keep our parishes viable and visible," said Alden Hagardorn, an investment banker and member of St. Henry Parish in Uptown New Orleans.
St. Henry's and neighboring Our Lady of Good Counsel weeks ago emerged as pockets of resistance to the archdiocese's plans to close, merge or cluster 33 metro area Catholic parishes following the damage of Hurricane Katrina.
[ADVICE from the Webmaster: Don't waste your time or money fighting the closures. Quietly cease donating and attending. If your parish church, school, etc., is closing, take that as a sign from Divine Providence. The bishops who sent you predatory seducing priests, brothers, etc., did NOT believe that they were imperilling the immortals souls of you and your children.
They have "lost the mandate of Heaven," as the phrase goes in Imperial Chinese history. ENDS.]
- Another RC church to close.
USA Today,
By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY, ~ May 08, 2008
NEW ORLEANS (LA) – The faithful of Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church are not leaving quietly.
Told last month that their 121-year-old church may close as part of a massive post-Katrina reorganization of Catholic churches, Good Counsel parishioners are writing letters, filing appeals and threatening lawsuits.
"Since Katrina, our government has failed us, our levees have failed us, and now our bishop is failing us," said Cheron Brylski, 49, a Good Counsel parishioner leading the fight to keep the church open. "It's really disturbing and heartbreaking for us."
[Prante] - Lutherans - Is there something in the water?
New York Post
By MATTHEW NESTEL and DAN MANGAN
May 7, 2008
NEW YORK -- Outraged parishioners have abandoned a Manhattan Lutheran church - after their pastor vowed to keep a convicted kiddie-porn collector on staff.
"The families were horrified," said Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge John Wilson, who attended St. Peter's Church at the Citicorp Center in Midtown with his wife and young son until learning last October that its receptionist was a registered sex offender. "It's truly disappointing that someone in a position of authority would think so little of protecting children."
But the Rev. Amandus Derr said that by keeping William Prante on the job, the church is fulfilling its Christian mission of rehabilitating sinners, while protecting kids by barring Prante from being alone in St. Peter's with anyone else.
- Sr Monica of America, now known as Sr Carmel Spratt of Australia.
Albany Times Union,
By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer, First published: Thursday, May 8, 2008
NEW YORK -- In 1963, as a third-grader at Holy Spirit School in East Greenbush, Kevin McKrell first encountered Sister Monica, "a flash and a blur of starched white habit."
This Irish nun with a thick brogue instructed him in the mysteries of receiving First Holy Communion one day and smacked his wrist with a ruler or boxed his ears the next. …
On Friday night, McKrell will meet Sister Monica for the first time in four decades. He'll be joined by alumni from Holy Spirit School at the Parting Glass, the Irish pub in Saratoga Springs, where McKrell will perform with his daughter, Katie, and his band, the McKrells. About 150 people have purchased tickets, a capacity crowd.
The Parting Glass show and a reception Sunday after Mass at the Holy Spirit School gym morphed into a fundraiser for the beloved elementary school teacher, who now goes by her given name, Sister Carmel Spratt, and lives in Australia. Her ministry is assisting women and children to break free from the enslavement of human trafficking for the sex trade.
[? 1980s David Taylor*] - RCC. Child.
The Northern Echo,
By Marjorie McIntyre, ~ May 08, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM -- A ROMAN Catholic priest who has served in parishes across the North-East has been arrested after an allegation of child abuse.
Father David Taylor, who was attached to a County Durham Catholic Mission for eight years during the Eighties, was arrested by Seaham police last Friday.
Parishioners were left shocked when their priest was removed from his post at St Peter's Church, in Low Fell, Gateshead, by the Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle in March.
[2004-05 Ward* (Precious Blood Society)] - RCC. "Godtalk" ex-priest child porn.
San Jose Mercury News,
Bay City News Service, Article Launched 10:02:03 PM PDT,
May/07/2008
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) -- Former radio talk show host Bernie Ward is expected to enter a change of plea to Internet child pornography charges at a federal court hearing in San Francisco on Thursday, according to his lawyer.
Defense attorney Doron Weinberg confirmed Wednesday that Ward, 57, is expected to change his previous not-guilty plea at the session before U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker.
But Weinberg declined to say to which charges Ward will plead and whether he will plead guilty or no contest.
[? 1980s David Taylor*] - RCC. Child.
BBC News,
~ May 08, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM -- A 59-year-old Roman Catholic priest has been arrested over an allegation of child abuse dating back to the 1980s.
Father David Taylor, who was attached to the Sisters of Mercy Mission in Seaham Harbour from 1981 to 1989, was arrested by Durham Police on 3 May.
He was removed from his post at St Peter's Church, in Low Fell, Gateshead, in March by the Catholic diocese.
Police said the allegation was "historic." Father Taylor has been bailed pending further inquiries.
- RCC (Salesians). > 500 children.
City of Angels
By Kay Ebeling, ~ May 08, 2008
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Jury selection could be complete as early as Thursday afternoon, according to a source in the first Salesian cases trial, which will be the first time a case concerning pedophile priests has gone before a jury in Los Angeles. Opening statements could start as early as Monday May 12th.
Monday of last week when jury selection began, jurors who could not afford to serve for a 5 to 6 week trial made their cases to Judge Emilie Elias. Since then, the task has been finding jurors who have not heard too much about the settlements between the Los Angeles Archdiocese and more than five hundred plaintiffs last July.
Apparently they have run into no serious problems, and opening statements will likely begin early next week.
[COMMENT: Isn't the usual trick to let things get this far, and then suddenly offer money and hope that the settlement will keep it out of court -- and the news media?
ENDS.]
- RCC. Book DVD viewing.
St. Petersburg Times
~ May 08, 2008
BRANDON (FL) -- Our Lady of Guadalupe, 16650 South Highway 301 in Wimauma, hosts a Voice of the Faithful meeting at 1:30 p.m. Monday. The meeting features a DVD and book review of Vows of Silence, The Arrogance of Power and a discussion about the pope's recent U.S. visit. Call 633-2384.
[? 1980s David Taylor*] - RCC. Child.
Sunderland Echo,
By Fiona Thompson, May 08, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM -- A Catholic priest has been arrested as part of an investigation into child abuse claims.
Father David Taylor, who has previously served in Seaham and Sunderland, has been questioned by Durham Constabulary in connection with what it has called an "historic child abuse allegation".
No further details have been revealed by the force, but it has confirmed a 59-year-old man has been released on bail pending further inquiries.
[A century - Governments and Churches]
Angus Reid Global Monitor,
~ May 08, 2008
CANADA -- More Canadians believe their government should follow Australia's example and extend an apology to its Aboriginal population, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 53 per cent of respondents think an official apology is warranted, up 11 points since March.
For over 60 years and into the 1970s, the Australian government–and Catholic Church missions–forcibly removed Australia's Aboriginal children from their families and placed them in institutions or with foster families.
In 1995, a national Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission was established to look into the problems caused by the policy. A report released by the commission two years later concluded that the removal of children was a "violation of basic human rights" that amounted to genocide, because it sought to eliminate an ethnic group. The government began to work on several policies for the return of the "lost" children, as well as the reconciliation between Australians of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal origin.
[2008 Weisser*] - Baptist. Adult female.
Deseret News
~ May 08, 2008
SALT LAKE CITY (UT) -- Scott Martin Weisser, the former pastor of First Baptist Church of Salt Lake, has pleaded no contest to two criminal charges against him and has been put on probation.
Weisser, 52, originally was charged with first-degree felony attempted rape and class B misdemeanor assault in connection with a March 16 incident involving an adult female in his Midvale home.
Weisser on May 1 pleaded no contest to reduced charges of sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor, and simple assault, a class B misdemeanor.
- RCC.
The Tidings
By Teresa Kettelkamp, for May 09, 2008
UNITED STATES -- As a Catholic mother raising my children in the faith, I recoiled in horror when the sexual abuse crisis crested in the media six years ago. I was a colonel in the Illinois State Police then. Soon after, the church asked me to examine dioceses' compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the plan the bishops developed in 2002 to deal with this crisis.
I retired from law enforcement and began work as a compliance auditor, then as executive director of the bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection. My goal: To help the church recover from the sheer devastation of betrayal, pain and hurt.
Through it all, one question nagged me: Does the pope really get it? Does he understand what his brother bishops and priests have done and how much people are hurting? Does he realize how critical his leadership is right now? Is Pope Benedict the right pope for this time in the Catholic Church?
It was frustrating to learn in 2007 that only 17 percent of self-identified, active Catholics had any idea about how strongly the bishops responded, especially after 2002. It was even more frustrating to learn that when the other 83 percent were asked what should be done, they recited actions the church already had taken.
[COMMENT: The RCC has thrown dust into people's eyes, but the former Archbishop of Boston is still a Vatican counsellor to the Pope. So why wouldn't 83% be ignorant of the public-relations exercises, when no real punishment has fallen on the "panders" and "enablers"?
COMMENT ENDS.]
- RCC.
Gloucester Daily Times,
(Eileen Ford is a retired police officer who lives in Rockport),
~ May 08, 2008
MASSACHUSETTS -- I was encouraged by reports of last month's meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and survivors of clergy abuse, and pray that Benedict will take some action against the men who aided and abetted the sexual abuse of children and still remain in positions of power and honor in the Catholic church. Only Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law was forced to resign and he's now in charge of a Vatican Basilica.
I wrote to Law's successor, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, and thanked him for arranging the papal visit with survivors, reminding him that the meeting would not have happened without Law's resignation. Under O'Malley's leadership, victims, faithful parishioners and honorable priests are finally engaged in the process of healing, but many Catholics in other dioceses are still embarrassed and ashamed of their leaders.
I've been a member of the Voice of the Faithful in 2002, and have written many letters to bishops, begging them to go beyond legal concerns and treat victims with compassion. Only Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit stated publicly that the moral authority of the Catholic church will never be restored until bishops are held accountable for their role in the clergy abuse crisis. Their negligence has cost over a billion dollars so far and continues to damage the credibility of the church.
[COMMENT: Some reports say the cost has reached US$2 billion already.
COMMENT ENDS.]
- Silent Dunlop being "harassed," says wife.
Standard Freeholder,
Posted By Trevor Pritchard, ~ May 08, 2008
CANADA -- Former Cornwall cop Perry Dunlop could be slammed in the final report issued by the commissioner of the Cornwall Public Inquiry.
A document obtained Tuesday by the Standard-Freeholder shows that Dunlop - whose investigations into a suspected ring of pedophiles in the 1990s helped spark the multi-million dollar judicial probe - was served a "notice of alleged misconduct" by commission lawyers in April.
The confidential notice outlines eight areas of Dunlop's police work in which the inquiry is considering delivering findings of misconduct.
It was met with angry resolve by Dunlop's wife, Helen.
"The games are continuing. The harassment is continuing. The coercion is continuing," she said from the family's B.C. home.
[~ 1970s-80s 4yrs Daleo* (Capuchin)] - RCC. Boy.
The Daily Times,
By Randall Chase, Associated Press Writer, ~ May 08, 2008
DOVER (DE) – A New Castle County man filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming that he was sexually abused as a child by a Franciscan priest.
Matthias C. Conaty claims in the Superior Court lawsuit that the Rev. Paul L. Daleo abused him while Conaty was a student at Saint Edmond's Academy, a Catholic boys school in Wilmington.
The lawsuit claims church officials knew Daleo was pedophile but failed to protect Conaty and other children from him or disclose Daleo's behavior to students, their families and law enforcement officials.
"Instead, defendants ignored and/or covered up the sexual abuse of plaintiff and others by Father Daleo that had already occurred," states the complaint, which accuses church officials of engaging in a "conspiracy of silence."
[1950s, 1963 & 1972-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Burlington Free Press
By Sam Hemingway, May 7, 2008
VERMONT -- A bishop for the Indiana Roman Catholic diocese where the Rev. Edward Paquette was in trouble for molesting boys in 1972 pleaded with the bishop of Vermont's diocese to give Paquette a job, according to an internal church document.
"I begged Bishop (John) Marshall to give Father Paquette a chance," said a portion of the April 27, 1972, note written by Bishop Leo Pursley of the Fort Wayne, Ind., diocese. Marshall was then bishop of the Vermont diocese.
Pursley's remark was contained in a previously confidential Indiana church document that lawyers for the Vermont diocese Wednesday displayed to a Chittenden County Superior Court jury hearing evidence in a case of a former Burlington altar boy who alleges Paquette molested him in 1978.
The former altar boy contends Paquette groped him between 40 and 100 times in the sacristy at Christ the King Church in Burlington in the late 1970s. The sacristy was a room located next to the altar at the church.
- Rotten meat, heads banged, imprisoned, kerosene shampoos.
Canada.com
by Darren Bernhardt , TheStarPhoenix.com
Published: Wednesday, May 07, 2008
CANADA -- The rancid smell of infected wounds and the taste of bread baked with the blood of slaughtered cattle still haunt the senses of former students of a church-run residential school in northern Saskatchewan.
"I can never get over it. I've gone for counselling but it's no use, I'm too old and it's been a part of me for so long," said Georgina Iron, who attended the school in Ile-a-la-Crosse from 1949 to 1956. "There's a lot of pain."
Former students say there were pencils jammed into ears, skin pinched and heads banged against wooden benches, and students locked in closets.
Fed rotting meat, old vegetables and porridge so watered down it was transparent, the students also had their hair doused in kerosene whenever they returned from a home visit in case they had picked up lice.
- RCC slow to defrock seducers.
The Star-Ledger
BY JEFF DIAMANT Thursday, May 08, 2008
NEW JERSEY -- Newark Archbishop John J. Myers, recently named to the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, said the papal advisory committee of cardinals and bishops could help resolve a key issue in the clergy sex abuse crisis -- how to remove priests from ministry who abused children decades ago.
Under the Code of Canon Law, the set of rules that govern the church, the statute of limitation for clergy sex abuse of minors expires 10 years after the victim's 18th birthday. In older cases, a bishop can ask the Vatican to bypass that rule, but Myers said he wants to explore ways for bishops to act in such matters without asking Rome.
One possibility for these older cases, Myers said, would be a canon law change that treats molestation and sexual abuse of minors more as an illness than as a violation requiring a penalty. This would allow a bishop to more easily deem these priests unfit for ministry, he said.
"We used to think of alcoholism as a moral failure, and now it's pretty much considered an illness," said Myers, 66. "I'm not saying that's what will happen (with clergy sex abuse of minors), but it wouldn't be impossible for us to move in that direction."
- Stories from Church-run institutions.
Montreal Gazette
By JANET BAGNALL, ~ May 08, 2008
CANADA --
Robert Joseph was 6 years old when he was taken from his home more than 60 years ago and sent to a residential school in Alert Bay. After 10 years at the school, he told the Vancouver Sun, he "staggered out of St. Mike's already a full-blown alcoholic."
Alex Janvier was 8 when missionaries at Alberta's Le Goff Reserve put him and several other reserve children into the back of a cattle truck and drove them 150 kilometres to a residential school near St. Paul, Alta., the Ottawa Citizen reported earlier this year. Janvier spent 1943 to 1953 at Blue Quills Residential Indian School. "It was a rigid, rigid regimentation," he told the Citizen. "Discipline was extremely harsh."
Diana Billy, 50, was a teenager in the 1970s when she was taken from the Waiwakum Indian Reserve north of Vancouver and sent to a Catholic residential school where, Billy told the New Statesman, she was abused for several months before she ran away. She counted herself among the luckier ones. Her father had been in the residential school system in the 1940s, but never spoke of it. Her cousin, she told the New Statesman, never recovered from the sexual abuse he suffered at a residential school. An alcoholic, he ultimately killed himself.
[~ 1970s-80s 4yrs Daleo* (Capuchin)] - RCC. Boy.
The News Journal,
By BETH MILLER , May 8, 2008
WILMINGTON (DE) -- A 39-year-old Wilmington man filed suit Wednesday in Delaware Superior Court, alleging he was raped and sexually abused for four years by a Capuchin friar while he was a student at St. Edmond's Academy, a private Catholic school in Brandywine Hundred.
In the 48-page suit, Matthias C. Conaty alleges the Rev. Paul Daleo abused him from fourth through seventh grades -- sometimes while performing as a "Christian Clown" at various school and church events. Conaty was about 9 years old when the assaults began, the suit says.
The suit alleges Daleo took a special interest in Conaty as a friend, counselor and mentor, and made a practice of hugging and kissing students and swatting them on their buttocks. When Conaty was in fourth grade, the suit says, the contact became sexual.
Daleo, 57 of Jersey City, N.J., could not be reached for comment. He is a member of the Capuchin Franciscans, a Catholic religious order. He was a part-time chaplain, religion instructor, and counselor at St. Edmond's Academy from 1978-82, the time period covered in the suit. He also served as director of religious education at St. John the Beloved Church on Milltown Road, near Pike Creek, during that time, and lived at the Capuchin Friary off Silverside Road in Brandywine Hundred. He was transferred to a New Jersey parish in 1985 and in 2003 took a leave of absence from the order.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 8, 2008
8:05 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker ,
Thu May 08, 2008
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[~ 2008 Hart -NEW* and Mrs Hart -NEW*] - Church in Wales. Indecent images.
BBC News,
http://news. bbc.co.uk/2/ hi/uk_news/ wales/mid_/ 7391890.stm ,
~ May 09, 2008
WALES -- A Church in Wales vicar has been charged with 18 counts of possessing indecent images of children.
The Reverend Richard Hart, 58, will appear at Brecon Magistrates' Court later this month.
Mr Hart and his wife Julie, 40, a primary school assistant, were arrested at the vicarage in Beguildy, near Knighton, Powys, in January.
[2006-07 Ms Houston*] - RCC. Money. > US$ 250,000.
Southtown Star,
STNG News Service, May 9, 2008
CHICAGO (IL) -- A former church manager accused of stealing more than $250,000 from the parish to feed a gambling habit denied felony theft and forgery charges Thursday.
Beverly Houston, 51, of Chicago, pleaded innocent to forgery and theft charges, Cook County state's attorney's office spokesman Andy Conklin said.
Houston is accused of writing 144 checks to herself from Infant Jesus of Prague Church in Flossmoor between April 2006 and October 2007. She allegedly forged parish priest William Killeen's signature on the checks.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 9, 2008
4:20 PM]
[1980s Szantyr] - RCC. Banned since 1988, was still officiating in group with a Weeping Madonna. 2 altar boys.
Boston Herald,
Associated Press, Friday, May 9, 2008
WORCESTER (MA) -- A retired Catholic priest charged with sexually molesting two altar boys more than 20 years ago has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Judge David Ricciardone said the Rev. John Szantyr was incompetent today.
Szantyr's brother said during a hearing last month that the 76-year-old retired priest suffers from Parkinson's disease, can no longer carry on an intelligent conversation and relies on others to dress and feed him.
Szantyr had been found incompetent in 2006, but prosecutors claimed new information proved he had an understanding of the legal process.
[Ncube] - RCC.
Catholic News Service,
~ May 09, 2008
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (CNS) -- Rosemary Sibanda, who had an affair with retired Zimbabwean Archbishop Pius Ncube, died May 2 in a Bulawayo hospital where she had been admitted with pneumonia.
Archbishop Ncube, one of the most outspoken critics of his country's political leadership, resigned as archbishop of Bulawayo last year after the sex scandal.
According to The Herald government newspaper, Sibanda was described as a reserved person who cared for her neighbors. She was born April 19, 1964, in Filabusi, a village in Matabeleland South province in Zimbabwe.
[1950s, 1963 & 1972-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Burlington Free Press,
May 09, 2008
VERMONT -- The judge in the Burlington clergy sexual abuse trial involving claims the Rev. Edward Paquette repeatedly fondled an altar boy in the 1970s said the victim can seek punitive damages against the state's Roman Catholic diocese for negligent supervision of the priest.
"Plaintiff here has presented evidence that this errant priest had an almost 10-year history of molesting young boys, in his role as priest," Judge Matthew Katz wrote in an order issued late Thursday. "This diocese had notice of that problem."
Katz acknowledged in his ruling that the diocese has yet to put on its case but said the evidence that the diocese knew about Paquette's past history as a child sexual abuser and did not appear to have supervised him accordingly.
[1950s, 1963 & 1972-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Times Argus,
By KEVIN O'CONNOR, ~ May 09, 2008
VERMONT -- A judge has ruled that a jury can consider punitive as well as compensatory damages against Vermont's Catholic Church in a priest misconduct trial under way in Chittenden Superior Court.
"Ordinarily, negligence does not suffice to justify an award of punitive damages," Judge Matthew Katz wrote in a decision released Friday. "Yet high courts in other states have approved punitive damage awards against dioceses, in cases involving negligent supervision of priests known to be molesters."
Vermont's largest religious denomination is defending itself in a civil lawsuit brought by Perry Babel, a 40-year-old Burlington native who alleges the diocese was negligent in its hiring and supervision of former priest Edward Paquette.
[1980s Szantyr] - RCC. Banned since 1988, was still officiating in group with a Weeping Madonna. 2 altar boys.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, MA),
By Gary V. Murray, gmurray@telegram.com , May 09, 2008
WORCESTER (MA) -- A retired Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting two altar boys in the 1980s has been deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial for a second time.
Judge David Ricciardone found the Rev. John J. Szantyr incompetent in a 12-page ruling issued yesterday in Central District Court, where the 76-year-old retired priest, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, is charged with indecently assaulting two altar boys more than 20 years ago.
The sexual assaults allegedly occurred when Rev. Szantyr, now living in Waterbury, Conn., was assigned to Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish on Ward Street. The charges, to which Rev. Szantyr has pleaded not guilty, were lodged in 2003. Judge Ricciardone's incompetency finding followed a two-day hearing that concluded April 11.
In 2006, Judge Dennis J. Brennan, since retired, also found Rev. Szantyr mentally incompetent to stand trial.
- RCC.
The Pilot (RC paper)
By Patricia Zapor
Posted: May/9/2008
WASHINGTON (DC) (CNS) -- The news media gave Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States in April more coverage that week than any topic except the 2008 election campaign, according to an analysis of reporting by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The analysis released May 6 found that coverage of the pope's April 15-20 visit took up 16 percent of the week's "news hole."
The presidential campaign accounted for 31 percent of coverage; the law enforcement raid on a polygamist church's compound in Texas received 8 percent of the coverage; the economy got 5 percent and the Iraq War received 3 percent.
More than half of the papal coverage focused on two main angles of the pope's visit: his meeting with victims of sexual abuse by priests and his comments on the subject in various places, which totaled 37 percent of the reporting, and his relationship with American Catholics, which accounted for 17 percent of stories, the survey showed.
[Former Jesuit priest] - RCC. Child/ren.
The Times
by Dan Churney, danc@mywebtimes.com , 815-431-4050, ~ May 09, 2008
CHICAGO (IL) -- Circuit Judge H. Chris Ryan Jr. wasn't smiling Thursday in court when he said he wanted to see Chicago attorney Stephen M. Komie's "smiling face."
Komie is representing Streator defendant Albert D. "Hook" Ford in a case that began in August 2005. Ford is charged with possession of crack cocaine with intent to deliver, being a felon in possession of a pistol, resisting police and domestic battery. He is free on $22,500 bond posted by Kandi Davis -- who went to prison last month for cocaine and has Ford's initials tattooed on her arm -- and Lisa Ford …
One of the other cases taking up Komie's time is that of a former Jesuit priest from Oak Lawn facing child molestation charges in two states.
- RC lacking in apostolic succession duties.
Standard-Times
By THOMAS AQUINAS KENNEDY
(Mr. Kennedy lives in New Bedford},
May 09, 2008
MASSACHUSETTS -- Upon review of the news articles covering the papal visit, I couldn't help but notice something was missing. The truly solemn prayers at ground zero were moving, as was the historical meeting with abuse victims arranged by Cardinal O'Malley. The throngs of jubilant crowds both in our nation's capital and in New York City were appropriate for a head of state and spiritual leader of the world's Catholic population.
We all can recognize and attest to the Christian work of Catholic Social Services in our community and all the good priests that do God's work. However, there have been many attempts to sanitize the abuse scandal with comparative statistical analysis of pedophiles in secular society versus the priesthood. Let us rewind!
The institution's commitment to secrecy (I distinguish the institution as a separate entity vis-a-vis the church) was used as a kind of inoculation for any scandal that might arise. The protection of "Holy Mother Church" proved to not only be a misplaced priority destroying thousands of lives, it fails to recognize that we were the church and that which they were instructed to protect was an institution. One would think the responsibility and stewardship entrusted to them, as they lay claim to apostolic succession, would be clear. It was not.
[2004-05 Ward* (Precious Blood Society)] - RCC. "Godtalk" ex-priest admits one porn charge.
ABC News,
May 9, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) -- A well-known San Francisco talk radio host and former priest who says he e-mailed child pornography as part of research for a book he was writing has pleaded guilty to federal pornography charges.
Bernie Ward, 56, the popular host of two local talk radio programs, faces at least five years in prison on a single count of distributing child pornography.
He admitted that he e-mailed an image depicting nude children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. He also admitted as part of his plea agreement that he sent between 15 and 150 images of child pornography via e-mail, according to the Department of Justice.
Ward's attorney, Doron Weinberg, said he would argue for a five-year sentence for Ward rather than the nine years that prosecutors are seeking, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
- RCC.
WKBT,
Associated Press - 9:05 AM ET, May 9, 2008
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) - The La Crosse Catholic Diocese is making plans to deal with a shortage of priests.
Diocese officials plan to reduce the number of parishes, without eliminating any of the buildings.
Diocese spokesman Ben Nguyen (WIN) says churches in nearby locations will combine to serve as one parish - and priests will be responsible for more than one building.
Currently, the diocese has 165 parishes. A study projects the diocese will have 82 priests by 2025.
[(Salesians)]
City of Angels
~ May 09, 2008
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- A jury was sworn in Thursday afternoon and opening statements are scheduled for next week, Tuesday morning, May 13, in the Salesian cases jury trial, a source told City of Angels late yesterday.
City of Angels Network will be there.
[Campobello] - RCC. 2 girls.
Chicago Tribune
Associated Press
3:26 AM CDT, May 9, 2008
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - A former priest who served four years in prison for molesting two teenage girls is back in prison for violating terms of his parole.
Mark Campobello will remain in prison until July 8 despite a minor violation of terms of parole.
Jorge Montes of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board says the state Department of Corrections authorized Campobello to take a trip involving two stops. He left and returned within the allotted time. However, Campobello made five stops, instead of two, a violation of his parole.
[2004-05 Ward* (Precious Blood Society)] - RCC. "Godtalk" ex-priest admits one porn charge.
San Jose Mercury News,
By Joshua Molina, May/09/2008
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) --
Former Bay Area radio talk-show host Bernie Ward pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of distributing child pornography.
Ward, known for expressing liberal views on KGO-AM (810), where he hosted a nightly talk news show, admitted that in December 2004 he sent an image depicting naked children engaging in sexually explicit conduct, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Ward sent the photo while engaged in an Internet chat conversation with a San Francisco-area woman, authorities said.
Ward, who has since been fired from the station, also admitted to sending up to 150 images of child pornography to other individuals. These images involved prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, some with sadistic, masochistic or violent conduct, according to a statement from the Justice Department.
Ward, a former Roman Catholic priest, once hosted a Sunday show called "Godtalk," and initially explained the explicit photos by claiming that he was doing "research" for a book. At the time of his December indictment, Ward said he was writing a book about hypocrisy.
[Campobello]
Kane County Chronicle
By KATE THAYER - kthayer@kcchronicle.com , May 09, 2008
CENTRALIA (IL) -- A former Geneva priest and convicted sex offender will remain in prison for two more months, following a board's decision that he violated the terms of his release from prison.
Mark Campobello, 43, was released on parole in February after serving about three years and eight months of an eight-year sentence for a sex abuse conviction. He pleaded guilty in 2004 to sexually abusing two girls while he was a priest at St. Peter Catholic Church in Geneva and a teacher at Aurora Central Catholic High School.
Last month, Campobello, who was living in Crystal Lake, took an approved "trip," but he made three additional stops along the way, according to Jorge Montes, chairman of the Prisoner Review Board. He added Campobello returned home on time.
- RCs losing half parishes.
Wausau Daily Herald
By Keith Uhlig
kuhlig@wdhprint.com
May 09, 2008
LA CROSSE (WI) -- The number of parishes in the Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse could be halved under a plan accepted Thursday by Bishop Jerome Listecki.
The plan is the culmination of two years of work done by a Pastoral Planning Committee charged with preserving the pastoral and spiritual care of the more than 200,000 Catholics in the diocese in the face of a dwindling number of priests. This year, the La Crosse Diocese has 101 active diocesan priests, bolstered by 30 international priests and 16 religious order priests. A demographic study done in 2005 predicts the number of diocesan priests will shrink to 82 by the year 2025.
In some ways, the plan redefines what a parish has come to mean to Catholics. Instead of one parish and one church, one parish would serve several churches.
[~ 2008 Hart* and Mrs Hart*] - Church in Wales. Indecent images.
Ic Wales,
Media Wales,
May 9, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM -- A WELSH vicar has been charged on 18 counts of possessing child porn images.
The Reverend Richard Hart, 58, was arrested along with his wife in January at their vicarage in in Beguildy, near Knighton, Powys.
Mr Hart will now appear at Brecon Magistrates' Court on May 29.
His wife Julie, a 40-year-old primary school assistant, remains on police bail.
Mr Hart was suspended from pastoral duties in the aftermath of the arrest, and has also been suspended from his role as chairman of governors at the local Church of Wales school in Beguildy, where his wife works.
[≤ 2007 Mr Nix] - Bible Baptist. Girl.
The Daily Times
By James Monteleone
Article Launched May/09/2008
AZTEC (NM) – A district judge dropped criminal charges Thursday against the church volunteer accused of having an ongoing sexual relationship with a 14-year-old church member because the victim refused to testify.
Wendel Nix, 29, appeared before a jury Thursday on 12 underage sex charges. If convicted, the man faced nearly 150 years in prison.
When charges first were filed in July 2007, the victim told police after meeting each other through the Aztec Bible Baptist Church, Nix sent text messages and called the girl hoping to spend time with her alone.
[1950s, 1963 & 1972-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
The Republican
By JOHN CURRAN
Associated Press, ~ May 09, 2008
BURLINGTON, Vt. - A former altar boy suing the Diocese of Burlington over sexual abuse he says he suffered at the hands of a priest took the stand today, describing for jurors how he and other boys were routinely groped but never reported it because it was by a priest.
"It wasn't a fight we were going to pick. This man was the next-closest thing to God," the man told jurors.
The 40-year-old mechanical engineer from Lakewood, Colo., who served as an altar boy at Christ the King Church in Burlington in the 1970s, filed suit in 2005 alleging negligent supervision of the Rev. Edward O. Paquette by the Roman Catholic diocese.
- FLDS.
Deseret News
By Brian West
Published 12:33 p.m. MDT
Thursday, May 8, 2008
TEXAS -- A legal advocacy group has filed a brief in the FLDS case, warning the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals against making "hasty judgments" that could violate parental rights and trample religious freedoms.
The friend of the court brief was filed by the Liberty Legal Institute, which describes itself as an organization committed to the defense of religious freedoms and First Amendment rights in Texas.
But the brief argues that should Texas provide proof that sexual abuse of minors occurred at the YFZ Ranch, that legally trumps religious freedoms protections and parental rights.
- Six generations of children.
The Vancouver Sun
by Daphne Bramham,
Thursday, May 08, 2008
CANADA -- Time's up, Premier. Six generations of B.C. children have had their spirits broken and their dreams dashed, while your government and its predecessors have dithered over what to do about Bountiful.
The constitutional right of six generations of children to associate with whomever they choose have been stripped from them by prophets who insist it is their religious right to assign girls into plural marriages.
Six generations of children have been denied access to a good education even though taxpayers fund their schools. Six generations have been denied the choice of what to wear, what music to play, what to read. They have been denied the constitutionally guaranteed right to freely move about the their neighbourhood, to say nothing of the wider world.
- Child abuse as "celestial polygamy".
Globe and Mail
By ROBERT MATAS
May 9, 2008
VANCOUVER, CANADA -- The United States has appointed a federal prosecutor to work with state and local authorities on bringing an end to lawlessness in polygamous communities, an investigation that may extend to finding a way to stop the so-called polygamy underground railway across the Canada-U.S. border.
A senior prosecutor in the deputy attorney-general's office has been assigned to carry out the review in consultation with the attorneys-general of Nevada, Arizona and Utah, Harry Reid, Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate, stated in correspondence released yesterday.
Mr. Reid described the problem as an "epidemic of lawlessness in polygamous communities." …
B.C. Liberal MLA Bill Bennett, who represents the East Kootenay riding, said the Canadian government should be working with the United States on the cross-border issues. "What we need is a co-operative effort by the province, various states and the two federal governments, who have primary responsibility for immigration and customs," he said from Victoria.
"Certainly from what I've been told, there is no doubt young women have been sent to Bountiful [B.C.] to marry older men and young women have been taken from Bountiful to marry older men [in the polygamous communities] in Colorado City, Arizona and in Utah."
[≤ 1990-2006 Inametti (Paulist)] - RCC. 2yrs (or 4yrs) prison. 2 more women.
Star-Telegram
By BRYON OKADA, ~ May 09, 2008
FORT WORTH (TX) -- A lawsuit filed in state court by a former inmate at Federal Medical Center Carswell seeks undetermined damages against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth and the Missionary Society of St. Paul for negligently placing a sexually abusive priest at the woman's facility.
According to the lawsuit, diocese officials knew and ignored facts indicating that Vincent Inametti, a missionary from Nigeria, had a history of "dangerous sexual proclivities towards women" stretching back to at least 1990 -- including possibly fathering a daughter in the Houston area in 1991. At least twice in 2006, Inametti sexually abused female inmates at FMC Carswell.
Given his questionable history, he shouldn't have been given the opportunity, said Dallas attorney Tahira Khan Merritt, who handles many clergy sexual abuse cases.
"They know he's sexually acting out with women," Merritt said. "They had a responsibility to say, 'Let's not put him in a position with the most vulnerable women there are -- incarcerated women in a medical facility.'"
[Hanley]
The Star-Ledger,
BY JEFF DIAMANT,
Friday, May 09, 2008
NEW JERSEY -- James Hanley, the former Catholic priest at the center of New Jersey's worst clergy sex abuse case, pleaded guilty yesterday to a bail- jumping charge stemming from a missed court date in an assault case.
The guilty plea, entered in state Superior Court in Jersey City, could end the case that originated in assault charges against Hanley after a March 2006 incident at a Se caucus hotel.
Hanley, 71, pleaded guilty last October to the reduced charge of unlawful possession of a weapon. He admitted using an aluminum bat to intimidate three employees at the Extended Stay Hotel. The hotel's desk clerk had told authorities Hanley became belligerent after the 23-year-old rebuffed his sexual advances.
Missing his Dec. 14 sentencing date led to the bail-jumping charge.
[1960s Miani (Salesian)] - RCC. 4 youths.
Los Angeles Times
By Richard Winton,
May 9, 2008
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Only one religious order refused to join the $660-million settlement the Los Angeles Archdiocese reached with hundreds of sexual abuse victims last summer: the Salesian Society.
Across the country, the Roman Catholic order of priests has aggressively fought legal culpability for mishandling predatory priests, victims' advocates say. They continue to fight accusations as a civil lawsuit heads to trial over alleged abuse in the 1960s at St. John Bosco High School, a Salesian school in Bellflower.
Opening arguments are scheduled to begin Tuesday, and jury selection was completed Thursday.
The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that the Salesians knew Father Titian Miani, now 81, had been accused of preying on youths when they assigned him to St. John Bosco, where he allegedly molested four children, including three siblings.
[1950s, 1963 & 1972-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Burlington Free Press
By Sam Hemingway, May 9, 2008
VERMONT -- The man suing the state's Roman Catholic diocese for its role in his molestation as an altar boy by the Rev. Edward Paquette told a Burlington jury Wednesday he knew what was happening was wrong but didn't know what to do about it.
"I never tried to resist," he said when asked if he tried to prevent Paquette from fondling him. "It wasn't an option at the time. … It's like resisting your parents when they were trying to reprimand you. He's a priest. He's the next closest thing to God."
The man, speaking slowly and without outward emotion, said the molestation incidents occurred between 40 and 100 times over a two-year period and took place inside the sacristy at Christ the King Church in Burlington in the late 1970s.
He said he was among a number of altar boys at the church fondled by Paquette. He said the fondling involved Paquette's picking an altar boy up, grasping him in the genitals and buttocks' area with his hands and swinging him in the air or bouncing him on his lap.
[~ 2000s Daniel Callan] - RCC. Student.
Post-Crescent
By Dan Wilson, May 9, 2008
APPLETON (WI) – A 10-year-old's quick reporting of sexual abuse may have been prompted by the Catholic church's system of checks put into place as a result of priest sexual abuse scandals.
However, those same reforms were not enough to screen out Daniel Callan, 25, charged with molesting one of his fifth-grade students at St. Bernadette Elementary School.
As a result of the priest scandals, the church ordered a comprehensive policy put into place in 2004 to prevent sexual abuse of children. Called Protecting God's Children VIRTUS, it is designed to weed out potential abusers and quickly report those who are suspected of abuse.
"The diocese requires all potential candidates, even volunteers, to go through a background check that is both statewide and national," said Tony Abts, president of ACES Xavier Educational System.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 9, 2008
7:54 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Fri May 09, 2008
• Sex-abuse teacher was molested as a child.
[1981-89 Bro. Chute, aka Bro. Kostka (Marist)] - RCC. 6 boys.
Sex-abuse teacher was molested as a child
Canberra Times,
http:// canberra. yourguide. com.au/news/ local/news/ general/ sexabuse- teacher-was- molested-as- a-child/ 767570.aspx ,
BY VICTOR VIOLANTE, 10:33:00 PM, May 10, 2008
CANBERRA, A.C.T., Australia –
A former Marist College teacher who sexually abused six boys at the Canberra Catholic school in the 1980s was molested as a child while under the care of the Marist Brothers, the ACT Supreme Court was told yesterday.
An agreed statement of facts also revealed that at least one victim's parents reported Brother Kostka Chute's abuse to the headmaster in 1986, but Kostka remained at the school until the end of 1993.
This portion of the statement of facts was not objected to by Kostka's solicitor, Greg Walsh, who is being paid by the Marist Brothers and has represented several other Marist teachers charged with similar offences around the country.
The court also heard Kostka, 75, whose legal name is John William Chute, taught at 11 other Marist Brothers schools between 1952 and 1975 before moving to Marist College in 1976.
At sentencing proceedings yesterday, the retired brother pleaded guilty to 19 counts of indecently touching the six teenage boys between 1985 and 1989. This included 11 counts, relating to four boys between 1986 and 1987, he had pleaded guilty to in February. It did not include seven other charges the prosecution was forced to drop because they had allegedly happened before 1985, when a statute of limitations of one year applied in the territory for such offences.
The court heard Kostka, the youngest of 10 children, had been separated from his parents in Lismore when he was 11 to attend a Marist Brothers "juniorate" a secondary boarding school for boys aspiring to become brothers in Mittagong.
A psychiatrist, Dr Chris Canaris, who has been treating Kostka since 2002 for what he called a "psychosexual disorder", told the court Kostka had disclosed he had been sexually abused by an older boy while at the juniorate between the ages of 11 and 13 and also before attending the juniorate by "a member of a religious order".
Dr Canaris said people who had been sexually abused had a much higher likelihood of becoming abusers, and that Kostka had been unusually young to have been put into the religious order.
The 19 admitted charges represented only a fraction of the sexual encounters he had had with the six boys, according to the statement of facts.
One victim told police Kostka had abused him on a daily basis when he was in Year 7, often in the presence of other students. "I started Marist College in 1985 and the touching started almost straight away," the victim told police last year.
"This became very normal to me and Brother Kostka would touch me daily, sometimes two, three or four times in a single day."
Another victim told police Kostka had befriended him during his first year at the school in 1989, at a time when he was unhappy and had no friends.
The abuse started towards the end of the first term and continued until late in the year, always in Kostka's office.
"I knew that I should not see Brother Kostka and that what he was doing was wrong but at that time I felt that he was the only person that knew me, understood me and made time to talk and listen to me," the victim told police last month.
The other victims told police the abuse happened in various places around the school, including the theatrette where Kostka hosted movie nights, his residence on the school grounds, a gardening shed and even in a food van that sold pies at footy games on weekends.
Kostka, who walks with the aid of a cane, remained silent throughout proceedings, except when he pleaded guilty to the 19 charges read out to him.
The sentencing proceedings were adjourned for the preparation of a pre-sentence report, though Justice Malcolm Gray declined to remand Kostka in custody. #
[RECAPITULATION: An agreed statement of facts also revealed that at least one victim's parents reported Brother Kostka Chute's abuse to the headmaster in 1986, but Kostka remained at the school until the end of 1993.
ENDS.]
[COMMENT: Thirteen more years to seduce, i.e., to lead more boys into sin. So, really, criminal lack of shepherding care for the boys is at the heart of the cancer eating at the supposed Church of "the Good Shepherd," and the Marist Order, supposedly devoted to the Chaste Mary.
COMMENT ENDS.]
[2nd RECAPITULATION: The court heard Kostka, the youngest of 10 children, had been separated from his parents in Lismore when he was 11 to attend a Marist Brothers "juniorate" a secondary boarding school for boys aspiring to become brothers in Mittagong. ENDS.]
[2nd COMMENT: So, the false teaching that forbids artificial birth control leads him to be in a family too big for one woman to handle, plus the false teaching that "celibacy" pleases God, leads to his parents letting him go or sending him away at the age of 11. Then he tells the court his bad experiences, as if they are any excuse -- he ought to have been more determined than ever not to put other boys through such emotional, spiritual and perhaps physical suffering.
ENDS.]
[ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Broken Rites - Australia. ENDS.]
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#sex_abuse_teacher
[May 10, 2008]
!!!: Christian chief Horgan quits amid breast-groping claims;
Sex assault police called in as women list complaints.
- RCC.
Christian chief Horgan quits
amid breast-groping claims
Sex assault police called in as women list complaints
The West Australian,
www.thewest. com.au ,
By SEAN COWAN, CHIEF CRIME REPORTER, EXCLUSIVE, pp 6(-7), Saturday, May 10, 2008
PERTH, W. Australia –
A Perth Christian group with strong links to the Catholic Church has been rocked by allegations that its long-term leader regularly groped the breasts of female members and encouraged many of them to have breast enlargement operations.
Kevin Horgan, the brother of Catholic benefactor and Leeuwin Estate owner Denis Horgan, resigned last month after two women came forward at the Bethel Covenant Community's regular Sunday gathering to complain about his actions.
In the following days, another six members and eight former members also complained.
The police sex assault squad has spoken to several of the women and the community has been left to deal with the fallout from a raft of allegations, including those contained in a 20-page report that was first sent to Perth's Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton in September.
The West Australian has obtained statutory declarations from some of the women about incidents in which Mr Horgan allegedly groped their breasts.
Among other complaints are allegations that Mr Horgan, 65, cupped a young woman's breasts at a 50th birthday party in 2006, massaged one woman's breasts with oil to show her husband "how it was done" and asked group members if he could inspect and feel their breasts.
It's also alleged he divided young women at a Bethel-organised Leeuwin Estate retreat into two groups based on the colour of their nipples, showed pornographic videos to some of Bethel's groups, looked up women's skirts, spoke to one group about other members' unusual sex practices, brushed "imaginary" pieces of fluff away from women's cleavages and encouraged members to have operations to change the shape or size of their breasts.
[Picture] Claims: Kevin Horgan allegedly massaged oil into one woman's breasts to show her husband 'how it was done' and encouraged others to have enlargements.
But police could struggle to mount any prosecution against Mr Horgan if the women disrobed willingly or gave permission for their group leader to touch them.
The West Australian called Mr Horgan at home and was told he would not be available to comment. Bethel's other leaders have also resigned, leaving a small group of stunned members to take control.
The new group, led by Newman College dean of curriculum Rob Crothers, has told Mr Horgan he is not welcome at Bethel's West Leederville headquarters and has urged victims to seek counselling at Bethel's expense. It has also provided members with the contact details of a senior officer in the sex assault squad.
"The new leadership of Bethel totally abhors and condemns the
abuse which is alleged to have occurred," Mr Crothers said. "No Christian could accept or condone this. It is totally contrary to Christian beliefs and morals and totally unacceptable in the wider community.
"We are beginning a process of healing and reconciliation. But that will not include the past leadership. The alleged perpetrator will never have a role or place in Bethel again."
Mr Horgan, who founded the ultra-conservative Bethel group in 1979 and earned in excess of $100,000 a year as the group's executive director, last month put the sprawling 1750sqm West Leederville property he has owned since the 1970s on the market for $3.99 million.
His fundraising efforts for Bethel have been legendary and the group was famous in the 1980s for selling thousands of lamingtons to pay off the $1.25 million mortgage over its Railway Parade headquarters, which Bethel finally cleared in 2005.
[FACTS FROM ALL OVER: Mr Kevin Horgan co-founded this pentecostal-type group in the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church in 1979.
Is it 30 or 50 years since the RCC in the Perth Archdiocese had started fostering un-Catholic types of devotion, such as "charismatic" speaking in tongues groups, and "healers"? The most notable visitor of the fad was Father McNutt -- a suitable name ? His performance in St Mary's Cathedral, across a road from Royal Perth Hospital, could have been absolutely startling if he had transferred his efforts to RPH, and sent all the patients home !! Around April 2008 another "healing" priest arrived, but there has been no outraged complaint from the Australian Medical Association !
For years there has been the Virgin of the Revelation in an area near Perth. There was the weeping Madonna of Rockingham for a few short years, alas, which ended when the man behind it was sent packing and the parish priest soon after retired. (At least a weeping statue was a typical RC (and Hindu) practice, even if as useless as the charismatics and the healers.)
The exposure of the Christian Brothers' sex abuse and violence towards inmates of their orphanages and child immigrant boarding schools got a bit of an airing now and then over the years in the news media. In Australia, pitifully low amounts of hush money, masquerading as "compensation," have been paid.
Clergy sex abuse reared its head at times, one of the notables being Dr Adderley of Western Australia.
And all the while since 1979, one of the wealthier Catholics of Perth has slowly led a group of people from what used to be a puritanical religious culture into having the women show him their breasts, and him fondling some and massaging at least one, talk of panties into husbands' pockets, and encouraging shows of nipples and breast enhancements -- all in the name of improving holiness and family life !!! Silliness of wives, and absolute stupidity of the husbands !!! And what about Mrs Sue-Ellen Horgan ?
One has to ask whether the other-worldly Leader in Heaven has been keeping watch over His congregation, or whether they have so strayed away from His teachings that He cannot be held responsible for the slyness of some, and the silliness of other followers.
(The Webmaster must confess he has had a good laugh from these newsitems. But he has a worried frown -- usually such news would be labelled "Only in America.")
ENDS.]
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#christian_chief_horgan
[May 10, 08]
• How leader 'sent them down the road to hell'.
- RCC.
How leader ‘sent them down the road to hell’
The West Australian,
www.thewest. com.au ,
By SEAN COWAN, CHIEF CRIME REPORTER, EXCLUSIVE, pp 6-7, Saturday, May 10, 2008
So far as members of the Bethel Covenant Community are concerned, Sunday, March 16, 2008, will forever be known as "Sunday, Bloody Sunday".
By that stage, it had been almost a year since sex allegations had first been raised following a talk by elder Pat Callahan about modesty in "speech, behaviour, appetites and dress". His calls for conservatism had seemed at odds to some of those present with the actions of Bethel's founder and leader Kevin Horgan.
In the weeks and months that followed that talk, Mr Callahan confronted Mr Horgan about the allegations and spoke to a priest and Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton, who works closely with Archbishop Barry Hickey.
Bishop Sproxton asked Mr Callahan to compile a report on the allegations. He then wrote a dossier which detailed dozens of allegations against Mr Horgan.
A final report was handed to Bishop Sproxton in September. On December 3, Mr Callahan was made redundant by the leadership group after more than 15 years as a full-time employee of Bethel. He was also banned from visiting the community centre he had helped open.
But the allegations didn't simply go away. Earlier this year, Bishop Sproxton asked Mr Horgan to resign. Finally, in March, some of the claims were made public at the community's regular post-Mass Sunday morning gathering when two women told of their experiences.
In the immediate aftermath of "Sunday, Bloody Sunday", Mr Horgan resigned as an employee of Bethel. He was, however, still to have led a Bethel-funded trip to the Holy Land. The following day that, too, was cancelled.
The ensuing fallout has painted the community, a "charismatic renewal" ecumenical group that aims to promote religious fellowship, as something more akin to a cult, complete with a leader who could convince many of its members to "drink the Kool-aid".
Among the allegations are claims that Mr Horgan:
Encouraged women to have breast enhancement surgery and carried out "before" and "after" examinations.
Pulled a woman's blouse forward and said "nice set".
Touched the breasts of two women at a group barbecue.
Divided women at a group retreat at Leeuwin Estate into groups based on whether their nipples were pink or brown.
[Picture] New leadership: Tony Walsh
Encouraged women at the same retreat to take off their tops and massage each other and him.
Groped a young, single woman at a 50th birthday party by cupping her breasts from behind.
Called a woman over while he was lying down so he could look up her skirt.
Gave one couple details of their parents' sex life.
Showed pornographic videos to members.
But there are further allegations relating to his control of members and demands that they cut ties with former members, many of whom left because of incidents involving Mr Horgan.
In the 1980s, Mr Horgan emerged from years as a manager of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in West Leederville to lead a massive Bethel fundraising campaign that had up to 250 community members bake lamingtons every Friday before work. They produced 5000 dozen-boxes every month to be sold door-to-door and in shopping centres.
Members were also expected to contribute a percentage of their pay to Bethel and were encouraged to hand over 10 per cent of their pre-tax income.
In another of their major fundraising activities, they acted as ushers at the annual Leeuwin Estate concert and also held raffles. The money was used to
pay off an ANZ loan for the company's purchase of its headquarters in the old Nestle factory across the road from West Leederville train station.
But the building was also regularly upgraded, including the construction of an auditorium, spa, sauna, showers, Catholic chapel, meeting rooms, TV, music equipment and a billiard table.
With net assets, largely consisting of the property, valued at more than $4 million, Bethel had seven employees until the redundancy of Mr Callahan and his wife Maxine and the resignations of Mr Horgan and wife Sue-Ellen.
Bethel Services, one of two corporate entities linked to the community, enjoyed the benefits of being a tax-free charity.
Mr Horgan, meanwhile, enjoyed some benefits of his own. A mortgage from the Sisters of the Good Shepherd helped him buy his massive property overlooking Lake Monger while Bethel paid for extensions so he could work from home. He had a luxury company Volvo and led groups of Bethel community members on overseas trips at Bethel's expense.
‘ He said ‘I am the oracle, so to speak, and all knowledge comes through me.’ That's when it changes into a cult.
FORMER BETHEL MEMBER
For years things went along like this. Then, in 1994, allegations were first raised about some of Bethel's business activities. Father Chris Ross cleared Mr Horgan and things again returned to normal. This time, things will never be "normal" again.
One former member told The West Australian this week that most members felt betrayed by Mr Horgan, saying: "People believed him and they walked down the road to hell. These were good people who were trying to do the best by their families and they have all been sent to hell."
Another former member said Mr Horgan had turned Bethel into a cult. "He said 'I am the oracle, so to speak, and all knowledge comes through me'," the former member said. "That's when it changes into a cult."
The new leadership group, made up of Newman College's dean of curriculum Rob Crothers, corporate governance specialist Tony Walsh – who first examined the books – Greg Diamond, Claire Gourlay and part-time teacher Kathryn Probert, has ordered a full audit of Bethel's finances and has reinstated Mr Callahan's rights to visit the centre.
The new leadership group rejects claims Bethel is a cult. While some members speak in tongues, Mr Crothers said its members were ordinary citizens. "We drink beer and have parties and play football," he said.
"We go away on holidays and interact with our friends, but we come here after Mass on Sunday for a bit of prayer and fellowship and to be better Catholics."
They have set aside about $35,000 for counselling and have hired former Greens senator Christabel Chamarette to provide counselling to any current or former members.
Three members of the new leadership team said they had never heard the sex complaints before and were stunned when they were raised at "Sunday, Bloody Sunday".
Ms Probert said she and other female members of Bethel were appalled at the allegations and the group planned to ensure more female members were put in positions of power. For many, the change has come too late.
[Picture] Top: Kevin Horgan's West Leederville home. Above: The Bethel Covenant Community HQ in Railway Parade, West Leederville. Pictures: Steve Ferrier #
[1st RECAPITULATION: … Sunday, March 16, 2008 … it had been almost a year since sex allegations had first been raised following a talk by elder Pat Callahan about modesty in "speech, behaviour, appetites and dress".
…
A final report was handed to Bishop Sproxton in September [2007]. On December 3, Mr Callahan was made redundant by the leadership group after more than 15 years as a full-time employee of Bethel.
ENDS.]
[1st COMMENT: We mustn't hurry a return to Christian modesty and virtuous living, must we ! After all, displaying, comparing, and massaging women's bodies must be either permitted or taught somewhere in the Bible or in the Patristic literature or some fake "tradition," if we look hard enough, mustn't it ?
And the old leadership expelled Mr Callahan for his much-needed talk. But why would Roman Catholics NEED a talk like that to realise what they were being drawn into was not Christian ? And that it wasn't normal husband-wife practice ?
ENDS.]
[2nd RECAPITULATION:
Divided women at a group retreat at Leeuwin Estate into groups based on whether their nipples were pink or brown. ENDS.]
[2nd COMMENT: This isn't happening to people who have never been to school or church, who have been led to false idols, and who have nothing to eat. It is happening in a developed Western country !
ENDS.]
[3rd RECAPITULATION: 'I am the oracle, so to speak, and all knowledge comes through me.' ENDS.]
[3rd COMMENT: Yet the members continued to be gulled ! ENDS.]
[4th RECAPITULATION: While some members speak in tongues, Mr Crothers said its members were ordinary citizens.
ENDS.]
[4th COMMENT: Speaking "in tongues" as most such "charismatic" groups practice it -- that is, all saying different words at once -- is explicitly forbidden in the Greek Christian Scriptures, which said only one person ought to speak at a time, and only if there was an interpreter present to give the message to those in attendance (1 Corinthians 14:28). This has been pointed out to various such groups for years, yet they persist in defying the ruling, "all raving" (1 Corinthians 14:23).
ENDS.]
[5th RECAPITULATION: They have set aside about $35,000 for counselling and have hired former Greens senator Christabel Chamarette to provide counselling …
ENDS.]
[5th COMMENT: A very good choice. A quiet series of Scripture studies, led perhaps by the Faith Purification Programme, would be a good additional help to members. Marriage Encounter could be called on to help -- unless they too have gone down the path of variant Christianity !
ENDS.]
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#how_leader_sent
[May 10, 08]
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[- 2008 Van Vlaenderen -NEW*] - RCC. Money? Cocaine.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
www.jsonline. com/story/ index.aspx? id=749196 ,
By MARIE ROHDE, mrohde@journalsentinel.com , Posted: May 9, 2008
{with link to the letter from the Rev. Paul Hartmann}
BROOKFIELD (WI) -- A preliminary audit of a large Brookfield Catholic church has raised "grave concerns" about the possibility that cash donated during weekly services over an extended period could be missing, parishioners were told in a letter sent by the parish administrator.
Father Paul Hartmann, pastor of St. John Vianney in Brookfield, declined Friday to speculate on how much money could be missing or over what period of time it could have been taken. Neither police nor the Waukesha County district attorney's office has been involved in the investigation.
Three members of the parish, one of the largest in the Milwaukee Archdiocese, began the preliminary inquiry in early December, a short time after then-pastor Father Leonard Van Vlaenderen was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine, a misdemeanor. He entered a no-contest plea to the charge and is scheduled to be sentenced this month.
- RCC. Pope JP2 exposed. Book.
Voice from the Desert,
May 10, 2008
I received the following book review from Tom Doyle today, 5.10.2008, via email.
Tom asked to me to include the following note with the review:
I was asked to review "The Power and the Glory" by David Yallop for a prominent independent Catholic publication. After completing a requested revision and shortening of the review, I heard nothing for weeks. Upon inquiry I was advised that it had been rejected because it was thought to be "biased." The review may well be biased but then most book reviews are. On the other hand this is a review of a book that is critical of the papacy of Pope John Paul II. The review is not critical of the criticism but is a positive assessment of a book that should be an integral part of any history of the Church under the late pope. TPD
"THE POWER AND THE GLORY" INSIDE THE DARK HEART OF JOHN PAUL II's VATICAN,
By David Yallop,
New York, Carroll and Graf, Publishers, 2007;
530 pages
Reviewed by Thomas Doyle, O.P., J.C.D.
"Few papacies have inspired so many myths as the reign of Pope John Paul II." The Power and the Glory, p. 152.
After reading the first chapter of this momentous, and at times shocking book, one is led to the conclusion that not only few papacies, but few popes have been surrounded by as much myth and misconception as Karol Wojtyla, priest, bishop, cardinal, pope, and in the minds and emotions of many, saint. Wojtyla's life and 26 year papacy had already prompted devoted followers to begin calling him John Paul the Great within the first year after his death.
Even John Paul's most ardent supporters, including those clamoring for his fast-track canonization, would have to agree that his life and reign as pope were not without significant controversy. In spite of the massive superhuman aura surrounding him, critical studies of his papacy and his theology have come forth from reputed scholars. Nothing however, comes close to the detailed and critical examination that David Yallop concluded and which resulted in this book. The author's widely acknowledged investigative skills are at their best in his fearless quest to discover the real Karl Wojtyla and the unvarnished truth about the Vatican that he shaped and dominated as Pope John Paul II. Yallop devoted eight years to research, interviewing knowledgeable sources and probing deeply into the reality of the man and the papacy that dominated the Catholic Church for a quarter century. …
Yallop's chapter Beyond Belief, is a highly detailed and fact-intense short history of the clerical sex abuse problem and how it was handled during the reign of John Paul II. The stories of clergy abuse and hierarchical cover-up abound so it is not necessary to repeat them here. Suffice it to say that Yallop's rendition of the multi-faceted and totally tragic sex abuse saga is not only factually correct but his reasons as to why the pope remained impotent are on target. He best sums it up with a short sentence on the papal silence: "He brought with him… to the Vatican practices that he had embraced throughout his life as a priest. They included an intense pathological hatred of any revelation that indicated the Catholic Church was not a perfect institution… All dissent must be kept behind closed doors, whether of church politics, scandalous behavior or criminal activity." (P. 314). The clergy sex abuse scandal contains ample doses of all three and the late pope appears to have sacrificed open advocacy for living children in favor of tacit protection of a non-living structure. He never publicly apologized to the countless victims and he consistently refused to ever meet with them. Perhaps the most egregious of his responses to the scandal was the much-publicized short-circuiting of the canonical process investigating accusations made against the celebrated founder and superior general of the Legionaries of Christ, Marcial Maciel-Degollado. That disastrous intervention plus the rehabilitation of Bernard Law by making him Archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica convinced abuse victims that the pope cared little for them and much for the Church's hierarchical aristocracy. Yallop's description of the facts confirms this conviction.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 10, 2008
8:37 PM]
[2002-03 Russell*] - "Acts II Church". 3 girls.
News-Leader,
The Associated Press, May 10, 2008
NEOSHO (MO) – Two more women have come forward with sexual abuse accusations against the pastor of a small southwest Missouri church who already is facing charges that he molested a 16-year-old girl five years ago.
One 21-year-old woman who lives on the West Coast said she reported sexual abuse by Randall "Danny" Russell, the pastor of ACT II Church on the edge of Neosho, in 2002 when she was 15.
Earlier this week a 24-year-old Joplin woman also came forward with allegations against Russell, who was arrested April 29 on charges that he sexually abused a female member of his church four or five years ago.
Russell, 49, was charged with statutory rape, sodomy and child abuse. Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said he could find no report of the West Coast woman's previous complaint, but a retired sheriff's deputy remembers looking into her complaint with a state child-abuse investigator. The retired sheriff's investigator and state investigator recalled that the case was dropped because the girl had been reluctant to testify against Russell.
- RCC.
United Press International
May 10, 2008
WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- U.S. Catholic churches should be held accountable for failing to take action against bishops who cover up sexual abuse scandals involving priests, critics say.
One such case involves Bishop Carlos Sevilla of Yakima, Wash., who is accused of hiding incidences of sexual misconduct involving priests and other church workers, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
"Action has been taken against some priests, but action hasn't been taken against U.S. bishops," said Terry McKiernan, president of BishopAccountablity.org.
[1980s Szantyr] - RCC. Banned since 1988, was still officiating in group with a Weeping Madonna. 2 altar boys.
Boston Herald
By Dave Wedge,
Saturday, May 10, 2008
WORCESTER (MA) -- Victims advocates are fuming that accused pedophile priest John Szantyr has again been deemed mentally unfit to stand trial on charges he molested two Worcester altar boys 20 years ago.
"The victims are just crushed," said Mary T. Jean of Worcester VOICE, a support group for clergy sex abuse victims. "I am extremely disappointed in the failure of the judicial system."
Spokesman Tim Connolly said Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. was "disappointed" and intended "to review any and all avenues of appeal."
Szantyr's attorney, Ed Ryan, said his client suffers from Parkinson's disease and dementia and called Worcester District Court Judge David Ricciardone's ruling "the correct decision."
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Burlington Free Press
By Sam Hemingway , Free Press Staff Writer , May 10, 2008
VERMONT -- The jury is expected to begin deliberations on a verdict by Monday afternoon in the case of a former altar boy seeking damages from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington.
In the civil trial under way in Chittenden County Superior Court, the former altar boy seeks damages from the diocese for hiring and then putting the Rev. Edward Paquette in a position to abuse him.
The man claims he was molested by Paquette at Christ the King Church in Burlington between 40 and 100 times during the late 1970s.
- Honest RC canon lawyer Doyle barred.
National Catholic Reporter,
By DENNIS CODAY
Publication date: May 2, 2008
ST. LOUIS (MO) -- Saying Dominican Fr. Thomas Doyle had "failed to represent [clients] properly or effectively" in the church court in St. Louis, Archbishop Raymond Burke has barred the priest from acting as a canon lawyer in the St. Louis archdiocese.
In a decree issued April 11 and printed in the archdiocesan newspaper, Burke justified his action by saying Doyle is guilty of two canonical crimes: "abuse of ecclesiastical function" and culpable negligence.
Doyle, long noted as an outspoken advocate for victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, has a private practice as a canon lawyer representing people who, in his words, have "found themselves in disputes with the Catholic church or harmed in some way by the institutional church." …
According to Oblate Fr. Francis Morrisey, a member of the canon law faculty at St. Paul University in Ottawa, Burke's decision to bar Doyle is highly unusual.
Canon law requires an advocate to "be of good repute," so presumably a bishop can make a judgment about a particular person in a particular case. However, he said, "It is quite unusual for a bishop to refuse recognition for a canon lawyer to represent a person before a court in his diocese."
Morrisey expressed uneasiness about this case. "Canon law was not designed to handle this type of situation," he told NCR. "It can easily become a travesty of justice to apply all types of canons to situations that do not merit such an action."
- RCC.
National Catholic Reporter,
By Nancy Frazier O'Brien, Catholic News Service
Published: May 8, 2008
WASHINGTON (DC), (CNS) -- Matters of liturgy and language will dominate the agenda of the U.S. bishops' spring meeting June 12-14 at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, Fla. But such hot-button issues as embryonic stem-cell research, medically assisted nutrition and hydration, and clergy sex abuse also will come before the bishops.
Much of the three-day meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will be closed to the media, with the schedule calling for executive session, regional meetings and an afternoon of prayer and reflection.
As they begin what Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., chairman of the USCCB Committee on Divine Worship, called "the final phase of the process of translation and approval of the Roman Missal for use in the United States," the bishops will vote on a new translation of the proper prayers for each Sunday and feast day during the liturgical year.
- RCC. Bishops did nothing, now want the removed powers back?
National Catholic Reporter,
By Jeff Diamant, Religion News Service
Published: May 9, 2008
NEWARK, N.J. -- A top U.S. archbishop, recently named to the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, said the panel of cardinals and bishops could help resolve a key issue in the clergy sex abuse scandal: how to remove priests from ministry who abused children decades ago.
Under the church's Code of Canon Law, the statute of limitation for clergy sex abuse of minors expires 10 years after the victim's 18th birthday. In older cases, a bishop can ask the Vatican to bypass that rule, but Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, N.J., said he wants to explore ways for bishops to act in such matters without asking Rome.
One possibility for these older cases, Myers said, would be a canon law change that treats molestation and sexual abuse of minors more as an illness than as a violation requiring a penalty. That would allow a bishop to more easily deem these priests unfit for ministry, he said.
- Some pastors.
Detroit Free Press,
May 10, 2008
UNITED STATES -- Conservative legal advocates are recruiting pastors nationwide to defy an IRS ban on preaching about politicians, in a challenge they hope will abolish the restriction.
The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund is to ask clergy to deliver a sermon about specific candidates Sept. 28. If that triggers an Internal Revenue Service investigation, the group is to sue to overturn the rule, which was enacted in 1954.
Mike Johnson, senior counsel for the fund, said Friday that about 100 pastors have expressed interest.
[- 2008 Adams -NEW*] - RCC. US $83,000. Money.
World-Herald
BY CHRISTOPHER BURBACH, ~ May 10, 2008
OMAHA (NE) -- The pastor of two small south Omaha Roman Catholic parishes has been placed on leave after archdiocesan officials discovered that more than $83,000 was missing from one of the churches, St. Bridget.
The Omaha Archdiocese reported the matter to police on Friday as a theft.
The Rev. Rodney Adams resigned as pastor of St. Bridget and St. Rose Catholic Churches and is cooperating with the investigation, said the Rev. Joseph Taphorn, chancellor of the archdiocese.
Adams, 43, is known to many active Catholics throughout Omaha as the archdiocese's urban diaconate director. As such, he directed the formation and training of permanent deacons, ordained men who assist priests.
[2004-05 Ward* (Precious Blood Society)] - RCC. "Godtalk" ex-priest admits one porn charge.
National Ledger,
By Tina Johnson, May 10, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) -- The charges against Bernie Ward were shocking when they first emerged against KGO radio talk show host from San Francisco. Now he has admitted that the charges are true and he will likely do five years or more and he will spend a good amount of time in prison. This week Ward admitted to distribution of child pornography in a plea deal that will send him to federal prison for at least five years.
Fox News is reporting that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker agreed Thursday to hold off on accepting Ward's plea to one count of distributing child pornography until an Aug. 28 sentencing hearing. That allows Ward to avoid going to prison until late summer, but he will be incarcerated immediately after the hearing.
"In terms of his freedom, his future, he's lost almost everything," Ward's attorney, Doron Weinberg said. "He's not going to be able to come out [of prison] and return to the work he does so well."
[1980s Szantyr] - RCC. Banned since 1988, was still officiating in group with a Weeping Madonna. 2 altar boys.
Worcester Voice
~ May 10, 2008
[with link to Judge Ricciardone's decision]
WORCESTER (MA) -- Justice is dead in Worcester.
Today in Worcester District Court Judge David Ricciardone issued his ruling in which he states, "I do not find the opinion of the Commonwealths expert to be persuasive, I conclude the Commonwealth has not meet its burden of proving that the defendant has sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding, and whether he as a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceeding against him".
Accordingly, I rule that the defendant is not competent to stand trial on these matters.
Judge Ricciardone 's ruling today is in complete contradiction to his decision of Defendant's Motion at the close of the Commonwealth's Evidence on Competency, dated February 29, 2008. Judge Ricciardione 's decision that day states, "I will view the evidence thus far presented in a light most favorable to the government. I concluded the evidence would support a finding of competency".
- Greek Orthodox Church.
Orthodox Reform,
~ May 10, 2008
UNITED STATES -- The Take Our Church Back! blog affirmed a recent letter to the editor challenging the GOA's misconduct policy and commitment to child safety and had this to say:
We join Mrs. Metropoulos in imploring that delegates attending the Clergy-Laity Conference this summer challenge the Archdiocese's Clergy Sexual Misconduct Policy. We must:
Question the hierarchy's commitment to child safety within the church. […]
- ? Russian Orthodox.
Orthodox Reform ,
~ May 10, 2008
UNITED STATES -- Minutes of the OCA Spring Metropolitan Council Meeting (March 31 to April 2, 2008 included discussions on sexual misconduct policies and procedures. These clarifications contradicted earlier opinions floated by some hierarchs that only "Bishops should investigate Bishops" (source). The idea of forming an advisory board to "assist the Office and Church leadership in addressing allegations of sexual abuse" was also discussed.
An excerpt from the meeting:
Fr. Michael Matsko stated that, in addressing the situation in Alaska, there is a difference between procedural norms and canonical process. Procedural norms governing allegations of abuse are outlined in the document "Policies, Standards, and Procedures of the Orthodox Church in America on Sexual Misconduct," approved by the Holy Synod in April 2003.
[2006-07 Bent, aka Travesser, aka The Messiah] - "The Lord Our Righteousness Church." 3 girls.
CBS News,
May 09, 2008
NEW MEXICO (AP) -- The leader of an apocalyptic sect accused of sex crimes against underage female followers was released from jail Friday after bond was posted, authorities said.
Wayne Bent left the city-county lockup in the small northeastern New Mexico town of Clayton about 3 p.m., Police Chief Scott Julian said.
"He is no longer in our custody," Julian said.
Bent was released after his son, Jeff Bent, gave the Union County Magistrate Court in Clayton a cashier's check for $55,000, according to Michelle Jones, chief clerk of the court.
- RCC.
WGRZ,
Posted by: Matt Pitts, Producer, ~ May 10, 2008
BUFFALO (NY) -- A new financial controls committee will help prevent fraud and misappropriation in parishes in the Buffalo Catholic Diocese.
Bishop Edward Kmiec created the committee in February. Members first met with the Bishop on May 7th.
The committee will work with the diocese to refine the present policy and procedure manual for parish business practices and finances. "In light of recent isolated breaches of honesty and integrity, we plan to strengthen compliance with the internal control system in our parishes," said Bishop Kmiec.
[COMMENT: Commandment: Thou shalt not steal. Self-definition of RCC: One, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
COMMENT ENDS.]
- RCC.
Washington Post
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Page A03
Saturday, May 10, 2008
UNITED STATES -- It's getting a little uncomfortable for Catholic Bishop Carlos Sevilla these days.
Several times in recent months, the Yakima, Wash., clergyman has had to defend himself against accusations that he concealed sexual misconduct by priests and employees. In one case, a priest who had worked in the diocese was convicted of felony abuse for fondling a 14-year-old girl. In another case, Sevilla hired a former seminarian after the man was charged with viewing child pornography.
"In hindsight, the bishop realizes he could have done more" to alert parishioners to the situations, said the Rev. Robert Siler, diocese spokesman.
Since then, activists have launched letter-writing campaigns and petition drives to try to push the pope into taking action against bishops who they believe have moved slowly to stop predator priests.
- FLDS.
Deseret News
By Ben Winslow
Published 12:45 a.m. MDT
Saturday, May 10, 2008
ARIZONA -- Attorneys for former Fundamentalist LDS leader Warren Jeffs are asking a judge to dismiss incest charges in the cases pending against him in Arizona.
In papers filed in Mohave County Superior Court in Kingman, Jeffs' defense team argues that incest charges must be dismissed because Arizona laws require both participants to be "18 or more years of age."
"In addition, because (suspect) and (victim) are first cousins of the half blood, they are not within the degrees of consanguinity that are defined as incestuous under Arizona law," attorneys Richard Wright and Michael Piccarreta wrote. "Accordingly, counts 2 and 4 of the indictment must be dismissed, leaving Mr. Jeffs to stand trial as an accomplice to the charges of sexual conduct with a minor."
[1980s Szantyr] - RCC. Banned since 1988, was still officiating in Seeds of Hope group to 2006 with a Weeping Madonna. 2 altar boys.
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, MA),
By Gary V. Murray
gmurray@telegram.com
May 10, 2008
WORCESTER (MA) – A retired Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting two altar boys in the 1980s has, for a second time, been deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Judge David Ricciardone found the Rev. John J. Szantyr incompetent in a 12-page ruling issued yesterday in Central District Court. The 76-year-old retired priest, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, is charged with indecently assaulting two altar boys more than 20 years ago.
The sexual assaults allegedly occurred when the Rev. Szantyr, who now lives in Waterbury, Conn., was assigned to Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish on Ward Street. The charges, to which Rev. Szantyr has pleaded not guilty, were lodged in 2003. In 2006, Judge Dennis J. Brennan, since retired, also found the Rev. Szantyr mentally incompetent to stand trial.
The second competency hearing came after a psychiatrist hired by the prosecution evaluated the Rev. Szantyr and found him competent to stand trial. Assistant District Attorney Joseph J. Reilly 3rd has said he requested the evaluation by psychiatrist Malcolm P. Rogers, based on information brought to the prosecutor's attention by people who said they had had dealings with the Rev. Szantyr as recently as 2006 as part of group called Seeds of Hope.
- FLDS.
NPR,
by Carol Guensburg, May 8, 2008
TEXAS -- In April, Texas authorities investigating a fundamentalist polygamist group after allegations of child abuse removed 464 children from a West Texas compound. The state now has the minors in temporary custody, including a young woman and the son she gave birth to after the raid.
The case, remarkable for its scope, involves a complicated tangle of legal, religious and social issues. The group – called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – practices a brand of polygamy taught by the earliest leaders of the Mormon faith but officially abandoned by Mormons in 1890. The case brings into question whether the group's religious practices put children at risk.
- FLDS.
Wake up America,
~ May 10, 2008
UTAH -- Not only is Senate Majority leader Harry Reid saying he is a "cheerleader for what Texas is doing", and that "Texas is doing what Utah and Arizona should have done decades ago", as well as encouraging federal authorities to start investigating underage marriages within the FLDS sects scattered across the country, but Utah and Arizona officials are also defending the actions in Texas at the same time as trying to reassure polygamists that they will not "go after" them for polygamy alone.
The actions they are defending is Texas' removal of 463 children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) compound in Eldorado Texas, called the Yearning For Zion Ranch, after going there to investigate an allegation of abuse and witnessing other evidence of abuses, via underage girls being pregnant or already having children.
Child Protective Services immediately got permission to remove all the children, pending investigations about sexual abuse perpetrated on minor females by older men with full knowledge of the mothers.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
The Herald News
By Will Richmond
GateHouse News Service
11:09 PM
May 09, 2008
BURLINGTON, Vt. – A former altar boy is suing the Diocese of Burlington over sexual abuse he says he suffered at the hands of a priest who was removed from the Diocese of Fall River four decades ago over similar allegations.
The victim, who was not named by the Associated Press due to the nature of the allegations, claims the Diocese of Burlington is at fault due to negligent supervision of the Rev. Edward O. Paquette.
Paquette, who was hired by the Diocese of Burlington despite child molestation allegations lodged against him in Indiana and Massachusetts, is the subject of about 20 pending sex abuse lawsuits against the Diocese of Burlington.
Diocese of Fall River spokesman John Kearns said Paquette was ordained as a priest to the Fall River Diocese in 1957. Kearns said complaints of "improper behavior" started coming in to Bishop James L. Connolly.
- YFZ / FLDS. 463 / 464 children in sanctuary now.
The Dallas Morning News,
By ROBERT T. GARRETT
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com
~ May 10, 2008
AUSTIN, TEXAS – Child Protective Services didn't overstep its bounds by yanking hundreds of children – even toddlers – from parents who belong to a polygamist sect, the state told an appeals court Friday.
CPS had no choice but to remove youngsters because of a risk that their parents would take them to other states, a state lawyer said in a filing with Texas' 3rd Court of Appeals.
However, lawyers for the 464 children removed and their parents say CPS and state District Judge Barbara Walther of San Angelo trampled sect members' rights last month. While the law requires the CPS to show there's danger of physical abuse if youngsters return to their families, it proved at most only a highly speculative risk of possible emotional harm, some of the lawyers said.
"The real issue in all of this is whether you can punish an entire community for the sins of a few because they share the same faith," said Susan Hays of Dallas, lawyer for a 2-year-old girl removed from the sect's Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado.
- YFZ / FLDS
Deseret News
By Brian West
12:45 a.m. MDT
Saturday, May 10, 2008
TEXAS -- Texas child welfare attorneys say children were removed from the YFZ Ranch and should not return there because its residents live as one big family and all have the same dangerous belief system.
The agency that has taken legal custody of 464 children sent its response Thursday to a petition from dozens of Fundamentalist LDS Church mothers. The petition asks the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals to order Judge Barbara Walther to return the children to their mothers.
"The community has one common belief system that young girls are called on to be wives and no age is too young to be married," wrote Texas Department of Family and Protective Services attorneys. Some adults and children at the ranch described it as "one large community," even though there are several houses at the complex.
[~ 2007 Stanley Daniel] - "El Bethel" Church. Girl.
MyFox Birmingham
~ May 10, 2008
RANDOLPH (AL) --
A former Randolph county pastor pled guilty to sexually abusing a student. Stanley Daniel is the former pastor of El Bethel church and director of the Pearls of Promise religious school for girls near Roanoke.
He was arrested in 2007 after a student made a complaint. Daniel pleaded guilty to raping and sodomizing the girl and will have to serve at least five years in prison under his plea agreement.
[2002-03 Russell*] - "Acts II Church". 3 girls.
The Joplin Globe
By Jeff Lehr, jlehr@joplinglobe.com , ~ May 10, 2008
NEOSHO, Mo. – Accusations by two more women who have come forward are expected to produce more charges of sexual abuse against Randall "Danny" Russell, pastor of a fringe church on the edge of Neosho.
A 21-year-old woman who lives on the West Coast has said she reported sexual abuse at the hands of Russell, 49, to the Newton County Sheriff's Department and the Missouri Department of Social Services in 2002, when she was 15 years old.
Accounts of Russell's arrest April 29, on charges that he sexually abused a female member of his Acts II church, at 12825 Mulberry Road, four to five years ago when she was 15, apparently prompted the West Coast woman to come forward.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
WCAX
May 9, 2008
BURLINGTON, Vermont -- A ruling on Friday could up the ante in a priest sex abuse case. The judge says the plaintiff can seek punitive damages against the Catholic Church.
Trial began Monday in the case of a former altar boy who says he was molested by a priest in the 1970s. The man is suing the diocese, saying church leaders knew Father Ed Paquette was a pedophile but did nothing to stop him.
On Friday, the judge ruled the plaintiffs have presented enough evidence to allow the jury to consider punitive damages, which can involve large monetary awards.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Rutland Herald
By KEVIN O'CONNOR, May 10, 2008
VERMONT -- A judge has ruled that a jury can consider punitive as well as compensatory damages against Vermont's Catholic Church in a priest misconduct trial under way in Chittenden Superior Court.
"Ordinarily, negligence does not suffice to justify an award of punitive damages," Judge Matthew Katz wrote in a decision released Friday. "Yet high courts in other states have approved punitive damage awards against dioceses, in cases involving negligent supervision of priests known to be molesters."
Vermont's largest religious denomination is defending itself in a civil lawsuit brought by Perry Babel, a 40-year-old Burlington native who alleges the diocese was negligent in its hiring and supervision of former priest Edward Paquette.
Babel, now of Denver, Colo., claims the diocese didn't stop Paquette from repeatedly fondling him 30 years ago when he was an altar boy at Burlington's Christ the King Church. His case is based on personnel records that show the diocese transferred Paquette to the state's largest city without telling anyone it knew the priest had molested boys first in Massachusetts, then in Indiana and the Vermont cities of Rutland and Montpelier.
[Ward]
The Press Democrat
By MARTIN ESPINOZA
Saturday, May 10, 2008
SANTA ROSA (CA) -- Cardinal Newman High School officials said Friday they were surprised to hear that former KGO Radio talk show host Bernie Ward allegedly had sexual contact with two Ursuline High School students while he was a priest teaching at the schools.
Ward, who pleaded guilty Thursday to distributing child pornography over the Internet, was the subject of a KGO-TV, ABC Channel 7, report Thursday.
Cardinal Newman Principal Graham Rutherford said he knew a film crew had come to the school about a month ago for the story, but the details of the report were a "fairly big surprise."
The report featured an interview with Rosanne Schwab, a former Ursuline student. She said that during a trip to the beach when she was 17, Ward "grabbed the back of my head and pulled me to him and stuck his tongue in my mouth and held me very tightly with the one hand behind my head and the other hand up against my breasts."
[Campobello]
The Beacon News
May 10, 2008
ILLINOIS -- A former priest who served four years in prison for molesting two teenage girls is back behind bars for violating terms of his parole.
Mark Campobello, 43, will remain in prison until July 8 despite a minor violation of terms of parole.
Jorge Montes, of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, said the state Department of Corrections authorized Campobello to take a trip involving two stops. He left and returned within the allotted time. However, Campobello made five stops, instead of two, a violation of his parole.
The violation occurred just two months after the former Aurora and Geneva priest was released.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 10, 2008
7:31 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker ,
Sat May 10, 2008
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[~ 2000s Madangeng -NEW*] - RCC. 3 girls.
Sun.Star ,
www.sunstar. com.ph/stat ic/net/ 2008/05/12/ 14.year.old. convent.girl. cries.rape. vs.priest. html ;
for May 12, 2008
NATONIN, Mountain Province, PHILIPPINES -- A Catholic priest is facing charges of rape and acts of lasciviousness after allegedly molesting convent girls.
Crystal (not her real name), 14 years old, filed the criminal charges against Fr. Gabriel Madangeng Jr., of Hingyon, Ifugao, parish priest in Natonin, Mountain Province.
Two other victims have come to the open reporting a series of alleged abuses committed by Madangeng. As of press time Sunday one victim has agreed to settle out of court.
All victims are convent girls and minors. Madangeng has since been transferred to Bontoc where the case will be heard this week.
- "House of Yahweh".
[~ 2000s Yisrayl Hawkins -NEW*] - Child labour charges.
[~ 2000s Yedidiyah Hawkins -NEW*] - Stepdaughter (now 14).
The Dallas Morning News,
By PAUL MEYER / pmeyer@dallasnews.com , ~ May 11, 2008
CALLAHAN COUNTY (TX) -- In his first sermon after leaving jail, Yisrayl "Buffalo Bill" Hawkins was in classic form: folksy, paternal and apocalyptic.
"No, we're not getting ready to kill ourselves," said the prophet of the House of Yahweh, a barbed wire kingdom of brimstone prophecies and abject poverty 15 miles southeast of Abilene.
"We're getting ready to live through the greatest tribulation that ever will be." …
Mr. Hawkins also faces a misdemeanor charge of breaking child labor laws, accused of having up to 40 children working weekdays "in the fields, in a canning operation, in a cafeteria and in the butter making process."
Another member, elder Yedidiyah Hawkins, is expected to stand trial this summer on charges of aggravated sexual assault of his now 14-year-old stepdaughter, a girl who authorities allege he was planning to make his wife.
[2006-07 Wilkerson aka Haynes ? NEW*] - Methodist. Boy.
Philadelphia Inquirer
By JULIE SHAW
shawj@phillynews.com 215-854-2592, ~ May 11, 2008
PENNSYLVANIA -- A 40-year-old former youth minister plead guilty yesterday to charges of deviate sexual intercourse and corrupting the morals of a 15-year-old boy.
James Wilkerson, who also uses the name James Haynes, was then sentenced as a result of a negotiated plea to a mandatory minimum of five to 10 years in state prison, followed by three years of probation.
Wilkerson was a youth minister at the Summerfield-Siloam United Methodist Church in Kensington when he improperly touched the boy from November 2006 to May 2007.
- RCC.
Kingfishers, Dragonflies and Stones,
~ May 11, 2008
UNITED STATES -- Father Tom Doyle's review of a book on the papacy of Pope John Paul II was rejected by an "independent" Catholic publication, because "it was thought to be 'biased.'" It has been put up on the Internet at: http://reform-network.net/?p=1657
For those of us working and praying for reform and renewal of our Church, any criticism of ours towards the papacy, hierarchy, and political/governmental structure of the Church is deemed "biased" and, accordingly, dismissed. We use pop phrases occasionally to protest such infantile treatment by the oligarchy, when we let it be known that we are aware of the Curia's fundamental opinion of us as "The Laity , Those Who Pay, Pray and Obey." When they added, "Sit Up! Listen Up! Shut Up!" I replied, "Won't."
Most likely, any characterization of me before The Boston Globe unmasked the scandal which made public the greatest crisis the Roman Catholic Church has ever experienced – Martin Luther's Reformation was just the introduction – would have been, "Him? Oh! he's just one of those lapsed Catholics, whining."
I was trying to be "spiritual" and definitely not "religious." Church attendance was sporadic. The news gave me the "excuse" I was looking for to leave the Church, which had, over my lifetime to that point, slowly become opposed to everything my heart was telling me about being "fully human, fully alive."But I couldn't do it.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 11, 2008
4:25 PM]
- RCC.
[1997-2004 Mr Zgoznik*] - RCC. Guilty. US$784,000 for consulting.
[~ 2000s Mr Joseph Smith*] - Money US $784,000.
WTTE,
08:16 EDT, May 11, 2008
CLEVELAND (OH), (AP) -- A federal trial is scheduled to begin tomorrow for a man who was once the top financial officer at the Cleveland Catholic Diocese.
Joseph Smith is accused of orchestrating a kickback scheme that lined his pockets with at least $784,000. He's pleaded not guilty to charges that include making false personal income tax returns, money laundering, mail fraud and conspiracy.
A co-defendant, Anton Zgoznik, was convicted in October and is scheduled to be sentenced June 18. Zgoznik was an accountant for the diocese.
[LOOK BACK: ~ October 2, 2007]
[~ 1990s Baird*] - Christian. Boys.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Saturday, May 10, 2008
PENNSYLVANIA -- A former youth minister has been convicted of sexually assaulting three boys under his tutelage.
The Rev. David J. Baird was convicted Thursday in a jury trial before Allegheny County Judge John A. Zottola.
Mr. Baird, 45, of West Deer, had been free on bond pending trial, but the judge revoked it following the verdict.
Sentencing was set for July 30.
- RCC.
The Palm Beach Post
By MICHAEL T. DOLCE
Special to The Palm Beach Post
Sunday, May 11, 2008
FLORIDA -- Pope Benedict XVI arrived in our country on April 17. He apologized for the sexual abuse of children by priests and the actions of bishops who, for decades, rather than call police secretly reassigned pedophiles to new parishes to victimize thousands more children.
The pope encouraged all to "do what you can to foster healing … and to assist those who have been hurt." He asked us "to ensure that children … can grow up in a safe environment."
I have been asked whether his words were sufficient. First, let me stress that I am not anti-Catholic or anti-religion. I am very active in my church. I wrote a book on spiritual recovery. I love and respect my big brother, who is a Catholic monk. I was not harmed by a priest as a child.
But I did listen carefully to the pope's message for clergy sex abuse victims, because I know a lot of them. I share their pain because as a child two neighbors lured me into their home, bound me, and took turns raping me. They threatened me into silence with a gun and a knife. And that was just how that summer began. …
I have promoted that legislation - this year, it was Senate Bill 528 and Senate Bill 1194 - for five years, using my knowledge and the contacts I made during four years as a state Senate aide to move it through committees a dozen times. But as I was told in a 2004 letter, the "archbishop and bishops of Florida" decided to use their political clout with committee chairpersons, who control hearing agendas, to make sure the legislation never moves to a final vote.
The legislation would extend the criminal statutes of limitation in cases of victims as young as 13 - currently cut off when the victim turns 21 - and for civil actions - currently cut off when the victim turns 25. It would extend those deadlines based on the time victims need to heal enough in mental health treatment to be able to confront perpetrators in court. Under present law, many abusers are never brought to justice because their victims remain silent beyond age 25.
- RCC.
[~ 2000s Mr Zgoznik*] - RCC. Guilty. US$784,000 for consulting.
[~ 2000s Mr Joseph Smith*] - Money US $784,000.
The Plain Dealer,
by Damian G. Guevara, Sunday, May 11, 2008
CLEVELAND (OH) -- The buildup to Joseph Smith's trial on charges that the former chief financial officer for the Cleveland Catholic Diocese stole from the church has included accusations of kickbacks, secret bank accounts and double dealing.
But if Smith's trial - scheduled to begin with jury selection Monday at the U.S. District Courthouse in Cleveland - is anything like that of his co-defendant Anton Zgoznik, the controversial claims of indiscretions and hidden payments may not help Smith if the jury hears them.
Smith, 51, of Avon Lake, was the Cleveland diocese's top financial officer and highest-ranking lay person until 2004, when irregularities in the church's finances came to light. Smith was close to former Bishop Anthony Pilla, who testified in Zgoznik's trial and will probably be called in Smith's as well.
[Mr Derrick Jones] - stole the church land !
Newsday
May 11, 2008
NEW YORK - A con man posing as a parishioner forged deeds to a Brooklyn church, then used the false documents to sell the property to a developer, the church's pastor said.
Derrick Jones, 43, used notaries public and a title company to fool the City Register's office to record the forged deeds starting in 2004, said Walter Dunlap, pastor and founder of the Free Mission Action Movement Church. The register's office does not review documents for authenticity.
"We helped him, we gave him food and shelter, he would come by with his wife and leave his kids here for baby-sitting, and then he did this: He forged my name on deeds and stole the church and the land," Dunlap told the Daily News. "What he did is so wicked."
- RCC.
Courier-Post,
By DANTE D'ANTONIO, For the Courier-Post, May 11, 2008
NEW JERSEY -- As a devout Catholic, attending Mass six days a week, I am profoundly disappointed by Bishop Joseph Galante's text covering the elimination of many parishes. Not once does he address the issue of why we have not been able to encourage more dedication for our youths to become priests and nuns.
Not once did he address the issue of closing Catholic schools, the foundation and building blocks that encourage children and parents to encourage their children to a life devoted to our Lord.
Did His Excellency go to a Catholic school? How many of the approximately 170 active diocesan priests in the Camden Diocese received their education in the Catholic school system? How do we make the school system affordable?
Has His Excellency considered that deacons perform priestly functions with the exception of hearing confessions and the most important function of all -- the consecration of the bread and wine. We, Catholics, believe this consecration brings us the body and blood of Christ.
- RCC document -- secrecy or excommunication.
Radical Films,
for May 12, 2008
[with video]
UNITED KINGDOM -- A secret document which sets out a procedure for dealing with child sex abuse scandals within the Catholic Church is examined by Panorama.
Crimen Sollicitationis was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the Pope.
It instructs bishops on how to deal with allegations of child abuse against priests and has been seen by few outsiders.
Critics say the document has been used to evade prosecution for sex crimes. It instructs them how to deal with priests who solicit sex from the confessional. It also deals with "any obscene external act … with youths of either sex."
It imposes an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest dealing with the allegation and any witnesses. Breaking that oath means excommunication from the Catholic Church.
- RCC.
Courier-Post,
By LAVINIA DeCASTRO, May 11, 2008
HADDON TOWNSHIP (NJ) – Outraged by the planned closing of their church, St. Vincent Pallotti parishioners wrote hundreds of letters and took part in a protest.
Their efforts got Bishop Joseph Galante's attention, but did not cause him to reverse his decision.
In a recent letter to parishioners, Galante defended his decision to merge the Haddon Township parish with St. Aloysius in Oaklyn, with the Oaklyn parish as a primary worship site.
"As I said when I announced parish configurations last month, my motivation is simple: to deal with the realities confronting our church now and in the future and to create the conditions that will strengthen and revitalize parish life in every part of the diocese," Galante said in his letter.
- Religions and societies.
Santa Cruz Sentinel
~ May 11, 2008
UNITED STATES -- From antiquity, those who organized societies, religions and cults knew that they must have total control over women -- the childbearers -- if they are to have a future. From the advent of agriculture, which produced sufficient wealth to support civilization, women and children became the valuable property of the group's leadership.
Women were controlled by force -- beating when uncooperative, by brainwashing "religious" indoctrination, and through repeated impregnation until they were either worn out or dead. It is difficult for us in the developed world to imagine what this horror was like until we are confronted by contemporary aberrations such as the fundamentalist Mormon cult in Texas. Each day, worse details come out of that gulag, run by delusional men who think of themselves as gods. Unfortunately, this is not a unique case, but has tendrils and roots elsewhere.
Time Magazine, May 5, proclaimed the raid on this polygamist sect as "tension between religion and the law." This is a politically correct piece of nonsense. By dwelling on the "separation of children from mothers," they ignore the real issues: violent sexual abuse of girl and boy children and the brainwashing of women, who seem to be demonstrating a Stockholm Syndrome, trying to protect their jailors.
- FLDS.
Houston Chronicle,
By ROGER CROTEA
San Antonio Express-news, ~ May 11, 2008
TEXAS -- Mental health workers sent to emergency shelters in San Angelo last month to help care for the hundreds of women and children removed from a polygamist sect's West Texas ranch have sharply criticized the Child Protective Services operation, telling their governing board it unnecessarily traumatized the kids.
The CPS investigation of suspected child abuse and its decision to seek state custody of all 464 children punished mothers who appeared to be good parents of healthy, well-behaved and emotionally normal kids, workers said in a set of short and unsigned written reports made at the request of the board after a briefing Tuesday.
All nine reports by employees of the Hill Country Community Mental Health-Mental Retardation Center expressed varying degrees of anger toward the state's child welfare agency for removing the children from their community, separating them from their mothers or for the way CPS workers conducted themselves at the shelter.
A few described ongoing tension between the two groups of social workers, including threats by CPS to have interfering MHMR workers arrested.
The Salt Lake Tribune
by Linda F. Smith
Article Last Updated
09:11:34 PM MDT
May/09/2008
TEXAS -- Protective cases involve two questions: Is the child at risk of parental abuse or neglect? Must the child be removed from her parents' care to protect her? In Texas, Child Protective Services must also show that "reasonable efforts have been made to prevent or eliminate the need to remove the child from the child's home."
A Texas judge considered the situation of more than 400 children of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in just two days and found that all the children were at risk of abuse or neglect and that all needed to be removed from their homes.
Few would question the appropriateness of both findings for the girls who had been victims of sex crimes (rape, statutory rape or incest) and whose parents had condoned it. Siblings of these girls might also be at risk of abuse or neglect. But if there were families that had not supported underage "marriages" (as recent news stories have related), it is not clear why the court found their children at risk of parental abuse or neglect.
- RCC priest who had been abused himself.
Asbury Park Press
By ALESHA, WILLIAMS BOYD, STAFF WRITER, May 11, 2008
MANALAPAN, NEW JERSEY
– James Gray of Manalapan still recalls the day he opened his front door to find the Rev. John Bambrick offering condolences and assistance after the death of Gray's 32-year-old son, Christopher Gray, in the World Trade Center attacks.
"When this happened, he was one of the first people to come to our house," said Gray, who belongs to another area church. "It was just so overwhelming. That he just cared to come over and offer his prayers and his support, it meant the world to us.
"He's that kind of person," Gray said. "He's abig presence in town."
It's a presence that congregants say will be sorely missed, when the 43-year-old Bambrick leaves St. Thomas More Roman Catholic Church, and the 4,700-family congregation he helped grow, for a new assignment in June at the larger St. Joseph's Church in Toms River.
Known to his congregants as "Father John," Bambrick made national headlines when he went public with his story of sexual abuse at the hands of a priest; he was recognized locally for galvanizing his shaken community after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
Burlington Free Press
May 11, 2008
VERMONT -- A civil trial pitting a former altar boy against the state's Roman Catholic Diocese could go to the jury by Monday afternoon.
The plaintiff, now 40 and living in Colorado, said the Rev. Edward Paquette molested him when he served as an altar boy at Christ the King Church in Burlington in the late 1970s. He sued the diocese for putting Paquette into a position to molest him even though the diocese was aware of previous claims of abuse against the priest.
The plaintiff's attorney rested his case Friday at Chittenden County Superior Court, and lawyers for the diocese will present its case Monday before closing arguments.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 11, 2008
6:42 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Sun May 11, 2008
• Abreast of the Catholics at Bethel
Abreast of the Catholics at Bethel
Letter to Roman Catholic and other news outlets,
sent by Faith Purification Programme, Monday, May 12, 2008
WESTERN AUSTRALIA –
Saturday's "West [Australian]" pages 6 and 7 (May 10) had a heading "Christian chief Horgan quits amid breast-groping claims."
The "covenant community" of Bethel in West Leederville were doing things to the ladies that no-one who went to Catholic schools in the 1940s would imagine could ever be practised in a Catholic setting, or in any Christian setting except some cults in history and at the present day.
How much Church money went into this charismatic "speaking in tongues" group is anybody's guess.
This undue interest in ladies' fronts by some leaders of the Bethel Covenant Community has amazed and annoyed responsible members of the Catholic community in Western Australia.
According to Sean Cowan's excellent lengthy report, it took almost a year after the first complaints reached the RC bishops for the leadership to leave the scene -- and that was the result of self-embarrassing talks by two brave women to other members
But isn't this kind of inaction the very same as the hierarchy's reaction to child sex abuse that has festered for decades in this country and America? They don't tell the police, they don't warn other RCs, and they just keep on preaching sexual abstinence and responsible non-condom parenthood!
Might I tell non-Catholic readers that before he arrived for his American visit the Pope told the news media that he was "ashamed" of the clergy sex abuse, but [Perth RC weekly] The Record made the next front page a miracle cure attributed to Father Damien, the leper priest.
With this sort of thinking, how can the RC Church overcome its contrasting set of hang-ups -- saving every sperm in marriage or in medical experiments, but wasting millions in sex perversions? #
[CONTACT: Bethel Covenant Community Ltd., 236 Railway Pde, West Leederville, WA, 6007, Australia; Tel. 08 9388 1333; www.bethel services. com.au/ .
ENDS.]
[COMMENT: The Bethel group is listed as a Limited Liability Company, according to a Telephone CD-ROM entry.
COMMENT ENDS.]
[LINK/S:
Bethel blog: http://bethelcommunity.vox.com/library/post/the-article-from-the-west-australian-newspaper.html ;
Christian group or cult? blog:
http://feminist545.vox.com/library/post/vox-tips-tricks.html#comments
ENDS.]
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#abreast_of_the_catholics
[May 12, 08]
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[~ 1969, 1967-72 Corrigan] - RCC. 1 girl, 3 boys.
Northumberland Gazette
~ May 12, 2008
ENGLAND and IRISH REPUBLIC -- A Catholic priest is facing a prison sentence after admitting a string of sex attacks on young children in the North East.
Father John Benedict Corrigan, 71, was extradited from the Irish Republic to the UK to face justice for sexually abusing three boys and a girl.
At Newcastle Crown Court, the retired clergyman admitted indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl nearly 40 years ago.
At an earlier hearing he had also pleaded guilty to seven counts of indecent assault on boys between 1967 and 1972. They were aged between eight and 13.
- RCC. Bp Robinson confronted sex abuse cover-up, and now is blamed for explaining reasons.
CathNews,
www.cathnews. com/article. aspx?aeid= 7105 ,
Published: May 13, 2008
AUSTRALIA -- Retired Sydney auxiliary Bishop Geoffrey Robinson is "uncertain" about Christ's authority and knowledge and his recently published book "casts doubt" on Church teaching, according to a statement by the Australian Catholic bishops.
At their meeting in Sydney last week, the bishops adopted a statement criticising Bishop Robinson's book "Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus".
"We are grateful for the contribution Bishop Robinson has made to the life of the Church," the bishops say.
"We are deeply indebted to him for his years of effort to bring help and healing to those who have suffered sexual abuse and for what he has done to establish protocols of professional standards for Church personnel in this area", the statement continues.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 12, 2008
8:39 PM]
- RCC.
WAVE,
~ May 12, 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- An attorney is seeking a court order to question Pope Benedict XVI [Joseph Ratzinger] in an ongoing church sex abuse case, saying the holy father is the most knowledgeable person alive about what the Catholic Church knew about sex abuse allegations.
Louisville attorney William McMurry said because the pope is 81 years old, he may not be available to give testimony later in the case.
"The passage of time not only raises questions of Pope Benedict XVI's continued availability but also increases the likelihood that his memory of events dating back many years will grow less reliable," McMurry said.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 12, 2008
7:12 PM]
- Various religions. RCC insurance paid US $26.1m on 129 claims.
Miami Herald,
BY FRED TASKER, ftasker@MiamiHerald.com , ~ May 12, 2008
FLORIDA -- With the economy down and needs up for the homeless, the hungry and the elderly, donations to South Florida churches and other religious institutions are straining to keep up with soaring needs, leaders say.
At the Miami Archdiocese, collection-plate revenues are steady, but assessments that individual parishes pay are slow in coming or are down, and needs are up sharply, resulting in the layoff of 49 of the 182 staffers at its Pastoral Center on Biscayne Boulevard, says spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta.
In a letter to parishioners, Archbishop John C. Favalora says: ``Each year a greater number of parishes and programs are seeking our financial help, and, therefore, we must prioritize. We can only work with what we have." …
Agosta said the archdiocese's economic difficulties are not a result of the sexual abuse scandal among priests that broke in 2002. Archdiocese insurance policies paid $26.1 million in legal and counseling costs linked to 129 claims involving priests, laity and religious brothers and sisters.
- RCC.
The Boston Globe,
May 12, 2008
BURLINGTON, VERMONT – A judge says jury deliberations will begin Tuesday in the case of a former altar boy suing the Diocese of Burlington in a priest sex case.
The eight-man, four-woman jury heard closing arguments Monday, capping the case of a 40-year-old Lakewood, Colo., man who says a parish priest groped him in the 1970s and that the Diocese bears responsibility because it knew of similar allegations against the priest before he was hired.
[Rucker] - RCC.
City of Angels
By Kay Ebeling
~ May 12, 2008
[with video]
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- When drawing a picture of Cardinal Roger Mahony, the face becomes more lifelike when you begin to erase lines. I sat in on a conference Saturday with Cindy Falter, one of the LA plaintiffs from last year's civil cases, and the Cardinal, in response to his call for victims of church sex crimes to come meet with him. (Above is raw video, a standup interview with Cindy right after the meeting.) At one point she kept asking the cardinal to answer, "How do you explain George Neville Rucker openly taking children out of the classroom to the rectory to be raped on school days?"
"Well, it's evil, it's just pure evil," was the Cardinal's response. The room was silent so he repeated, "It was evil pure evil." That was all he had to say.
Mahony did tell us that Cindy's perpetrator, George Neville Rucker, was laicized earlier this year, and his assistant confirmed to me today by phone, that by a decree from Rome, Rucker was removed in 2008 from the priesthood. Mahony assured us we no longer have to worry about the church expending funds to pay for Rucker's stay in Nazareth House, where he's apparently been the past few years.
"He's on Social Security now," Mahony told us, which means the pedophile priest George Neville Rucker will have a steady income, he'll stay healthy with MediCare, probably get section 8 housing before long or county funded board and care help until he dies. Rucker was convicted once but the 2003 US Supreme Court Stogner decision released him and a lot of priests from their crimes.
- Illuminating the RCC.
Voice of the Faithful,
www.voiceof thefaithful. org ,
~ May 12, 2008
[with link to itinerary]
UNITED STATES -- Most Rev Geoffrey James Robinson DD, [retired] Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney, Australia, will begin his U.S. visit later this month. The bishop will be speaking at several VOTF affiliate meetings and VOTF co-sponsored gatherings.
Bishop Robinson had been appointed by the Australian Bishops Conference and for nine years headed up the Conference's Committee for Professional Standards, which developed procedures for responding to victims of sexual abuse.
Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus is the title of his book, soon to be released in the U.S. The book, now in its fourth printing in Australia, has received much attention.
- RCC.
Burlington Free Press,
May 12, 2008
VERMONT -- An attorney for the plaintiff in the lawsuit against the state's Catholic diocese asked the jury today to award between $6 and $12 million in punitive damages.
John Evers, on behalf of the plaintiff, also asked the 12-person jury to award between $920,000 and $2.3 million in compensatory damages. The suit charges the Roman Catholic Diocese of Vermont hired a priest it knew to have abused altar boys in other states, then failed to supervise the priest as he molested the plaintiff.
"You need to make the number so high, they won't give it a second thought" Evers said of the diocese's ever allowing this activity to occur again.
Earlier today, Judge Matthew Katz ruled that the plaintiff had filed his lawsuit in time to qualify for a potential damage award when the jury issues its verdict in the case.
- RCC. Oliver O'Grady case, William Ryan case.
The Record,
1:42 PM, May 12, 2008
STOCKTON (CA) -- The two words that come up most often are "humble" and "spiritual."
Those two words were used time and again by people recalling Bishop Donald Montrose, the fourth bishop of the Stockton Diocese, who died early Wednesday, a week shy of his 85th birthday and on the 59th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. …
But if the diocese under Montrose reached out, it also turned inward during periods of self-examination as it dealt with some of the most painful events in its history.
Montrose had been bishop for seven years when former St. Anne's Church priest Oliver O'Grady pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual abuse with children. In 1998, two brothers were awarded $30 million in a sexual-abuse suit stemming from the O'Grady case. The award was reduced to $13 million.
Then there was the 1997 case involving a priest accused of embezzling $76,000 from Annunciation Cathedral. The priest, William Ryan, eventually pleaded no contest to felony theft and tax evasion charges.
- RCC.
WPTZ,
~ May 12, 2008
BURLINGTON, Vt. -- The Diocese of Burlington Monday rested its case without calling any witnesses in a civil suit filed by a former altar boy who said he was routinely groped by a parish priest in the 1970s and that the diocese is partially to blame.
Church lawyers played videotaped testimony of a parish priest who's not involved in the case and then rested their defense after Judge Matthew Katz rejected their plan to call a priest to the stand without sufficient notice.
[2007 Taban*] - RCC. Teenage girl.
KVIA,
~ May 12, 2008
EL PASO (TX) -- The trial for Catholic Priest Philip Taban, who is accused of second degree sexual assault, began Monday morning at the 409th District Court.
Taban, a national of the African nation of Uganda, was a visiting priest at Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini Church in East El Paso.
A jury for his trial was picked Friday and Prosecutors begin presenting evidence Monday.
According to the District Attorney's Office, the charges stem from accusations made by an 18-year-old teenager, who said Taban sexually assaulted her when she visited his home at the 1200 Block of Picasso to seek religious guidance.
[LOOK BACK: ~ September 13, 2007]
[~ 1969, 1967-72 Corrigan] - RCC. 1 girl, 3 boys.
The Press Association,
IRELAND -- A Catholic priest from County Mayo is facing prison after admitting a string of sex attacks on young children.
Father John Benedict Corrigan, 71, was extradited from Ireland to the UK to face justice for sexually abusing three boys and a girl in the north east of England.
[Szantyr]
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests,
~ May 12, 2008
WORCESTER (MA) --
Our hearts ache for the victims of Fr. Szantyr who has made a mockery of the justice system by his endless legal maneuvers and delays. More than 30 times he and his ruthless lawyers have postponed court appearances on one ruse or another.
We citizens criticize child sex abuse victims for not reporting the crimes promptly, we hope they'll remember Fr. Szantyr who shrewdly exploited legal technicalities to evade justice.
Everyone deserves due process, even child molesters. But due process needn't be so ridiculously lengthy. We call on Massachusetts lawmakers to look closely at this travesty and find reforms that will prevent child predators from successfully exploiting legal loopholes and processes in the future.
We call on anyone with information about crimes or potential crimes by Szantyr to call police, come forward, and get help.
[1978-95 Pastor, musician +] - "Christian Gospel Temple". 4 girls.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests,
May 12, 2008
CALIFORNIA -- Four young women have filed child sex abuse lawsuits against a cult in Chino saying they were repeatedly molested as kids and that church officials suspected or knew of the crimes but did nothing to stop them.
Even after officials at Christian Gospel Temple confirmed that the girls were being abused, they still refused to contact law enforcement or warn congregants, according to the lawsuits.
The alleged predators include a former pastor and a musician, both affiliated with the self-professed non-denominational church.
The crimes took place between 1978 and 1995, mostly in Chino California where the Temple was located until 1991. That year, Temple leadership and roughly 400 of its members moved to White House Tennessee (near Nashville). The Temple's head told congregants that Californians were "full of sin" and had moved there "to find stardom" and that the state "could fall into the ocean someday," according to the lawsuit.
- RCC.
[1997-2004 Mr Zgoznik*] - RCC. Guilty. US$784,000 for consulting.
[~ 2000s Mr Joseph Smith*] - Money US $784,000.
The Chronicle-Telegram,
Associated Press, May 12, 2008
CLEVELAND (OH) – The boss of a former Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland accountant who was convicted of funneling $784,000 in kickbacks goes on trial today on multiple charges that include making false personal income tax returns, money laundering, mail fraud and conspiracy.
Jury selection was set to begin in U.S. District Court in the trial of Joseph Smith, the diocese's former chief financial officer.
The accountant, Anton Zgoznik, was convicted in October of conspiracy and 14 other charges. He was accused of arranging the payments to his former boss from 1997 through 2004 in what prosecutors portrayed as unauthorized kickbacks in return for having diocesan accounting work contracted to Zgoznik's private business.
- RCC.
The Buffalo News,
By Jay Tokasz, Updated 7:32 AM, May/12/08
BUFFALO (NY) -- Few people would mistake St. Bonaventure Church at Harlem Road and Seneca Street for an architectural masterpiece.
Yet in this modest corner of West Seneca, the quaint church with the faded cedar shake shingles has stood the test of time, serving as spiritual home to countless Catholics and social center for young and old alike.
Parishioners and neighborhood residents hope to keep it that way, but as the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo moves toward concluding parish restructurings, the church appears likely to be closed in a merger with nearby St. William.
"It's a beautiful, beautiful area," said Bill Kruger Sr., who lives two blocks from the church. "But once they start doing this, people will say, 'Oh, I don't know about this neighborhood.' "
[2007 Taban*] - RCC. Teenage girl.
KDBC,
Posted by Armando Saldivar, KDBC 4 News, ~ May 12, 2008
EL PASO (TX) -- A Catholic priest is accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old parishioner. The trial for 39-year-old Philip Taban is set to begin on Monday.
Taban was visiting from the African nation of Uganda when he allegedly attacked the El Paso teenage girl who attended mass at Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in East El Paso. Father Taban had been conducting masses there.
- RCC closing here and there.
Leader-Telegram,
By Kevin Murphy, Leader-Telegram correspondent, ~ May 12, 2008
MADISON, WISCONSIN -- Facing a future in which there will be fewer Roman Catholic priests to tend to the spiritual needs of the 200,000 Catholics, the La Crosse Diocese last week realigned its parishes.
"Now we have a plan, and I think it's a wise move to have it known so when the time comes and a parish won't have their own priest it's not a traumatic situation," said the Rev. Brian Konopa of St. Olaf Church on Eau Claire's west side.
Under the plan announced Thursday by Bishop Jerome Listecki, St. Olaf will become the parish center for St. Bridget's Church in the town of Seymour. St. Bridget's doesn't have a resident pastor and instead has been ministered by the Rev. Ed Doerre, pastor at Holy Ghost in Chippewa Falls.
- RCC.
Independent Catholic News (United Kingdom),
~ May 12, 2008
In a letter to Pope Benedict XVI the international Catholic reform movement We Are Church asks him "to reconsider the present organisation of the ministries in the Roman Catholic Church, to urgently repeal the present Church,' law of obligatory celibacy and to re-introduce voluntary celibacy for ordained priests as a first step towards a renewed form of priesthood.
In its letter WAC writes: "The opportunity to celebrate the Eucharist should take precedence over the Church law of compulsory celibacy referring canon 213 which gives Christians the right to receive the Holy Eucharist each Sunday.
The Catholic reform movement is greatly concerned about the growing shortage of ordained priests which can be seen in the Vatican,s "Annuario Pontificio". Because of this the celebration of the Holy Eucharist has had to be omitted in an increasing number of parishes. This does not only affect Europe and the United States of America, but especially the parishes and missions in South America. It is a global problem that urgently requires a global solution and one that a great majority of practising Catholics would like to see changed.
- RCC.
Irish Independent,
By John Cooney, Monday May 12 2008
IRELAND -- Pope Benedict XVI realises that Irish society has been "deeply pained" by the sexual abuse of children by paedophile priests, the new Papal Nuncio revealed yesterday.
In his first public statement since arriving in Ireland last month Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza (65) said he regretted "the injury inflicted on innocent people and their families, by churchmen whose conduct has been in stark contrast to their priestly calling and religious obligations".
- RCs follow shepherds.
Wausau Daily Herald,
By Robert Mentzer, rmentzer@wdhprint.com , May 12, 2008
WAUSAU (WI) -- Speaking to full pews Sunday morning at St. Matthew Parish in Wausau, the Rev. Robert Thorn did not mention the La Crosse Diocese plan to merge many of Wausau's Catholic parishes.
But the service on Pentecost Sunday carried a theme of transformation that could be applied to the church's plans.
Few of the parish mergers would affect where people attend Sunday services.
St. Matthew, for instance, would be a "liturgical satellite" instead of a parish, but it would continue to hold services. Members outside St. Matthew after services were mostly accepting of the changes.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. Boys.
WCAX,
May 12, 2008
BURLINGTON, Vermont -- The state's Roman Catholic Diocese will present its case Monday, in an alleged priest sex abuse trial.
The plaintiff says Reverend Edward Paquette molested him in the late 1970s, when he was an altar boy at Christ the King Church in Burlington. He is suing the diocese for not properly supervising Paquette despite evidence that showed Paquette was a known child sexual abuser.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 12, 2008
8:15 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Mon May 12, 2008
• [Bethel group displays problems on Internet blogs; Feedback on Inside Cover.]
InsideCover
Feedback
The West Australian,
www.thewest. com.au ,
Edited by Gary Adshead, inside.cover@ wanews. com.au , p 2, Tuesday, May 13, 2008
PERTH, W. Australia –
Tongues are wagging in powerful Catholic circles after The West's Bethel Community expose on Saturday.
Apart from deciding whether Benny Hill should be the religious splinter group's new patron, a blog site which helped lift the lid on the titillating allegations has been shut down.
"The job of the blog is over," declared the blog site's mystery convener. "For all of you I pray that you all grow closer to God by the love you express to your fellow journeymen (women)."
But within hours of the blog being pulled, another had started up to funnel discussion about the crisis engulfing the West Leederville organisation.
Unfortunately, the wording of the invitation to potential bloggers could have been better considering the scandal is all about the community's ex-leader allegedly groping female members.
"Get stuff off your chest and keep the communication going," it reads. #
[RECAPITULATION: "Stuff off your chest". ;-)
ENDS.]
[RESPONSE:
To Inside Cover,
Tongues are not only wagging in POWERFUL Catholic circles, but also in POWERLESS circles like mine! Could I label the Bethel baring beauties as victims of "ADULT" sex abuse? And aren't the husbands and fathers victims too? Of course, the blogs showed me that the teenage children were emotionally constricted and abused.
And all supposedly in the name of Jesus, who went about doing good.
Keep up your good work!
ENDS.]
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#bethel_group_displays
[May 13, 08]
• Marist Brothers 'ignored' complaints about sex abuse.
[1981-89 Bro. Chute, aka Bro. Kostka (Marist)] - RCC. 6 boys.
Marist Brothers ‘ignored’ complaints about sex abuse
Broken Rites - Australia,
http:// brokenrites. alphalink. com.au/ nletter/ page152- kostka.html ,
By a Broken Rites researcher, e-mail May 13, 2008
AUSTRALIA –
Marist College in Canberra allowed one of its Marist Brothers to continue working with boys even after the school learned that he was molesting students, a court has been told.
Marist Brother John William Chute, aged 75, whose "religious" name is "Brother Kostka", pleaded guilty in the Australian Capital Territory Magistrates Court on 21 February 2008 to committing indecent acts with pupils between 1985 and 1989 when they were aged 13
and 14.
Chute adopted the name Kostka when he became a Brother, which was customary in the Marist order. (There was a "Saint Stanislaus Kostka" in the 16th century.)
At a pre-sentence hearing in the A.C.T. Supreme Court on 9 May 2008, the court was told that Kostka taught at 11 other Marist Brothers schools in Australia between 1952 and 1975 before moving to Canberra's Marist College in 1976, where he stayed for 27 years.
An agreed statement of facts (submitted to the Supreme Court jointly by the prosecution and the defence) revealed that the parents of at least one victim reported Brother Kostka Chute's abuse to the Marist College headmaster in 1986, but Kostka remained at the school until the end of 1993.
At the pre-sentence hearing, Kostka pleaded guilty to 19 incidents of indecently touching six teenage boys between 1985 and 1989.
The 19 admitted incidents represented only a fraction of the sexual encounters he had had with the six boys, according to the agreed statement of facts.
The offences happened in various places around the school, including including: in Kostka's office; in his on-campus residence; in the theatrette where Kostka hosted movie nights; in a gardening shed; and even in a food van that sold pies at football games on weekends.
The pre-sentence hearing was also told that when Kostka was aged only eleven years he was recruited into a Marist Brothers boarding institution, where he joined a group of boys who were "aspiring" to become Marist Brothers. While he was living in the care of the Marist Brothers at this early age, he became introduced to the practice of sexual abuse, the court was told.
How the case began
Kostka was represented in court by a Sydney lawyer who frequently represents Catholic Church personnel in sex-abuse court cases. The Marist Brothers were paying for Kostka's legal costs.
Originally, in the Magistrates Court on 17 January 2008, Kostka was charged with incidents of indecency extending back to 1981. However, at a second hearing on 21 February 2008, the A.C.T. Director of Public Prosecutions dropped some of the earliest charged incidents because these incidents had allegedly happened before 1985, when charges relating to sexual indecency had to be made within a year.
The school ignored complaints
Documents tendered in court on 21 February 2008 revealed that a teacher and one headmaster at the school were told by victims that Brother Kostka had molested them, but the school allowed him to teach for several more years.
One alleged victim, whose complaint was dropped in the 21 February 2008 hearing because it related to an incident in 1981, told police in August 2007 that he had reported Kostka's assault on him to a teacher in 1986 because he was concerned that Brother Kostka was spending a lot of time with another young student. However, the teacher, John Doyle, told him the next day that "nothing was going to be done regarding his allegation and concerns".
Several years later, in the early 1990s, the alleged victim went to the school and told the then-headmaster of the assault. But when he spoke to the headmaster soon after, he was told that Brother Kostka had denied assaulting him and the investigation had been passed on to Kostka's "superiors" {that is, to fellow Marist Brothers}. The alleged victim told police he had been intent in preventing Kostka from having further contact with children. He had a meeting with a senior Marist brother, Brother Alexis Turton {who was the Australian head of the Marist Brothers from 1989 to 1995}. However, the alleged victim was merely asked "what he wanted" from the Marist Brothers, and was offered counselling.
Brother Turton later informed the alleged victim that Kostka had been moved to a Mittagong farmhouse in southern New South Wales for retired Marist brothers, the Hermitage, where he remained until his arrest in January 2008.
The alleged victim's brother went to the farmhouse in 2002 to visit another Brother, where he discovered that Brother Kostka was running a youth drop-in centre for boys.
{By 2008, Brother Alexis Turton had become the Marists' professional standards officer, with the responsibility for dealing with complaints about sexual abuse. He accompanied Kostka to court during the 2008 proceedings.}
The offences
According to court documents, victims told police that Brother Kostka would win their trust and confidence before developing a pattern of systemic abuse. Some boys were molested on a daily basis over more than a year. Kostka would often put his hands down the boys' pants, sometimes in classrooms with other students in the room. Other times, he would expose himself and force the boys to touch his penis, with two victims recalling vividly the expression that came over Kostka's face when he was molesting them "He would raise the outer edges of his eyebrows and his tongue would be out the side of his mouth," one boy recalled.
The victims told police that Brother Kostka befriended lots of boys through a movie club he ran, in which a film would be screened at the school's theatrette on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
One victim, who was molested in 1986 in the theatrette, recalled how Kostka sat next to him and put his hand on his groin. When the boy moved away, Kostka followed, and did so about three times before finally giving up.
The boy told his parents the next day and they made an appointment to see the headmaster, Brother Terrence Heinrich. Brother Terrence told them they could either go to police or the school could handle the matter "in-house". They opted for the latter. However, Kostka taught for a further seven years.
{After being the headmaster in Canberra, Brother Terrence Heinrich moved to Marist College, Ashgrove, in Brisbane, where he was the headmaster in 1990-96. A Marist website says that Brother Heinrich later went to Cambodia to live in a mission that was "caring for disabled children in the suburbs of Phnom Penh". }
Another victim, to whom six of the admitted 11 offences relate, said Kostka abused him between 1985 and 1987 "almost daily" and sometimes in the classroom while other students were present. In turn, Kostka "showered him with kindness". On one occasion, he threatened another victim to whom another four of the offences relate with expulsion if he told anyone.
After Kostka's guilty plea on 21 February 2008, the magistrate released Kostka on bail pending sentencing proceedings in the ACT Supreme Court on a later date. While on bail, he was to live with Brother Turton in Sydney.
Parents were kept in the dark
After Brother Kostka's guilty plea in February 2008, Canberra Times journalist Victor Violante uncovered further information about the Brother Kostka affair, which was published in the newspaper on 1 March 2008
The Canberra Times said that, after a former student reported having been abused, Kostka was told to leave the school by his superior in 1993 but parents and students were never told why.
The former Australian head of the Marist Brothers, Brother Alexis Turton, confirmed that he met an alleged victim at Canberra Airport in September 1993, prompting Brother Kostka's removal at the end of the school year.
However, it is understood that neither the school nor Marist Brothers made efforts to identify any other potential victims, and they did not refer the matter to police.
Brother Alexis told the Canberra Times: "Basically {the alleged victim} made a complaint about Brother Kostka. I spoke to Brother Kostka and after a discussion we decided that the best course of action would be for him to leave Canberra…Basically, after the discussion {with Kostka} I asked him to leave."
Students and parents were not told at the time why Kostka had been removed from the school. Instead, the 1994 college year book suggested that Kostka had accepted an invitation to transfer to Sydney, and he was praised for his invaluable contribution to the school during his 18 years of teaching.
"During the holidays last Christmas, in a belated transfer which is usual enough in religious congregations, Brother {Kostka} accepted the invitation to bring to a close his long ministry in Canberra and moved to Sydney," the entry said.
"The lateness of the transfer meant we could not pay tribute to him in the 1993 Blue and Blue {year book}, so here it is one year later, but no less genuine or sincere because of that."
The alleged victim who met Brother Alexis at the airport, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Canberra Times that he had approached the school's headmaster more than a decade after the assault because of concerns that Kostka was allegedly grooming other children.
Brother Alexis, who in 2008 is the professional standards officer for the Marist Brothers in New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT, also confirmed that Kostka was not removed from the school until three months after he met the alleged victim. He said an "assessment" concluded "no-one was in any danger" if Kostka remained at the school until the end of the term.
Another alleged victim said he had reported an allegation of sexual abuse to the school in December 1993, days before Kostka was removed. On that occasion, the school again allegedly arranged for Brother Alexis to meet the boy's parents in Canberra. He assured them Kostka would never work with children again. Brother Alexis has denied any recollection of this meeting.
The admissions come on the back of allegations contained in civil and criminal court documents that various headmasters and teachers knew of allegations of sexual abuse against Kostka as early as 1979, and against other brothers and teachers at the school as early as 1970, but failed to act.
Pre-sentence hearing
Kostka appeared in the ACT Supreme Court again on 9 May 2008 for pre-sentence submissions.
At the pre-sentence hearing, Kostka pleaded guilty to 19 counts of indecently touching the six teenage boys between 1985 and 1989. This included 11 counts, relating to four boys between 1986 and 1987, to which he had pleaded guilty in February 2008. It did not include seven other charges the prosecution was forced to drop because they had allegedly happened before 1985, when a statute of limitations of one year applied in the Australian Capital Territory for such offences.
The court heard that Kostka, the youngest of 10 children, had been separated from his parents in Lismore, New South Wales, when he was 11 to attend a Marist Brothers "juniorate" (a secondary boarding school for boys aspiring to become brothers) in Mittagong, southern New South Wales. It was there – within the Marist Brothers culture – that Kostka became introduced to the practice of sexual abuse, the court was told.
A psychiatrist, Dr Chris Canaris, who had been treating Kostka since 2002 for what he called a "psychosexual disorder", told the court that Kostka had disclosed he had been sexually abused by an older boy while at the juniorate between the ages of 11 and 13 and also by "a member of a religious order".
On 9 May 2008, the sentencing proceedings were adjourned to a later date, pending the preparation of a pre-sentence report.
Civil actions against the Marist Brothers
Meanwhile, a larger number of Kostka's alleged victims are also engaged in a civil action, through a Canberra solicitor, Jason Parkinson, seeking compensation from the Marist Brothers for breach of the school's duty of care. Jason Parkinson said outside the court in February 2008 that there are still unanswered questions as to what the Marist College knew about Kostka's abuse of children and why it went on for so long. #
[BRACKET EXPLANATION: Whenever a square bracket "[" or "]" was used in the above article, the Webmaster changed it to a curly bracket or brace, "{" or "}", because the Webmaster reserves square brackets for any additional information he himself adds to help explain the meaning. Occasionally more information may be obtained by running the mouse cursor over a word or words. An example above in the supplementary "added" details to the headline is the abbreviation "aka".
ENDS.]
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm#marist_brothers_ignored
[May 13, 08]
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[Bp Maggiolini -NEW*] - RCC. Accomplice.
Catholic World News,
www.cwnews. com/news/ viewstory. cfm?rec num=58407 ,
May 13, 2008
ROME, Italy (CWNews.com) - Bishop Alessandro Maggiolini, the retired head of Italy's Como diocese, will be charged as an accomplice in a sex-abuse case, according to Italian media reports.
[2007 Moschonas -NEW*] - Orthodox Christian. Girl.
Orthodox Reform (BOSTON),
Author: Theodore Kalmoukos, Publication: The National Herald, May/12/2008
TUCSON (AZ) – Rev. Protopresbyter Anthony Moschonas, a retired priest from Tucson, Arizona who has been accused by an 18 year old female former parishioner for sexual misconduct last summer in Greece, maintained his innocence and believes that his accuser made these claims "because she needs money," in an interview with The National Herald.
No criminal charges have been filed against Moschonas, but the young lady has filed a civil lawsuit in which she is identified as "Jane Doe," which states that the alleged sexual contact occurred during a trip to Athens, Greece -- a trip she says the priest gave her as a gift for her 18th birthday.
[2005-06 Father E.M. -NEW*] - RCC. 4yrs prison. 2 girls.
Tendenze,
9 mag., 2008
ROMA, Italia, (Apcom) - Colpevole di atti sessuali su minore. Per questa accusa un sacerdote di 49 anni, E.M., é stato condannato all'esito del rito abbreviato, a 4 anni di reclusione, dal gup del tribunale di Roma, Marina Finiti. La sentenza é stata pronunciata nei giorni scorsi, ma la notizia si é appresa solo oggi. Secondo l'accusa il prete avrebbe compiuto abusi sessuali su due bambine di 10 anni anche durante la confessione. A carico dell'imputato il pm Francesco Scavo aveva contestato l'articolo 609 quater del codice penale.
[translation]
May 9, 2008
ROME, Italy, (Apcom) - Responsible of committing sexual acts on a minor. That was the charge to a 49-year-old priest, E.M., sentenced to 4 years in jail at the end an abbreviated procedure by the judge of the Rome Tribunal, Ms. Marina Finiti.
The ruling was issued days ago but the news was made public only today. According to the charge the priest had sexually abused two ten-years-old girls, even during confession. The Prosecutor Francesco Scavo had charged the priest according to article 609 quater [sic] of the penal code.
According to the accusation, E.M., "using his position of spiritual father of those girls who attended the course of catechism at the parish of Santa Rosa of Viterbo and thus profiting from such an authority, repeatedly and in various circumstances (also in the occasion of confession), after having brought them to the sacristy and to his private apartment inside the parish, caressing their body on many occasions and embracing them around their neck, hugging them and kissing their face and their mouth using his tongue".
According to the accusations, the abuses happened in the parish situated in the Tor di Quinto zone, in the north of the Capital, between 2005 and 2006.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. < US $9.7m. Boys.
NECN,
www.necn. com/Boston/ New-England/ Former- Vermont- altar-boy- awarded- 87M/12107 14824.html ;
by Anya Huneke, ~ May 13, 2008
[with video]
BURLINGTON, VT -- The jury spent about four hours pouring over the details of the case, trying to decide whether Vermont's Roman Catholic Diocese should be held accountable in the molestation of an altar boy in the 1970s.
Jurors found the Diocese guilty of negligence in its hiring and supervision of former priest Edward Paquette.
According to the evidence, the Diocese had been warned that Paquette had a history of molestation in Indiana and Massachusetts. Also known according to evidence, was that the Diocese knew Paquette continued to fondle boys in Vermont, including at Christ the King in Burlington, where the plaintiff, now 40, was an altar boy. He claims he was molested 40-100 times by Paquette over two years.
[? 1990s-2000s James Clark] - Methodist. 535mos prison. Money US $586,347. Rape of woman.
Avalanche-Journal,
By Logan G. Carver | Tuesday, May 13, 2008
LUBBOCK (TX) -- A federal judge sentenced James Cornell Clark to nearly 20 years in prison on Monday for financial crimes and for bringing a Kenyan woman to the United States and forcing her to have sex with him.
After several delays by Clark and two different trials, U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings issued the myriad sentences. Clark's attorney filed notice of appeal Monday afternoon.
Found guilty by juries in two different cases of 42 counts, Clark received a total of 535 months in federal prison and 31 years' probation. The sentences, however, will run concurrently, meaning Clark will spend 235 months in prison before beginning his supervised release. He also must pay restitution monthly. …
While serving as preacher of Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, Clark misrepresented the church as being the nonprofit sponsor of the Department of Agriculture Summer Food Program.
He was convicted of bilking $586,347 from the program, which provides meals for needy children during the summer months when they do not have access to the National School Lunch/School Breakfast Program.
[Years - Burlington Diocese] - RCC. Retained seducer in office.
The Boston Globe,
www.boston. com/news/ local/vermont/ articles/ 2008/05/13/ verdict_ reached_ in_diocese_ trial ;
May 13, 2008
BURLINGTON, Vt.–A jury awarded $8.7 million in damages Tuesday to a former altar boy who sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington over sexual abuse he says he suffered at the hands of a priest.
The man, now a 40-year-old mechanical engineer in Lakewood, Colo., sued the diocese over molestation he claims he suffered at the hands of parish priest Rev. Edward Paquette in the 1970s. His suit claimed negligent supervision by the diocese, accusing church officials of hiring Paquette despite warnings about allegations of molestation of boys in previous assignments. …
Bishop Salvatore Matano told reporters at the courthouse: "The verdict is a very serious impact on a rural diocese, a small, rural diocese, and I do not want in any way to inflict any suffering or any pain on the faithful of this diocese because of what happened in the past."
"The evidence was compelling," said Jerome F. O'Neill, the lead attorney representing the man. "Our client went through what no child should ever have to go through, and he did so because the diocese paid no attention to the perpetrator it was putting in its parishes."
[2007 Taban*] - RCC. Teenage girl.
KVIA,
~ May 13, 2008
EL PASO, Texas - The trial for Catholic Priest Philip Taban, who is accused of second degree sexual assault, continued Tuesday at the 409th District Court. …
After the testimony both sides rested their cases. Closing arguments are scheduled for Wednesday.
[~2008 Madhavan, aka Chaitanya] - ? Hindu. Girl.
Hindustan Times,
www.hindu stantimes. com/storypage/ storypage. aspx?id= 5c60aade- 9fa8-46d2-9854- 127c5911d 23f&&Headline= Controversial+ godman+held ;
by Ramesh Babu, May 14, 2008
Thiruvananthapuram, India -- A sexual assault complaint by a teenage girl led to the arrest of controversial godman Swami Amritha Chaitanya on Tuesday.
As it turned out, the 35-year-old swami was wanted by the Interpol and Dubai police for fraud.
The swami, whose real name is Santhosh Madhavan, has been running a plush ashram at Vyppin, Kochi, for the past five years.
Kochi Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham said, "The girl filed a complaint saying the swami had sexually assaulted her a number of times. He was arrested immediately."
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 13, 2008
7:53 PM]
- RCC. CRIMEN INCLUDES CHILD-SEX, TEENAGE-SEX and SEX WITH ANIMALS.
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting,
www.fair. org/index. php?page= 3366 ,
May/13/08
UNITED STATES -- UPDATE--The Catholic League, a conservative Catholic advocacy organization, has challenged the accuracy of FAIR's April 29 media advisory, "Pope Gets Pass on Church Abuse History." In a May 2 release, "Media Watchdog, FAIR, Smears Pope," League president Bill Donohue challenged FAIR's report that before he was elected pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger "sent a letter to church bishops invoking a 1962 doctrine threatening automatic excommunication for any Catholic official who discussed abuse cases outside the church's legal system."
According to Donohue, "The document did not apply to sexual misconduct--it applied only to sexual solicitation that might take place in the confessional." Donohue went on to say that because "the policy was specifically aimed at protecting the secrecy of the confessional, it called for an ecclesiastical response: Civil authorities were not to be notified because it involved a sacrament of the Catholic Church, not a crime of the state."
Donohue, who accused FAIR of failing to read the document, is in error. "Crimen Sollicitationis," the 1962 Vatican document in question, explicitly includes acts taking place outside, as well as inside, the confessional. Under the headline "On the Worst Crime" (Chapter V, article 73), the scope of the document is extended to include "any obscene, external act, gravely sinful, perpetrated in any way by a cleric or attempted by him with youths of either sex or with brute animals."
The issue of whether "Crimen" applied to acts committed outside the confessional was addressed by Monsignor Brian Ferme, a doctor of canon law, in "Il Proceso Penale Canonico," a book published by Lateran University Press, a publishing house affiliated with the Vatican. As Monsignor Ferme explained, "While the instruction dealt specifically with solicitation and the procedural norms to be applied in judging this crime, the fifth chapter stated that the same norms were also to be observed for the 'crimen pessimum' (article 71), which was understood to include paedophilia (article 73)."
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. < US $9.7m. Boys.
The Republican,
From staff and wire reports, 4:02 PM, Tuesday, May 13, 2008
BURLINGTON, Vt. - A jury has awarded $8.7 million in damages to a former altar boy who sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington over sexual abuse he says he suffered at the hands of a priest.
The man, now a 40-year-old mechanical engineer in Lakewood, Colo., sued the Diocese over molestation he claims he suffered at the hands of parish priest Rev. Edward Paquette in the 1970s. His suit claimed negligent supervision by the Diocese, accusing church officials of hiring Paquette despite warnings about allegations of molestation of boys in previous assignments.
After about four hours of deliberations, the Chittenden County Superior Court jury returned a verdict calling today for $950,000 in compensatory damages and $7.75 million in punitive damages.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. < US $9.7m. Boys.
Burlington Free Press,
May 13, 2008
VERMONT -- A jury has awarded a former altar boy more than $8 million in damages against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington in a historic verdict today in Chittenden County Superior Court.
After more than five hours of deliberations, the panel of eight men and four women returned at 3 p.m. with a verdict of $950,000 in compensatory damages and $7.75 million in punitive damages.
The plaintiff, a 40-year-old Colorado man who claimed he was abused 30 years ago by the Rev. Edward Paquette while serving at Christ The King Church in Burlington, had asked for between $6 million and $12 million.
- RCC's Australian bishops disown Bp Geoffrey Robinson.
The Age,
www.theage. com.au/news/ national/church- disowns- activist- bishop/ 2008/05/13/ 121044443 8513.html ;
by Barney Zwartz, May 14, 2008
AUSTRALIA'S Catholic bishops have disowned retired Sydney bishop Geoffrey Robinson, accusing him of failing to understand fundamental church teachings.
The country's bishops have released a public statement suggesting that Bishop Robinson – as a bishop, a man chosen by the Pope to guard the teaching of Catholics – is wrong about the authority of Christ and the authority of the church to "teach the truth".
The statement was the first official response to Bishop Robinson's controversial book published last August, in which he said the church needed to reverse 2000 years of teaching on sex and power as part of radical reforms from the Pope down.
In Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church, Bishop Robinson suggested that while the church refused to examine some fundamental teachings – including sex outside marriage, women priests, homosexuality and papal power – it was not serious about tackling abuse by priests, only "managing" it.
[COMMENT: Well, if Bishop Robinson can be "wrong" about doctrine, why didn't the spirit discern this, and enlighten his superiors BEFORE his promotion from priest and consecration as bishop? Another question: How many other RC bishops are wrong?
COMMENT ENDS.]
[Burlington Diocese]
Burlington Free Press,
By Sam Hemingway, May 13, 2008
VERMONT -- A judge denied this morning the plaintiff's request to declare a mistrial in a civil trial against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, instead turning the case over to the jury.
Jury deliberations will get under away after Judge Matthew Katz presents last-minute instructions to the panel. Lawyers for a former altar boy who says he was repeatedly fondled by a priest in the 1970s asked the jury Monday to consider punitive damages of up to $12 million.
This morning, Jerome O'Neill requested Katz to declare a mistrial in the case, saying a closing argument made by an attorney for the diocese was inflammatory and "a hate speech."
"What was said about (the plaintiff) and his lawyers … was an appeal to prejudice," O'Neill said today. "It was like a hate speech, inflammatory and highly prejudicial in many respects."
Monday, Thomas McCormick, representing the diocese, told the jury in the Chittenden County Superior Court trial that the damages requested by the plaintiff were exorbitant. "This isn't a state where lawsuits turn into lotteries. You represent the community. You know that's an absurdity."
[~ 1969, 1967-72 Corrigan] - RCC. 1 girl, 3 boys.
Shields Gazette,
By Karon Kelly, Published May 13, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM -- A FORMER Catholic priest who carried out a five-year campaign of child abuse was today jailed for four years.
Father John Corrigan sexually abused three altar boys and a girl at his church in Gateshead during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
His female victim told of her ordeal when it happened, and one of the others spent the early 1980s trying to convince the authorities what had happened to him.
But it was only 40 years later, when Corrigan admitted what he had done, that his victims have finally received justice.
- RCC attacking for shuffling seducers.
National Catholic Register,
BY MARK SHEA, May 18-24, 2008 Issue | Posted at 10:41 AM, May/13/08
UNITED STATES -- The "scandal" of the Gospel used to be a badge of honor for Catholics.
It was "scandalous" that God should become man, die on the cross, and grant us life through death. All of these affronts to the world's wisdom were summarized by St. Paul:
"For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Corinthians 1:21-25).
"Scandal" comes from skandalon (stumbling block). Some things about the Gospel are supposed to be "scandalous" in that good, Pauline sense of the word.
But not sin. Not the sexual abuse of children. Not the shame of pastors who shuffled around abusers rather than protecting their victims. That sort of skandalon is not a stumbling stone, but a millstone that Jesus hated and solemnly warned against. It has been one of the many painful realities of the Long Lent of 2002 that the Pauline meaning of the "scandal of the Gospel" has been buried under the disgraceful scandal caused by those to whom the Gospel had been especially entrusted.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - RCC. < US $9.7m. Boys.
The Boston Globe,
May 13, 2008
BURLINGTON, Vt.–A jury has reached a verdict in a priest sex trial involving the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington.
There's no word, yet, however, on what the verdict is.
A 40-year-old former Burlington altar boy says the Diocese is partly to blame for molestation he suffered at the hands of a parish priest at Christ the King Church in the 1970s.
The man's attorney say church officials should be slapped with a multimillion dollar damage award for hiring Father Edward Paquette in spite of knowledge that he'd been accused of molesting children in other states.
[McGuire]
Chicago Tribune,
By Azam Ahmed | 12:59 PM CDT, May 13, 2008
CHICAGO (IL) -- A former Jesuit priest accused of molesting two brothers in Arizona will not be extradited from Cook County until he faces similar charges in federal court here, a Cook County Circuit Court judge ruled Tuesday.
At his extradition hearing, Donald McGuire–who was defrocked earlier this year–was told that although Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has signed a warrant for the former priest's arrest, he will remain in custody here until pending federal charges in Illinois are dealt with.
McGuire, 77, had been scheduled to appear last month for his extradition hearing, but complained of chest pains and was rushed to Mercy Hospital. On Tuesday, he received the Arizona warrant in a wheelchair before being taken back into custody.
- FLDS.
PRNewswire,
May 13, 2008
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, /PRNewswire/ -- Attorneys for a married couple who lived in the fundamentalist Mormon community in Eldorado, TX, will ask a Bexar County District Court judge today for an emergency order to prevent the state from taking away their infant child, who is still nursing, when he turns a year old on Thursday.
Attorneys are filing a petition with the presiding judge at 3:30 p.m. seeking an emergency injunction to keep the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services from removing Joseph Steed Jessop Jr. from the care of his mother, Lori Jessop, 25. The petition also demands that Lori and her husband, Joseph Steed Jessop Sr., 27, be told the whereabouts of their other two children, and that the court schedule a hearing to determine whether the state can legally continue to hold the children.
According to the petition, a social worker told Mrs. Jessop that the child would be removed from her care when he turned a year old. All three children are being held without the authority of any court order, according to attorneys.
[~ 1969, 1967-72 Corrigan] - RCC. 1 girl, 3 boys.
Evening Chronicle
by Brenda Hickman and Rob Kennedy, May 13 2008
UNITED KINGDOM -- A SHAMED Tyneside priest has been jailed for four years for abusing alter boys and a teenage girl.
Father John Benedict Corrigan, 71, finally confessed to his sex sins in court, almost 40 years after the offences were committed.
He pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a girl between January and December 1970 when she was 15 and he was put on the Sex Offenders' Register last November when he admitted offences of indecent assault on boys between 1967 and 1972.
Judge David Hodgson said: "You thought no one would complain and even if they did, their word would not be believed against yours.
- RC Abp Cruz (anti-Arroyo) target of warrant.
All Headline News
Komfie Manalo - AHN News Writer, ~ May 13 2008
MANILA, Philippines (AHN) - A court in Manila, Philippines has issued a warrant of arrest against anti-gambling crusader and staunch critic of the Arroyo government, Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz, over a libel case filed against him by a lady executive of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.
Judge Antonio Rosales issued the warrant against Cruz and recommended a $250 bail for his temporary liberty.
The charge against the Catholic bishop stemmed from an article that was published in several newspapers on June 28, 2004 wherein Cruz allegedly accuse the lady executive acting as "pitiful GROs" (guest relations officers) during the birthday party of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo in 2004.
In May, the Department of Justice also filed a libel case against Cruz for "falsely and maliciously imputed to them (Pagcor employees) acts that have caused dishonor to, and besmirched their reputation as women when he described them in the said article."
[1967-72 Corrigan] - RCC. 1 girl, 3 boys.
News Guardian,
By ANTHONY MCLEAN
Court reporter
May 13, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM -- A CATHOLIC priest's campaign of sexual abuse was ignored by the authorities, a court heard.
For forty years, Father John Benedict Corrigan thought he had escaped justice for indecently assaulting four youngsters between 1967 and 1972.
But Corrigan was caught by the persistence of his victims desperate to make their voices heard, and was finally arrested in 2002 before being extradited from his home in Ireland to face trial on Tyneside.
[Years - Ramos] - RCC. ≤ 25 boys.
Orange County Weekly
Posted by Gustavo Arellano in Ex Cathedra
6:32 AM
May 13, 2008
CALIFORNIA -- Former Catholic Diocese of Stockton Bishop Donald Montrose died last week, and why should you care? Besides the fact he was the founding principal of Mater Dei High School, Montrose also unleashed Eleuterio Ramos upon Orange County parishes.
Ramos, of course, is the county's worst admitted priestlty pedophile--he confessed to molesting "at least 25" boys." It didn't have to be this way: in 1975, Ramos was a priest at Resurrection Church in East Los Angeles when he molested a boy. Montrose was monsignor at the time and thus was privy to the abuse--but instead of booting the monster out, Los Angeles archdiocesan officials placed Ramos at St. Joseph in Placentia (Orange County still didn't have its own diocese) and told him to undergo counseling per the advice of the Orange County District attorney. And the rest, as they say, is Catholic cover-up.
[~ 1969, 1967-72 Corrigan] - RCC. 4yrs prison. 1 girl, 3 boys.
BBC News,
~ May 13, 2008
UNITED KINGDOM -- A Catholic priest has been jailed for four years after admitting a string of sex attacks on young children.
Father John Benedict Corrigan, 71, was extradited from Ireland to the UK to face charges for sexually abusing three boys and a girl in Durham and Tyneside.
He pleaded guilty to seven counts of indecent assault on boys aged between eight and 13, between 1967 and 1972.
Some of the offences occurred when Fr "Ben" of Westport, Mayo, worked at St Wilfrid's Church in Gateshead.
- ? Orthodox Christian. Another clergyman scandal.
Orthodox Reform,
~ May 13, 2008
TUCSON (AZ) -- Theodore Kalmoukos from The National Herald wrote two additional commentaries in his paper's latest edition regarding the Moschonas Lawsuit.
In one entitled "Yet another lawsuit", Kalmoukos said:
Yet another priest – a retired clergyman from Tucson, Arizona – has been accused of sexual misconduct against an 18-year-old girl in yet another lawsuit. The story sent shock waves throughout the community. We have already had too many sexual abuse scandals to be able to absorb another one. Source
And went on to say:
As for us, it is difficult to understand why would a 70-year-old priest stay in the same room with a young girl.
[Ward] - Pornography. (Also an anti-Bush person).
NewsBusters
By Richard Newcomb | 20:16 ET, May 12, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO (CA) -- Does the media treat hypocrites of differing political preferences similarly? The evidence would suggest not. When noted Christian televangelist Jim Bakker was found to have committed adultery and mail fraud back in 1986, the national media were beside themselves with glee, running hundreds of stories about Bakker's hypocrisy. The same pattern repeated itself with other Christian evangelists, including George W. Bush supporter Ted Haggard in 2006, a case that Wikipedia admits "may have affected voting patterns in the 2006 elections". The media made sure to feature the Haggard case as a front-page story during the run-up to the election, probably hoping (correctly as it turned out) that it would help the Democrats take control of Congress. However, the shoe is now on the other foot.
Famed left-wing radio personality Bernie Ward of San Francisco, a former priest who had one of the loudest and most consistently anti-George W. Bush voices in the entire nation, was found guilty of possessing and distributing child pornography on Friday and will serve at least five years in prison. Ward tried to argue that he was "doing research" on child pornography, but as the San Francisco Chronicle reported:
His hopes of maintaining a defense based on a constitutional right to research taboo subjects appeared to be weakened further when police in Oakdale (Stanislaus County) released transcripts in February of a series of online sex chats between Ward and a dominatrix in December 2004 and January 2005. The transcripts quote Ward as fantasizing about naked children with no apparent reference to any subject he was researching. Police said he had sent photos to the woman that showed children engaged in sexual activity.
To their credit, the Chronicle reported the affair on Page A-1 of the Friday edition, and they have actually done a fairly good job of following the case throughout, though they did give much more time to Ward's lawyer to argue for his client's innocence than they gave to the prosecutors -- Ward's lawyer is quoted or paraphrased a number of times; the prosecutors not at all.
[2007 Taban*] - RCC. Teenage woman.
KDBC
Posted by Armando Saldivar KDBC 4 News, ~ May 13, 2008
EL PASO (TX) -- The trial for a visiting Catholic priest began on Monday in an El Paso courtroom. Father Phillip Taban faces charges of sexual assault against an 18-year-old woman while working at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church.
The pastor of that El Paso Church, Father Francisco Lopez, testified about his first encounter with Taban in march of 2007. He says Taban was sent to El Paso as part of a summer placement program at the end of June. Father Lopez went on to say that Taban told him that there was a girl he had met whom he said he had a good time - specifically sexual relations. Father Lopez did acknowledge that Taban early on said the sex was consensual.
The defense focused on state law that says two adults can have sex without breaking any law, and that Taban was basically left to fend for himself after the allegations surfaced. This, despite the fact that the African priest from Uganda was broke and doesn't even know how to drive. Testimony continued with an El Paso detective talking about the alleged incidents and the investigation.
[2007 Taban*] - RCC. Teenage girl.
KFOX,
~ May 13, 2008
[with video]
EL PASO, Texas -- Father Philip Taban, a national of the African nation of Uganda, was a visiting priest at Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini Church in East El Paso.
After 90 days of living in the United States, 39-year-old Taban was arrested on charges of sexual assault.
"She said no. She said, no he did not have her consent. She said no and he did it anyway by means of physical force and violence," said prosecutor Humberto Acosta.
Father Francisco Lopez took the stand and testified what Taban had told him.
[Salesian Order] - RCC.
California Catholic Daily,
~ May 13, 2008
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- Opening arguments were scheduled to begin today in Los Angeles Superior Court in the trial of a lawsuit alleging that the Salesian religious order knowingly transferred one of its members who had been accused of sexual abuse to St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, where he allegedly molested other children.
After the case was filed on Jan. 22, lawyers for the Salesian Society appeared before the state Supreme Court, arguing that the $660 million global settlement the Los Angeles archdiocese had reached with victims of sexual molestation last year allowed the archdiocese the unconstitutional power to scuttle the Society's attempts to resolve the cases against it. Last year, the Salesians refused to join the global settlement.
The archdiocese, insurers, and religious orders were to split the settlement cost payout, with the archdiocese agreeing to make up the difference if the combined payments did not reach $660 million. Salesian Fr. John Itzaina, currently pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in San Francisco, testified before the Supreme Court that in a Feb. 14 meeting, Cardinal Roger Mahony told him that the latest court case against the society "can all go away for $50 million and lawyers' fees." Itzaina said he asked Mahony "why he demanded such a high number?" Mahony's reply, said Itzaina, was "that he was still $74 million short."
[Jeffs] - FLDS.
Deseret News,
By Ben Winslow
11:33 p.m. MDT
Monday, May 12, 2008
UTAH -- Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff will give a deposition in a former child bride's multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the Fundamentalist LDS Church and its leader, Warren Jeffs.
Shurtleff confirmed to the Deseret News on Monday that he will be deposed later this month in connection with Elissa Wall's personal injury lawsuit.
"They wanted to ask me about a meeting I had in August 2002, when a bunch of representatives of the FLDS tried to talk me out of going forward on investigations of child-bride cases," Shurtleff said Monday. "I don't know how the meeting I had comes into play, but that's what I was told they wanted to ask me about."
Wall's attorney, Roger Hoole, declined to say why exactly he needed the attorney general's testimony.
"It's going to be a very short deposition," he told the Deseret News. "I need to establish one point."
- RCC.
The Associated Press
By BRETT BARROUQUERE, ~ May 13, 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI should be questioned soon about clergy sex abuse in the Catholic church because he is the most knowledgeable person on the topic and his advanced age makes future testimony unlikely, an attorney said Monday.
Many similar lawsuits have named the pope, the Vatican and other high-ranking church officials as defendants but have failed.
This request comes as part of a lawsuit by three men claiming top church officials should have warned about sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Louisville. A federal judge last year let those claims stand while dismissing other aspects of the lawsuit. It's now pending before the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.
Attorney William McMurry said Pope Benedict XVI has an unparalleled knowledge of the scope of sex abuse complaints because before becoming pope, he led Vatican offices that were directly involved with the investigation of sexual abuse by clerics.
- RCC.
Kentucky.com
ASSOCIATED PRESS, ~ May 13, 2008
LOUISVILLE (KY) --An attorney is seeking a court order to question Pope Benedict XVI in an ongoing church sex abuse case, saying the holy father is the most knowledgeable person alive about what the Roman Catholic Church knew about sex abuse allegations.
Louisville attorney William McMurry said that because the pope is 81 years old, he may not be available to give testimony later in the case.
"The passage of time not only raises questions of Pope Benedict XVI's continued availability but also increases the likelihood that his memory of events dating back many years will grow less reliable," McMurry said.
- RCC.
KUTV,
~ May 13, 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A Kentucky attorney wants Pope Benedict to testify in connection with a clergy sex-abuse lawsuit.
William McMurry's request is part of a lawsuit by three men claiming top church officials should have warned about sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Louisville. A federal judge last year let those claims stand while dismissing other aspects of the lawsuit. It's now pending before a federal appeals court in Cincinnati.
McMurry argues that the pope should be questioned soon about clergy sex abuse in the Catholic church because he is the most knowledgeable person on the topic and his advanced age makes future testimony unlikely.
A California-based lawyer for the Vatican says the motion is "not appropriate."
- Inquiry into sex-ring allegations.
Standard Freeholder,
Posted By Trevor Pritchard, ~ May 13, 2008
CANADA -- A familiar face returned to the stand at the Cornwall Public Inquiry Monday to correct testimony he gave last month about police discipline files.
Staff Sgt. Garry Derochie was one of three Cornwall Police Service witnesses who breezed through the witness stand Monday afternoon.
A 32-year veteran of the city force, Derochie spent 10 days testifying in February, March, and April.
Before that, he and another officer, Sgt. Robert Burnie, had been assigned to go through the files of more than two dozen potential CPS witnesses and determine if any of them had faced formal discipline that would be relevant to the inquiry's mandate.
[Kanchong, Charest] - RC ex-priests singled out.
WBZ,
Joe Bergantino Reporting, ~ May 13, 2008
[with video]
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS (WBZ) -- They're accused of horrendous crimes against children, now WBZ has uncovered disturbing information about Boston-area priests accused of abuse.
The priests were removed from their parishes by the Boston Archdiocese, but where did they go?
"I think he's very dangerous."
Alexa McPherson is talking about Peter Kanchong, once a practicing priest, now a nurse living in Dorchester.
"This particular priest lives near a school. People should know that."
He's referring to Edmund Charest who owns a condo in the Back Bay.
Both Kanchong and Charest are priests. Both stand accused of molesting or raping three children. Both were removed from ministry by the Boston Archdiocese and now live among us.
"If they're too dangerous to work in a Catholic parish, then they're too dangerous to unleash on the public with no notice, no warning, no monitoring and no oversight," said victim advocate Ed Clohessy.
But that's what's happened. An I-Team investigation has found there are at least 100 priests living in our cities and towns -- priests who the archdiocese has taken out of service because of credible allegations of sexual abuse.
- RCC.
[1950s, 1963 & 1976-78 Paquette] - Boys.
[~ 50yrs Burlington Diocese] - Criminal endangerment.
Times Argus,
By Kevin O'Connor, Rutland Herald, May 13, 2008
BURLINGTON, VERMONT – A jury could issue a verdict today on a call to fine Vermont's Catholic Church up to a record $14.3 million in a priest misconduct trial under way in Chittenden Superior Court.
Lawyers for 40-year-old Burlington native Perry Babel, in closing arguments Monday, said the state's largest religious denomination must pay for its negligent hiring and supervision of former priest Edward Paquette, who allegedly fondled the plaintiff 40 to 100 times when he was a fourth- and fifth-grade altar boy.
"It's remarkable the diocese comes in here and says, 'Yes, we know it was wrong, but we have no responsibility for it,'" attorney John Evers said. "What's it going to take to make them understand this cannot happen ever again? Send them a big enough message that they get it."
Babel's lawyers, suggesting figures such as $5,000 per incident or $10,000 per year of suffering, said those numbers would add up, with interest, to compensatory damages of $886,000 to $2.3 million. In addition, Evers called for additional punitive damages of $6 million to $12 million "to make sure this diocese or any other organization is prevented from doing this sort of thing again."
Times Colonist,
BY Janet Bagnall, Tuesday, May 13, 2008
CANADA -- Robert Joseph was six years old when he was taken from his home more than 60 years ago and sent to a residential school in Alert Bay. After 10 years at the school, he told the Vancouver Sun, he "staggered out of St. Mike's already a full-blown alcoholic."
Alex Janvier was eight when missionaries at Alberta's Le Goff reserve put him and several other reserve children into the back of a cattle truck and drove them 150 kilometres to a residential school near St. Paul, Alta. Janvier spent 1943 to 1953 at Blue Quills Residential Indian School. "It was a rigid, rigid regimentation," he told the Ottawa Citizen. "Discipline was extremely harsh."
Diana Billy, 50, was a teenager in the 1970s when she was taken from the Waiwakum Indian reserve north of Vancouver and sent to a Catholic residential school where, Billy told the New Statesman, she was abused for several months before she ran away. She counted herself among the luckier ones. Her father had been in the residential school system in the 1940s, but never spoke of it. Her cousin, she said, never recovered from the sexual abuse he suffered at a residential school. An alcoholic, he ultimately killed himself.
Burlington Free Press,
By Sam Hemingway, May 13, 2008
VERMONT -- Lawyers for a former altar boy who says he was repeatedly fondled by a priest in the 1970s told a jury Monday that the state's Roman Catholic diocese ought to pay between $6 million and $12 million as punishment for its role in the matter.
"Make the number so high that … no organization responsible for the safety of children would even give a moment's thought to carrying on the way this diocese did," attorney John Evers said during his closing arguments in the case.
Tom McCormick, a lawyer for the diocese, countered in his final remarks that the monetary figures suggested by Evers were excessive and that "clever lawyering" by the former altar boy's attorneys had made his claims seem worse than they really were.
"Vermont's not like California," McCormick told the jury in the Chittenden County Superior Court trial. "This isn't a state where lawsuits turn into lotteries. You represent the community. You know that's an absurdity."
[Posted by Kathy Shaw on May 13, 2008
7:02 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Tue May 13, 2008
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[~ 2001 Mallinson -NEW* / Mallison] - RCC. Sent materials to website backing celibate homosexual priests.
365Gay.com ,
www.365gay. com/Newscon 08/05/ 051408 prie.htm , by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff, Posted May 14, 2008
MCKINNEY (TX) -- Only weeks after he was appointed parish priest at St. Michael the Archangel Church in McKinney, Texas, the Rev. Arthur Mallinson has resigned in the wake of an email and blog campaign to oust him over his involvement with a now defunct Web site that supported gay priests.
"[He] felt it was in the best interest of the parish, his family and the diocese," Annette Gonzales Taylor, spokesperson for the diocese told the Dallas Morning News.
Mallinson had severed for a number of years at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Lancaster, Texas.
When he was transferred to McKinney some parishioners began to probe into the background of their new priest, and were angered at what they found.
Seven years ago he was a contributor to the site, which was set up to support gay priests who were celibate.
[- 2008 Fluornoy - NEW*] - Baptist. Student.
KLBJ,
May/13/2008
TEXAS -- Austin Police say the interpreter for the Texas School for the Deaf, arrested Friday for alleged sexual misconduct with a student, has admitted to many more similar crimes. Detective Greg White, of Austin's Child Abuse Investigations unit, says Shane Fluornoy, 32, claimed a teenage victim was trying to bilk money out of him.
"He protrayed it like the juvenile here, the 15-year-old male, was extorting him for money," White said Tuesday. …
In Houston, police say the First Baptist Church and the Black Deaf Association of Houston are two places where Fluornoy met some of his victims.
[- 2008 Fluornoy*] - Baptist. Student.
KLBJ,
May/13/2008
TEXAS -- Austin Police say the interpreter for the Texas School for the Deaf, arrested Friday for alleged sexual misconduct with a student, has admitted to many more similar crimes. Detective Greg White, of Austin's Child Abuse Investigations unit, says Shane Fluornoy, 32, claimed a teenage victim was trying to bilk money out of him.
"He protrayed it like the juvenile here, the 15-year-old male, was extorting him for money," White said Tuesday. …
In Houston, police say the First Baptist Church and the Black Deaf Association of Houston are two places where Fluornoy met some of his victims.
- RCC Salesian Order.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests,
May 15, 2008
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- We are grateful for the courage and persistence of these caring victims. We appreciate their bravery in exposing their predators and their wisdom in taking legal action. All victims and Catholics should be especially grateful that these victims were strong enough to take on the most intransigent, callous and reckless Catholic institution – the Salesians.
This settlement changes nothing, however, about the Salesians' horrific and continuing pattern of protecting and shuffling predator priests. A lengthy investigation by the Dallas Morning News found that more than 200 Salesian clerics who've been credibly accused of child sex crimes yet have been transferred from country to country. In 2004, 30 of these predators faced criminal action (either convictions or pending charges) in one nation but had fled to another nation and were living freely.
And even now, a Salesian parish in San Francisco (Sts. Peter & Paul) holds the disturbing distinction of housing the highest number of predators of any Catholic parish in the US.
[COMMENT: To suddenly make a big cash offer, on the eve of a trial or even when the jury is seated, is one of the well-practised tricks of lawyers for this Church. It is assumed the reasons are:- 1. Sworn evidence reveals the tawdry and secondrate mental and moral characteristics of Church leaders and clergy; 2. Evidence keeps being reported for weeks as the trials progress; and 3. Sometimes juries award huge punitive damages when they learn bit by painful bit that the sex-seducers' sinfulness was well-known to Church leaders, who sinfully are sending them to other parishes or to other countries (see article).
ENDS.]
[~ 2001 Mallison / Mallinson*] - RCC. Sent materials to website backing celibate homosexual priests.
McKinney Courier-Gazette,
By Brandi Hart, Created 2:17 PM CDT, Wednesday, May 14, 2008
MCKINNEY (TX) -- St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church will get a new pastor, after Father Arthur Mallison resigned from the church on Tuesday after the Dallas Catholic Diocese received complaints about his connection to a gay priest group.
Mallison is openly gay, said Annette Taylor, communications directors for the diocese. But like all Catholic priests, Mallison is required to be celibate.
Mallison's connection to the group was brought up by Barbara Kralis who wrote an article that was published on the Catholic Citizens of Illinois' Web site www.catholic citizens.org on May 6. Kralis' article asked why the diocese would appoint Mallison to the St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church when he is openly gay, and has a connection to the St. Sebastian's Angel's gay priest group and its Web site.
[~ 2001 Mallison / Mallinson*] - RCC. Sent materials to homosexual celibate clergy website.
The Dallas Morning News,
by Rod Dreher, 4:41 PM, Wed, May 14, 2008
TEXAS -- Rod Dreher here. I'd really like to know what the Dallas diocese knew about Father Mallinson's participation with St. Sebastian's Angels. A source claims that Bishop Galante, the previous auxiliary, was fully briefed at the time, but I haven't confirmed that. It's entirely possible that the new administration didn't check its Mallison file, or assumed that what Father Mallinson told them was true. Or maybe nothing was placed in the file. I don't know. But as Jeff points out, the diocese either needs to back up what Mallinson claims, or correct itself.
RCF provided me this undated e-mail from the St. Sebastian's site, from Mallinson. It reads:
I have been stalked once -- due to a chat conversation. I was planning on meeting this guy for coffee sometime in the future. In the course of a chat I mentioned a place that I often visited and when I would go. I thought nothing of it. But then one day this total stranger tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I was K___, my on line nick [? "nickname"] -- I freaked! He came to watch me and check me out!
I never thought I would feel this way -- and I wasn't doing anything untoward. He didn't even know I was gay -- but I knew that he was. And he knew I was a priest … even though he didn't know my real name. But the idea that someone had come to look at me while I was unaware … very strange.
We strike a ballance [sic] on this list -- we confided feelings and secrets that we couldn't utter anywhere else -- and feel liberated in doing so, while at the same time -- keeping a level of distance or anonimity [sic] for security. It's a bit strange and scarry [sic] at times -- but what options do we have?
Tucson Citizen,
By A.J. FLICK, ~ May 14, 2008
TUCSON (AZ) -- A former Tucson priest who pleaded guilty Tuesday to molesting three boys will never serve in the ministry again, the Diocese of Tucson announced.
The Rev. Gary Edward Underwood, 53, "will not return to active service as a priest," Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas said Tuesday in a statement.
Underwood, who had been suspended while his criminal case proceeded, pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual abuse of a minor. Pima County Superior Court Judge Richard Nichols will sentence Underwood on Aug. 4.
"I am deeply saddened by Rev. Underwood's admitted behavior," Kicanas said in his statement. "I pray that those who have been harmed by Rev. Underwood's actions will find healing."
KMEG,
Associated Press - 7:45 PM ET, May 14, 2008
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The Nebraska Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from a former Roman Catholic priest who was convicted for exposing himself in a mall parking lot.
Daniel Herek faces a 120-day jail sentence for lewd conduct and indecent exposure in the September 2005 incident at an Omaha shopping mall. He's been free while awaiting the appeal.
,
By MARY GAIL FRAWLEY-O'DEA, May 16, 2008
UNITED STATES -- Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea proposes the following steps as a path toward reconciliation in the sex abuse crisis:
Steps for the bishops
Since these things start at the top, Catholic bishops could take a number of concrete steps:
* Lead legislative efforts in every state to do away with criminal statutes of limitation for sexual abuse of a minor.
* Lead legislative efforts in every state to clarify mandated reporting laws, expanding them to include clergy if they do not already. Urge legislators to put teeth into these laws by assessing substantive penalties on mandated reporters who fail to report abuse to civil authorities.
National Catholic Reporter,
By MARY GAIL FRAWLEY-O'DEA, May 16, 2008
UNITED STATES --
Dispassionate discourse about the sexual abuse of children is an oxymoron. The subject touches our most primitive passions and fears, rendering rational thought and balanced reflection difficult to sustain. Pope Benedict XVI's mid-April visit to the United States set in relief these discursive challenges. Reactions to him tended to devolve into defensive "either/or" dichotomies -- either his visit was a tremendously transformational moment in the scandal or he continued to miss the boat in hurtful ways. In fact, his trip provided a "both/and" moment in the crisis still tearing at the church.
Benedict spoke about the tragedy and evil of sexual abuse five times in a variety of venues. First, he expressed deep shame over the sexual abuse of young people by priests. He also seemed finally to acknowledge that homosexuality and pedophilia are distinctive entities, making it more difficult for commentators to reconstruct sexual abuse by priests as a homosexual phenomenon.
In speaking to reporters on his flight from Rome, the pope said, "I do not wish to talk at this moment about homosexuality, but about pedophilia, which is another thing." The pope continued, "We will absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry."
Voice from the Desert,
by Gregg Krupa / ~ May 14, 2008
DETROIT (MI) – The Archdiocese of Detroit will ordain five men to the priesthood Saturday, a sacred, joyous event for Catholics who are concerned about the dwindling number of men who hear "the call" to what is, by any estimation, a difficult life.
But outside of the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament on Woodward, a group of Catholic men and women, organized by Call to Action of Michigan, intend to demonstrate in favor of the ordination of women and married men, asserting that while they fully support the five new priests, the church must be far more inclusive.
Voice of the Faithful, National Survivor Support Working Group,
~ May 14, 2008
UNITED STATES -- The Survivor Support Working Group of Voice of the Faithful agrees with Ms. Teresa Kettelkamp's recent statement on the current sexual abuse crisis that "the church is not yet where it needs to be in addressing this crisis."
It is important to note that Ms. Kettelkamp is an employee of the Executive Director of the Office of Child & Youth Protection (OCYP) which comes under the oversight of Austin Bishop Gregory M. Aymond, Chairman of the Bishops' Protection of Children and Young People' Committee. On child sexual abuse: Does the pope really get it? Yes By Teresa Kettelkamp, Published in the LA Archdiocesan weekly newspaper The-Tidings.
While we applaud the efforts of Ms. Kettelkamp and her office, we must point out that despite her assertion that the pope gets "it," (note that "it" remains conveniently undefined), we challenge the bishops to "get it," too.
In truth:
--- Bishops have failed to restore trust in their leadership and in the words of the Pope "badly handled" the sexual abuse crisis. It should be noted that an April 14th Washington Post ABC poll showed that 73% of Catholics opposed the way the church was handling the sex abuse scandal.
--- Members of the National Review Board have no authority. They are merely an advisory group.
--- Victims' assistance and safe environment coordinator positions are typically filled with diocesan employees answerable only to the bishop. There is a little or no independence with regard to executing their duties.
,
by Bruce Tomaso
2:33 PM Thu, May 29, 2008
UNITED STATES -- The Rev. Donald Cozzens is a Catholic priest who teaches at John Carroll University, a Jesuit school outside Cleveland.
For years he has tracked the decline in the number of Catholic priests. He says that for every 100 U.S. priests who die, retire or otherwise leave ministry, fewer than 35 new ones are ordained.
The solution, he argues, is to end the church's celibacy requirement. (He wrote a 2006 book on the subejct, called "Freeing Celibacy.")
[Shanley] - RCC.
Daily News Tribune
By Kerri Roche,
Posted @ 09:09 PM,
May 29, 2008
BOSTON (MA) – The decision to grant a new trial for a defrocked priest convicted of repeatedly raping a young boy is in the hands of a judge who was asked yesterday to reconsider the "junk science" central to the trial.
Robert F. Shaw, the attorney for former Newton priest Paul Shanley, asked Superior Court Judge Stephen Neel to re-examine the validity of repressed memory syndrome. Neel presided over Shanley's original trial.
Shanley, 77, is serving 12 to 15 years in Old Colony Correctional Center, following his 2005 conviction in Middlesex Superior Court on two counts of rape of a child and two counts of indecent assault and battery upon a child.
The former priest once hailed for his ability to reach out to troubled youth entered the packed courtroom yesterday shackled at the ankles and wrists, wearing a white shirt and light-colored jeans.
- RCC.
Republican Herald
From Staff Reports
Published: Thursday, May 29, 2008
PENNSYLVANIA -- This weekend, at churches throughout the Diocese of Allentown, letters from the Most Reverend Edward P. Cullen, D.D., Bishop of Allentown, will be read detailing restructuring plans, a press release from the diocese Office of Communications said Thursday.
The plans will also be posted on the Diocese Web site, www.allentowndiocese.org, after 12 p.m. on Sunday.
Each restructuring plan was developed by one of the 33 Deanery Region Committees across the Diocese and reviewed by the Diocesan Pastoral Council and the Council of Priests.
[Shanley] - RCC.
NECN
by Greg Wayland, ~ May 29, 2008
[with video]
BOSTON (MA) -- Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, 77, is seeking a new trial based on a challenge to the theory of repressed memories. Advocates for clergy sex abuse victims are outraged.
Shanley was in Suffolk Superior Court Thursday for a hearing on his motion to dismiss. His new lawyer argued that the theory of repressed memories was "junk science."
[Shanley] - RCC.
The Boston Globe,
By Denise Lavoie, AP Legal Affairs Writer / May 29, 2008
BOSTON (MA) – Advocates for clergy sex abuse victims said Thursday that they were outraged that a priest at the center of the Boston clergy sex abuse scandal is seeking a new trial, based on a challenge to the theory of repressed memories.
Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, 77, is serving a 12- to 15-year sentence for repeatedly raping and fondling a boy at a Newton parish in the 1980s. The victim testified that his repressed memories of the event surfaced in 2002.
Shanley was in Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday for a hearing on his motion for a new trial, during which his new lawyer, Robert Shaw Jr., argued that the theory of repressed memories was "junk science." …
Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represented more than 100 clergy abuse victims who reached civil settlements with the Boston Archdiocese, said he has been flooded with calls about Shanley's motion for a new trial.
"The victims outraged that Father Shanley might have any possibility of having a new trial," Garabedian said. "The victims desperately want closure."
[Joseph Smith] - RCC. Money.
WTOL
Associated Press
6:15 PM ET
May 29, 2008
CLEVELAND (OH), (AP) - The retired Roman Catholic bishop of Cleveland has testified at the trial of a former top church accountant accused of receiving $785,000 in kickbacks.
Bishop Anthony M. Pilla (PIHL'-uh) testified Thursday that he was unaware of any such backdoor payments by outside contractors. He called the defendant, 51-year-old Joseph Smith, a highly valued and respected co-worker and said he was shocked to learn of the alleged kickbacks.
The defense says the alleged payments were part of a pattern of secret church accounts.
[Bozek] - RC parish leaders had hired a suspended priest, held on to assets.
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis,
~ May 29, 2008
ST. LOUIS (MO) -- The following is the text of Archbishop Rayond L. Burke's weekly column in the St. Louis Review, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. This column will be published in the May 30 edition of the newspaper.
Introduction;
On December 15th of 2005, I was obliged to declare the excommunication of the members of the Board of Directors of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Corporation because of their persistence in schism. The members of the Board had committed the most grievous delict of schism by hiring a suspended priest, that is, a priest not in good standing in the Church, for the purpose of attempting to celebrate the sacraments and sacramentals at Saint Stanislaus Kostka Church, all outside of the communion of the Catholic Church. The priest in question, the Reverend Marek B. Bozek, a priest of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, had left his priestly assignment against the expressed will of his bishop, Bishop John Leibrecht, in order to be hired by the Board of Directors of Saint Stanislaus Kostka Corporation.
[Bozek] - RC parish leaders had hired a suspended priest.
News-Leader
by Linda Leicht, May 29, 2008
ST. LOUIS (MO) -- The Vatican has ruled that the six members of the board of directors of St. Stanislaus Catholic church in St. Louis and their priest committed the act of schism two and a half years ago and are excommunicated, the Archdiocese of St. Louis Web site announced Wednesday.
The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had considered an appeal of a Dec. 15, 2005, declaration of excommunication by St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke after the board refused to turn over ownership of its property to the archdiocese and then independently hired a priest.
That priest, Marek Bozek, was assigned to the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in 2005, when he left his position at St. Agnes Cathedral in Springfield to take the job as priest of the historically Polish parish. Bozek is a native of Poland.
- FLDS.
ABA Journal
By Martha Neil, ~ May 29, 2008
[with links to majority and separate opinions]
TEXAS -- Updated: Texas illegally removed more than 400 children from a ranch run by a religious sect that advocates polygamy and sent them to foster homes last month, a majority of the Texas Supreme Court decided today.
The ruling is a stunning victory for about 40 mothers and their roughly 126 children, who were represented by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid attorneys, reports the Houston Chronicle. However, although the court's decision directly applies to only these families, "it is expected to apply to all of the children because of a San Angelo judge's global order last month that gave the state broad custody of minors taken from the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado," the newspaper writes.
"On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted," the supreme court writes in a brief per curiam majority opinion. It points out, however, that "while the district court must vacate the current temporary custody orders as directed by the court of appeals, it need not do so without granting other appropriate relief to protect the children, as the mothers involved in this proceeding concede in response to the Department's motion for emergency relief. The court of appeals' decision does not conclude the … proceedings."
- RCC.
Catholic Messenger,
By Barb Arland-Fye, ~ May 29, 2008
DAVENPORT (IA) -- Remember that character from the Charlie Brown comic strip, who always had a dark cloud hanging over his head?
It seems like that same cloud emerged over the Diocese of Davenport in 2002, when the national crisis in the Catholic Church swept into our diocese, too.
The dark cloud expanded into a fog when the diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2006, after a jury awarded $1.5 million to Michl Uhde, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse, and more lawsuits were waiting in the wings.
The sense of misery was palpable. Survivors of abuse were struggling to come to terms with what had happened to them so many years ago. The memories had been too painful to deal with and had been locked away.
- RC diocese officially prays for survivors.
Portland Press Herald
09:50 AM, May 29, 2008
PORTLAND (ME) -- The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland will be a place of prayer today for those who were abused by members of clergy.
Bishop Richard Malone has designated today as a day of prayer and penance for harm done to survivors and the faithful by past incidents of clergy sexual abuse.
[Shanley] - RCC.
Boston Herald
Associated Press
Thursday, May 29, 2008
BOSTON (MA) -- Advocates for clergy sex abuse victims are outraged that a priest convicted of repeatedly raping and fondling a boy at a Newton parish in the 1980s is asking for a new trial.
Defrocked priest Paul Shanley was in Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday for a hearing on his motion for a new trial. Shanley's new lawyer is challenging the repressed memories of Shanley's accuser.
Shanley's accuser testified that Shanley repeatedly pulled him out of catechism class and raped and fondled him, beginning when he was 6 years old.
- FLDS.
KLTV
~ May 29, 2008
TEXAS -- The Texas Supreme Court has upheld the decision of a lower court finding that CPS had no legal grounds to remove more than 400 FLDS children from their parents.
Though CPS could still appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, this ruling essentially says that those children should be returned to their parents.
Parents and lawyers have been anxiously awaiting a ruling from the high court since the lower court said child welfare officials were wrong to take the children from their parents.
- FLDS.
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Brooke Adams
Article Last Updated 03:44:10 PM MDT
May/29/2008
SAN ANGELO, Texas -- The Texas Supreme Court today turned down the state's request to overturn a lower court's ruling that hundreds of FLDS children were taken into custody improperly.
In doing so, the high court rejected the Texas Department of Families and Protective Services' plea to overturn the Third Court of Appeals ruling that the children should be returned to their parents.
The opinion was met with delight by attorneys representing the FLDS families. Kevin Dietz of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid said he would work with the courts and state Child Protective Services to do what's in the best interest of the children.
"Right now, that means reuniting these families," he said.
- FLDS.
News 8 Austin
Associated Press 4:06 PM May/29/2008
TEXAS -- The Texas Supreme Court said the children in polygamist custody case should be returned to their parents.
The court issued a decision in the mandamus proceeding in the FLDS case Thursday.
The high court said child welfare officials overstepped their authority and affirmed a decision by the appellate court last week, saying Child Protective Services failed to show an immediate danger to the more than 400 children swept up from the Yearning For Zion Ranch nearly two months ago.
- FLDS.
CNN
May 29, 2008
SAN ANGELO, Texas (CNN) -- Texas officials had no right to remove more than 440 children from a polygamist sect, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The Texas Supreme Court agreed with an earlier lower court's ruling, possibly clearing the way for the children to be returned to their families. They were removed in April from the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch, near Eldorado.
The ruling means that each child's case must be weighed individually, not all together, to determine if abuse has occured, according to an attorney close to the case. The ruling does not address the abuse allegations.
"We are not inclined to disturb the court of appeals' decision," the ruling said. "On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted."
- RCC.
Herald Times Reporter
By Andy Nelesen, Gannett Wisconsin Media, May 29, 2008
GREEN BAY (WI) -- The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay has been sued by its insurance company, which claims it doesn't have to defend or pay lawsuit damages for the church because the alleged abuse by the Rev. John Patrick Feeney – and church officials' decisions not to warn other parishioners when reassigning Feeney – were intentional acts.
The lawsuit was filed May 15 in Brown County Circuit Court. No court dates have been set yet.
The diocese filed a claim with Indiana Insurance Co. to have the insurer pay for its defense in a priest abuse civil suit pending in a Clark County, Nev., court. The insurance company claims in the Brown County suit that its policies with the diocese do not provide liability coverage for any of the Nevada allegations "because the acts complained of are not accidental, but instead are intentional in nature …"
- RCC.
Reuters
By Phil Stewart, May 29, 2008
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican issued its most explicit decree so far against the ordination of women priests on Thursday, punishing them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.
The decree was written by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, giving it immediate effect.
A Vatican spokesman said the decree made the Church's existing ban on women priests more explicit by clarifying that excommunication would follow all such ordinations.
[O'Grady] - RCC harboured him 30yrs.
Crosswalk
Dr. James Emery White, ~ May 29, 2008
UNITED STATES -- One of the more disturbing films of late is Deliver Us from Evil, a 2006 documentary on pedophile priest Oliver O'Grady who was moved from parish to parish in Northern California during the 1970's. Church hierarchy, with knowledge of his attraction to children and evidence of actual misconduct, harbored him for thirty years, allowing him to abuse countless numbers of children.
Even more gripping than the interviews of some of the abused children, now adults, is the extended interview with O'Grady himself as he chillingly recounts his predatory past.
From this and other scandals, the Catholic Church - and Christianity in general – has a tarnished reputation for basic integrity. Not simply as a result of priests or ministers acting in very unchristian ways, but from the response given to the misconduct.
Or more to the point, the lack of response.
I watched this film with a graduate level class on cultural apologetics. Specifically, I wanted them to see what we must grapple with in terms of the church's tarnished reputation, and the impressions many have regarding church leadership and scandal.
- RCC bans veto governor.
Catholic News Agency,
12:50 pm, May 28, 2008
KANSAS CITY (MO) / (CNA).- Archbishop of Kansas City Joseph F. Naumann has further explained the motives for his public admonishment of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius for her support for legal abortion. The archbishop's May 9 column, citing her recent veto of an abortion law reform bill passed by the Kansas legislature, had warned Governor Sebelius not to present herself for Holy Communion until she has publicly repented.
Writing in his column for the archdiocesan newspaper The Leaven, Archbishop Naumann repeated that Governor Sebelius must seek "to repair the public scandal of her long-standing support for legalized abortion." He said he had personally received a number of letters both in favor and opposed to his actions regarding the governor. The archbishop explained that he was using his column to collectively respond to some of the critical letters he had received. …
Lastly, the archbishop addressed those who claim that the sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church discredits it from being able to address moral social issues like abortion.
"In logic," he explained, "this type of argument is termed 'ad hominem.' It is an attempt to attack personally one's opponent in a debate, rather than make substantive arguments about the issue being debated. It is usually an indication of a weak position by the person making the 'ad hominem' argument. What is needed is a substantive discussion of this important social and moral issue, not personal attacks!"
- FLDS.
City of Angels,
~ May 29, 2008
This links to a cartoon regarding the FLDS issue in Texas.
[1980s Shanley] - RCC. Boy.
Sexual Abuse Claims Blog (Canada)
Posted by John McKiggan, May 29, 2008
BOSTON (MA) -- Paul Shanley the notorious defrocked priest and convicted sex abuser that was the center of the Boston priest sexual abuse scandal has appealed his conviction on charges of repeatedly raping and fondling a boy at a Newton parish in the 1980s.
Shanley claims that his lawyer at his trial did not do a good enough job challenging the admissibility of the victim's "repressed memories" of the childhood sexual abuse.
The District Attorney who prosecuted Shanley, Gerry Leone was quoted as saying:
"The concept of recovered memory by victims of abuse has been accepted by both the scientific and legal communities, as well as the jury who convicted Mr. Shanley after hearing the full evidence in this case," Leone said. "We remain confident in the jury's verdict."
Repressed Memory: What is it?
- General.
Science Daily,
May 29, 2008
Child maltreatment is associated with reductions in quality of life even decades later, according to a new University of Georgia study that finds that–on average–victims lose at least two years of quality of life.
UGA College of Public Health associate professor Phaedra Corso and her colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed surveys of more than 6,000 people to assess the deficits in quality of life that victims suffer. Their results appear in the June issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
"We found, with rigorous statistical methods, that there are significant differences in health-related quality of life between people who were maltreated as children and those who were not," Corso said, "and that holds across all age groups."
[1980s Shanley] - RCC. Boy.
The New York Times
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 29, 2008
BOSTON (MA) -- Seeking a new trial, a defrocked priest in the sex abuse scandal among clergy members in the Boston Archdiocese is challenging what are called the repressed memories of his accuser. The former priest, Paul Shanley, is serving a sentence of 12 to 15 years in prison after being convicted in 2005 of repeatedly raping a boy at a Newton parish in the 1980s. In a motion for a new trial, Mr. Shanley said his former lawyer did not properly challenge the repressed memory evidence that helped convict him.
[Bozek] - RC parish leaders had hired a suspended priest, held on to assets.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Tim Townsend
May/29/2008
ST. LOUIS (MO) -- The feisty, stubborn members of the Polish church believed their long, rich history would save them. But the Vatican saw things differently, and now the congregation, which still celebrates Mass in Polish once a week, is set to follow a renegade priest into the fringes of the church.
The Vatican has upheld the excommunication of the board members of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, and also has hinted that the church's pastor, the Rev. Marek Bozek, would soon be laicized, or stripped of his priesthood.
If Bozek is laicized, he said he will ask a different bishop to oversee St. Stanislaus, and the board's chairman says the congregation will support him.
[Bozek] - RC parish leaders had hired a suspended priest, held on to assets.
Catholic News Agency
01:03 am
May 29, 2008
ST. LOUIS (MO) / (CNA).- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has confirmed Archbishop of St. Louis Raymond Burke's decree excommunicating the board of directors of a schismatic parish. Archbishop Burke had excommunicated the leaders of the breakaway ethnically Polish parish for hiring a suspended priest to celebrate the Sacraments and sacramentals.
The priest could be defrocked for remaining in schism, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has warned.
St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish had operated under a structure in which the pastor is subject to the authority of the parish governing board, in violation of canon law. Archbishop Burke sought to bring the parish into line with canon law, but the parish resisted his efforts. In August the archbishop removed priests assigned to St. Stanislaus and moved Polish language masses to a nearby parish. In January 2005 parishioners voted 299-5 to retain full control of the parish.
- RCC.
The Journal News
By Brian and Patricia Ledley, May 29, 2008
NEW YORK -- As religion writer Gary Stern reported last week, the sudden reassignment of dozens of Catholic priests across the Archdiocese of New York has caused much consternaton among both priests and parishioners, with some questioning why the moves were made. A letter from a Brewster couple, sent to Cardinal Edward Egan, captures some of the anxiety and disappointment.
The community of Kennedy Catholic High School was stunned by Father Stephen Norton's announcement that he has been transferred. We are saddened, angry, worried for our future and overall just befuddled by the move. As you well know he has boosted enrollment by over 30 percent in his five years, dramatically increased the availability of technology to the student body and created a connection with the alumni that has begun to blossom. Last year's President's Dinner was the largest ever, with over 270 people in attendance.
We as parents need you to visit us at Kennedy to answer the following question: Why move him now?
- RC groups dispute.
AveWatch
~ May 29, 2008
UNITED STATES -- The June 2008 issue of Homiletic & Pastoral Review (a publication from Ignatius Press, run by AMU's Fr. Joseph Fessio) features a piece titled "Calumny in the blogosphere" by Ave Maria School of Law Chaplain, Fr. Michael Orsi. By nature of his chaplaincy and the recent changes in priestly administration at AMU, Fr. Orsi is arguably Tom Monaghan's current top priest. Fr. Orsi will be familiar to AveWatch readers as the person behind a series of controversial Ave Maria radio broadcasts and as the Law School staff member who invited the "BoysCherries" investigation upon the institution [background 1, 2; archived series 2006-2007].
In the H&PR article, Orsi makes a number of legitimate, if not rambling, points about inappropriate activities by "blogs". AveWatch has always shared the same concern for accuracy in what is published on the web; as a news site, AW doesn't employ typical "blog" activities such as "incorporating a forum for interactive discussion", a characteristic of blogs as noted by Orsi. AveWatch has never been asked by Ave Maria to retract a specific false statement; in fact, on several occasions, AveWatch has sent advance copies of stories to Ave Maria asking for input or corrections. To date, Ave Maria has declined AveWatch's invitation to submit an article for publication on AW that offers evidence or opinions to counter what is found here.
As such, AW had no reason to consider Fr. Orsi's H&PR opinion piece as pertaining to this website… that is, until late in his article when he maked a vague and curious reference to what might be AW's coverage of his own "BoysCherries" imbroglio.
- FLDS.
Deseret News
By Ben Winslow, Thursday, May 29, 2008
SAN ANGELO, Texas – Lawyers for a group of mothers whose children were rounded up in the raid on the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch have a 9 a.m. deadline.
The Texas Supreme Court requested a response today by two legal aid groups representing FLDS mothers seeking to have their children returned to them. The high court is deciding whether to uphold or reject a decision by an Austin appellate court that orders the return of more than 100 children to 41 mothers.
"We're dedicated to representing these women throughout this process," said Cynthia Martinez of the Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Society, which is representing 38 FLDS mothers. "If the court needs a response by 9 a.m., they'll get a response by 9 a.m."
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Angela Couloumbis
Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau, May 29, 2008
HARRISBURG (PA) -- For more than a year, victims of childhood sexual abuse have been trying to get a public hearing on a bill that would make it easier for them to sue their abusers.
Yesterday, it was decided they would get their hearing - just not a vote on the legislation.
The House Committee on Children and Youth said it was scheduling a June 12 meeting to examine the issue of childhood sexual abuse and the impact it has on victims' lives. But the hearing will not specifically address a long-stalled bill calling for a two-year suspension on the statute of limitations for civil actions by adults who were victims of sexual abuse during childhood.
That measure has been bottled up in the powerful House Judiciary Committee since May of last year. Earlier this month, the committee's chairman, Rep. Thomas R. Caltagirone (D., Berks), told The Inquirer he would not allow a public hearing on the measure.
The White House Watch
By SHANTELE KEMPVANEE and JOHN FERGUSON, May 28, 2008
TENNESSEE -- According to Katie Burns, a former member of Christian Gospel Temple unrelated to the current lawsuits, the scandalous information circulating in the public arena is only the tip of the iceberg.
"There are 45 victims that I know of – that I can attach names to – in the past 60 years," said Katie Burns, who says she was raped at the age of six by a teenager at the church.
"For every one that comes forward, there is typically three or four that don't," said Burns, who was allegedly raped on three separate occasions by George Wainscott, who, according to Burns, threatened to stab her family to death if she revealed the rape.
- Episcopalians asked to pray for accused bishop.
Virtue Online,
News Analysis
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
May/27/2008
PENNSYLVANIA -- Recently, the Diocese of Pennsylvania met for prayer to pray for…well exactly who should they pray for?
They decided to pray for Charles E. Bennison, the inhibited Bishop of Pennsylvania - a bishop who faces fraud in a civil court and ecclesiastical charges that he covered up his brother's sexual abuse of a minor.
At least one layman thought this was over the top and wrote, "While Charles is named in this prayer, no specific reference is made to the 14-year-old victim, her family, or Maggie Thompson, then the wife of (the Rev.) John Bennison." Nor, he said, was there any request made for courage for those who will be testifying.
[1980s Shanley] - RCC. Boy.
Daily News Tribune
By Kerri Roche /
GHS
Posted 12:50 AM
May 29, 2008
BOSTON (MA) – A defrocked Newton priest convicted of raping a young boy will appear before a Suffolk Superior Court judge today and challenge the repressed memories of his victim in hopes of a new trial.
In 2005, Paul Shanley, 77, was convicted by a Middlesex Superior Court jury on two counts of rape of a child and two counts of indecent assault and battery upon a child.
He is serving a 12- to 15-year sentence at Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater.
Shanley was one of the most notorious figures in the Boston Archdiocese sex abuse scandal.
Today, a judge will hear Shanley's request for a new a trial.
[Curran] - RCC.
Morning Sentinel,
~ May 29, 2008
MAINE -- The Rev. John J. Curran, who died in 1976, served as priest at Augusta's St. Augustine Church from 1962 to 1972. Curran was a central and powerful figure in the city's Catholic community, largely composed of Franco-Americans. So it was fitting that when the state wanted to honor Augusta's citizens of French descent, the downtown span crossing the Kennebec River was named the "Father Curran Bridge." So, too, it was fitting that two college scholarships in the area -- one at the University of Maine at Augusta, the other awarded by the Calumet Club -- were named in honor of Curran.
Yet much has changed since those honors were bestowed on Curran. Allegations of sexual abuse have been lodged against priests across the country, and Augusta's Catholic parish was not immune. At least two people came forward -- one to the Legislature and the other to the Attorney General's office -- and claimed that Curran sexually abused them when they were children. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland investigated both claims and spokeswoman Sue Bernard says the diocese believes one of those two formal accusations to be . If Curran were alive today, says Bernard, the diocese would ask the Vatican to prevent him from ministering.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 7:00 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker ,
Thu May 29, 2008
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
[1990s Tucker -NEW*] - "Lighthouse Christian Center". Girl.
CBS 3,
~ May 30, 2008
MILFORD, Del. (AP) -- Delaware State Police have charged a Milford man for repeatedly sexually abusing a girl during a more than 3-year span in the early 1990s.
Sixty-five-year-old William Tucker faces 131 criminal counts. The victim told investigators the abuse happened when she was 9 to 12 years old, while she was living near Harrington. …
Milford police seized letters from the Lighthouse Christian Center Church that corroborated the woman's accounts.
[Beaudet, Plourde] - RCC.
Maine Today,
The Associated Press wire report, 04:38 PM
May 30, 2008
PORTLAND (ME) -- Two Roman Catholic priests previously removed from ministry for sexually abusing minors have been formally stripped of their authority by the Vatican, church officials said Friday.
The Diocese of Portland announced that the Vatican imposed its most severe punishment on George Beaudet, 69, and Michael Plourde, 57, both of whom were named publicly by Bishop Richard Malone last January because the Vatican investigation was progressing slowly.
Beaudet was accused and removed from ministry in 2000 because of alleged abuse dating to 1979. Additional complaints were received in 2002. Beaudet now resides out of state.
Plourde was accused by two minors in 1994 and was removed from ministry that year. The offenses occurred after Plourde returned to the ministry after undergoing counseling in 1989 because of a complaint involving sexual misconduct toward an adult. Plourde still resides in Maine.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 7:23 PM]
- RCC expels Sr Meehan.
WJLA,
~ May 30, 2008
FALLS CHURCH (VA) -- A local woman was just kicked out of the Catholic Church because she broke what's become a strict rule.
She wanted to become a priest. But the Pope says that position is for men only.
For two years, Sister Bridget Mary Meehan has been saying mass at her Falls Church home as, she claims, a Roman Catholic priest.
On Friday, the Vatican decreed that women priests and those who ordain them incur [pronounced as:] in lah-tay senten-see-yay or automatic excommunication.
[Whipkey] - RCC.
Longmont Times-Call
By Victoria A.F. Camron, ~ May 30, 2008
GREELEY (CO) – A Frederick priest accused of indecent exposure may negotiate a plea deal since two court rulings did not go his way this week, his attorney said in court on Friday.
The Rev. Robert Whipkey, 54, was excused from attending Friday's court hearing, so he did not hear Weld County Judge Timothy Kerns rule that three previous incidents of Whipkey's being naked when the public could see him will be evidence at his trial.
"The defendant places himself in circumstances in which his nudity can be seen by others," Kerns said.
Because Whipkey was not charged in the earlier cases, the judge had to decide if they were relevant to this case and if they would prejudice the jury against Whipkey.
[1960s DeLuca] - RCC. Boy.
The Daily Times,
The Associated Press, May 30, 2008
DOVER, DELAWARE – A New Castle County man filed a lawsuit Friday alleging that he was sexually abused as a child by a priest already convicted of molestation.
Attorneys for the 58-year-old former Marine filed the lawsuit under the pseudonym "John Doe" to protect his identity. Named as defendants in the Kent County Superior Court lawsuit are the Diocese of Wilmington and St. John the Beloved Church in Wilmington.
The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiff repeatedly was abused in the 1960s by the Rev. Francis DeLuca, when the victim was an altar boy and DeLuca was an assistant pastor at St. John.
DeLuca, 77, was sentenced by a New York judge last year to 60 days in jail for repeatedly molesting his 18-year-old grandnephew.
[DeLuca]
WDEL
By Mellany Armstrong, ~ May 30, 2008
DELAWARE -- Another man who says he was sexually abused by a priest when he was an altar boys in Wilmington is suing the diocese and St. John the Beloved Church.
The man, who calls himself John Doe #1 in the suit, says he was another victim of the Rev. Francis DeLuca. DeLuca was a priest at several churches in the Wilmington diocese for 31 years.
John Doe #1 says DeLuca abused him more than 40 times between 1961 and 1964 when he was an altar boy at St. John's. The 58-year-old Doe, a married U.S. Marine Corps veteran, claims the diocese covered up DeLuca's sexual abuse of young children because of a shortage of priests at that time.
- General community.
Democrat and Chronicle
by Maggie Watson, May 22, 2008
NEW YORK -- New Yorkers have an opportunity to make our state safer for children. S.4614 is a bill currently before the state Senate that if passed would extend the statute of limitations for the prosecution of sexual offenses against a child until that victim reaches age 28. Currently the statute of limitations runs out at age 23. However, because victims are often traumatized by someone known to them, an estimated 80 percent to 90 percent of abused children are unwilling or unable to disclose their victimization until well after they reach adulthood.
Since childhood sexual abuse survivors are more likely to do poorly in school, more likely to suffer from mental and physical illness and more likely to experience financial failure and physical injury, they need more time to begin to recover and to distance themselves from the offender.
As the law stands, we unrealistically expect survivors of sexual abuse to face their abusers in grueling court proceedings before they turn 23. In addition, children stay silent because predators use any number of trauma-inducing tactics to keep them that way. And the current law tells abusers that their methods need only be effective until their victim's 23rd birthday. Hence, not extending the law to (at least) age 28 leaves most child predators free from punishment and free to reoffend.
- General community.
Delaware Online
By GREGORY F. LAVELLE, May 28, 2008
DELAWARE -- Delaware's Child Victim's Act has now been in effect for almost one year.
It has allowed a number of victims of childhood sexual assault to gain access to the courts for previous assaults and more may step forward in the coming year.
Before Senate Bill 29, victims had two years from the time of an assault to file a civil action against the individuals that assaulted them and the institutions who were charged with their safety and protection.
In addition to the two-year window of opportunity to allow past victims access to the civil courts when the statute had tolled, S.B. 29 also eliminated the civil statute of limitations for future assaults.
[Jeffs] - FLDS.
United Press International,
May 30, 2008
SAN ANGELO , Texas, (UPI) -- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs faces new accusations related to child brides in a search warrant for his DNA, officials say.
Jeffs, in jail in Arizona on sexual assault and other charges, was brought into the Texas polygamist story with the DNA request. The number of young girls he allegedly was involved with has been growing as the story grows.
In the warrant, Jeffs was said to have "sexually assaulted a 12-year-old child … on or about July 27, 2006, in Schleicher County, Texas," reported the Deseret News, which obtained a copy.
A DNA sample was collected from Jeffs at the Mohave County Jail in Kingman, Ariz., the News said.
[1961-64 DeLuca]
The News Journal
By SEAN O'SULLIVAN, May 30, 2008
DELAWARE -- An unnamed victim of child sexual abuse by a priest filed an anonymous lawsuit in Kent County Superior Court this morning against the priest and the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington.
The "John Doe" civil action is believed to be the first of its kind in Delaware in a priest abuse case, according to the man's attorney, Thomas S. Neuberger.
"This case is very important because we are beginning to use John Doe plaintiffs so the victims do not have to identify themselves, add to their injury and suffer public embarrassment in revealing what occurred to them," he said. …
According to Neuberger, Doe is now 58 and was abused by now-retired Rev. Francis DeLuca at St. John the Beloved Church from 1961 to 1964 when he was an altar boy and DeLuca was an assistant pastor.
- FLDS.
Miami Herald,
~ May 30, 2008
TEXAS -- Carolyn Jessop fears for her life and the survival of her eight children. "Ugly realities" highlight her first-person account of a life inside a religious cult known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS). …
It is a sin for a woman to talk about abuse, if she is being abused, it is because she is not in harmony with her husband.
- FLDS.
The Salt Lake Tribune
By Brooke Adams and Julie Lyon
May/30/2008
SAN ANGELO, Texas - Attorneys are reviewing a Texas Child Protective Services proposal that could return FLDS children to their parents starting Monday and continuing through June 6.
There are conditions: While all the children can return to the polygamous sect's YFZ Ranch in Eldorado they cannot leave Texas and parents must take parenting classes. CPS workers also must have access to residences on the ranch, and residents must provide an ID and have a photo taken.
The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday backed a May 22 decision from the Third Court of Appeals that found the state did not have proof that all 450-some FLDS children were imminent danger of abuse that justified keeping them out of their homes.
- FLDS.
KXAN
[with video] ~ May 30, 2008
SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) -- Texas authorities and a polygamist sect have reached a tentative agreement to begin returning children taken by the state starting Monday.
A draft agreement released in court by Texas Child Protective Services attorney Gary Banks on Friday said the parents can get their children back after showing identifications and pledging to take parenting classes and remain in Texas.
The agreement was reached with the 38 mothers of the 124 children who filed the complaint that prompted the Texas Supreme Court to rule Thursday that the state overstepped its authority in taking more than 400 children.
- RCC.
NewsBusters,
By Ken Shepherd | 13:08 ET, May 30, 2008
According to the Associated Press, the Vatican is "slamming the door on attempts by women to become priests in the Roman Catholic Church." But it's rather hard to slam shut a door that was never open, which is what Catholic Church teaching holds about women serving in the priesthood.
From a May 30 article entitled "Vatican: excommunication for female priests" (paragraph break removed):
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican is slamming the door on attempts by women to become priests in the Roman Catholic Church. It has strongly reiterated in a decree that anyone involved in ordination ceremonies is automatically excommunicated. A top Vatican official said in a statement Friday that the church acted following what it called "so-called ordinations" in various parts of the world.
[COMMENT: A book has recently been published, stating that there WERE female priests etc. in the RCC for about ten centuries. Latin feminine titles of church offices have been quoted with female names. If more investigations prove that the feminine forms for bishop, priest, and deacon were not clerics, but really the WIVES of such officials, why is the RCC not allowing married clergy, as was the custom with the apostles and the Lord's brethren? ENDS.]
- RCC.
Catholic News Service
By Dennis Sadowski, ~ May 30, 2008
WASHINGTON (DC), (CNS) -- Father Joe Mathias sat and listened, scribbling notes at times, paying careful attention to Teresa Kettelkamp, executive director of the U.S. bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection.
Kettelkamp was talking about the latest efforts by dioceses across the country to protect children from abuse. For the Jesuit priest from India, it was an education.
As the Indian Catholic Church's lone representative at Anglophone Conference 2008 May 27-30, Father Mathias took in all he could during the gathering of 40 church representatives from English-speaking countries who handle allegations of child sexual abuse and oversee child protection programs in their home dioceses.
[Jeffs] - FLDS.
CNN,
May 30, 2008
SAN ANGELO, Texas (CNN) -- Texas authorities say they have collected DNA swabs from jailed polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs in connection with a criminal investigation involving "spiritual marriages" to girls as young as 12.
The samples were collected Thursday from Jeffs, the 52-year-old "prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said Jerry Strickland, spokesman for the Texas Attorney General's Office.
A search warrant for the DNA alleges that Jeffs had so-called "spiritual" marriages with four girls, ages 12 to 15, The Associated Press reported.
- RCC.
The Catholic Free Press
By Tanya Connor, ~ May 30, 2008
WORCESTER (MA) -– Transition teams have met with members of closing and welcoming parishes. The diocesan Office for Divine Worship is preparing to help them move liturgical items to their new homes and is asking parishes across the diocese to pray for them.
These are among ways the diocese is helping parishes in transition, according to Deacon Anthony R. Surozenski, a member of the Pastoral Planning Committee, and Father Robert K. Johnson, director of the Office for Worship.
- RCC owns company removing liability.
Love your family
by Christopher Manion, ~ May 30, 2008
UNITED STATES -- The USCCB has announced that April is "National Child Abuse Prevention Month." In the spirit of the season, I took a look at the web site of Virtus, a "safe environment" program required by over a hundred U.S. Catholic dioceses.Virtus is a program of The National Catholic Risk Retention Group (NCRRG). And what is NCRRG? An insurance company. Now, no responsible insurance executive will inaugurate a program that collides with the interests of his shareholders or his clients. So who are NCRRG's shareholders? Bishops. And who are the clients? Bishops and archbishops - 66 of them, according to its web site, which helpfully explains, "National Catholic is owned and ultimately managed by its Shareholders. Company policies are therefore established by Shareholders for the benefit of Shareholders."
Well, you'd think that language was as plain as day, but Virtus "trainers" are apparently trained not to talk about it. Three years ago, the Diocese of Arlington, Va., began requiring Virtus, along with mandatory criminal background checks, of the faithful. Fr. Terry Specht, the chancery's "safe environment" official, assured a parish assembly, "I've had this job for a year and I've never hear that word, 'liability,' used once." But at the same time, Fr. Specht was requiring over 10,000 of Arlington's Catholics to be fingerprinted and to sign hard-nosed waivers absolving the diocese of any liability. Today, three years later, he still does.
- RC Bp Geoff Robinson being slated.
Neil McKenty Weblog,
~ May 30, 2008
CALIFORNIA -- The Australian bishop whose "devastating critique" of sex abuse in the Church (Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus) became a controversial bestseller last year has come under fire from the American hierarchy at the start of a month-long US tour.
Retired Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Geoffrey Robinson was "den[ied] permission " to speak in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles by Cardinal Roger Mahony after a statement from the Australian bishops cited "doctrinal difficulties" in Bishop Robinson's "questioning of the authority of the Church."
Cardinal Mahony wrote to Bishop Robinson warning him to "cancel the entire speaking tour." The tour which began in Philadelphia includes stops in New York, Seattle, San Diego and Boston. Bishop Robinson is scheduled to speak in suburban Encino on June 12.
Catholic Courier
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service, ~ May 30, 2008
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican's doctrinal congregation has decreed formally that a woman who attempts to be ordained a Catholic priest and the person attempting to ordain her are automatically excommunicated.
"Both the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incur an excommunication 'latae sententiae,'" or automatically, said a decree from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The brief "General Decree Regarding the Delict of Attempted Sacred Ordination of a Woman" was published on the front page of the May 30 edition of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. It said it "comes into force immediately."
U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the congregation, who signed the decree, said it was published "in order to protect the nature and validity" of the sacrament of holy orders.
[COMMENT: But, doesn't clergy sex seductions of children harm "the nature and validity" of the sacrament of Holy Orders? Why weren't and aren't the sinful priests excommunicated, then?]
- Derryn Hinch last time delayed trials.
Herald Sun
by Derryn Hinch, May 31, 2008
AUSTRALIA -- IT is more than 20 years since I went to jail, first to Pentridge then Morwell, for being in contempt of court after trying to alert parents to the predatory behaviour of evil priest Michael Glennon.
His victims included teenage boys who attended his karate school and his camps in Lancefield and a 10-year-old girl he raped.
Despite time in jail for that crime, he remained a Catholic priest for years.
I have thought about that a lot in recent days as this newspaper has gone to court - on your behalf -- to try to get suppression orders lifted that are protecting the identities of a serial rapist, who once terrorised this city and may again, and one of the worst recidivist pedophiles in this country's history.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 9:51 AM]
[Shanley and his supervisors] - RCC. Children.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
May 28, 2008
BOSTON (MA) -- Everyone is of course entitled to his or her legal rights, but this maneuver will only cause more harm to those who've already been harmed by the crimes of Paul Shanley and the complicity of his Catholic supervisors.
We grieve for Shanley's victims and for their families who have already suffered so much, so long and so severely.
This is, of course, typical predator behavior: trying to exploit every imaginable legal technicality possible. We hope he doesn't succeed. Kids are safer when predators like Shanley are behind bars.
- RCC and its excommunication of parish leaders.
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
May 28, 2008
ST. LOUIS (MO) -- Our hearts ache for the caring parishioners at St. Stan's. Their real crime, in the eyes of the hierarchy, is refusing to bow to a ruthless archbishop.
It's very telling that Burke excommunicates well-intentioned lay people but hasn't ever even tried to excommunicate a single pedophile priest or even discipline a single corrupt church supervisor.
This case shows, just like Jason Berry's documentary 'Vows of Silence' shows, there's no real justice in the Vatican's so-called 'justice system.'
- RCC.
The Morning Call,
By Daniel Patrick Sheehan | May 30, 2008
ALLENTOWN (PA) -- This Sunday promises to be an emotional one for Catholics in the Diocese of Allentown, as they learn the fate of their churches during liturgies that will be tailored to ease hard feelings and encourage unity.
An unknown number of churches will vanish as the five-county diocese restructures itself to deal with shifting populations, fewer priests and other demographic pressures that have left some churches virtually empty.
The announcements are expected to hit especially hard in Carbon and Schuylkill counties, home to dozens of ethnic churches founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to serve immigrant populations. Their prevalence, proximity and small membership relative to suburban parishes make them especially vulnerable to closure.
Catholics in the Schuylkill County borough of Mc-Adoo, for instance, already know their Polish, Italian, Slovak and Irish churches will be folded into a single parish. They'll find out Sunday which building will survive to serve the community.
- RCC. ~ 45 women clergy in group.
CNN,
From CNN Bureau Chief, Alessio Vinci, May 30, 2008
ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The Vatican announced Thursday in a general decree that it will excommunicate anyone who would attempt to ordain a woman as a priest and the woman herself.
According to the decree, the excommunications would take place with immediate effect.
The decree was signed by Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith.
It was not persuasive to Regina Nicolosi, a program coordinator for Roman Catholic Womenpriests (sic), who was ordained two years ago.
"We have come not to take that too seriously," said Nicolosi, a 66-year-old married mother and grandmother who lives in Red Wing, Minnesota, and said her group is composed of 40 to 50 women priests, none of whom are recognized by the church hierarchy.
- RCC.
Republican Herald,
BY LESLIE RICHARDSON,
lrichardson@republicanherald.com ,
Published 5:57 AM EDT,
Friday, May 30, 2008
ALLENTOWN (PA) -- The wait may soon be over.
On Thursday, the Diocese of Allentown announced that details of the long-awaited consolidation of parishes will be released this weekend.
Starting Saturday evening at Masses across the diocese, priests will read letters from the Most Rev. Edward P. Cullen, bishop of Allentown, according to Matt Kerr, director of communications for the Roman Catholic diocese.
Each restructuring plan was developed by one of 33 Deanery Region Committees across the diocese and reviewed by the Diocesan Pastoral Council and the Council of Priests. Restructuring plans were made on a region-by-region basis and not all have been approved, so it was unclear what parts of Schuylkill County will be discussed in the bishop's letters. The bishop is not expecting recommendations from some regions for several months.
However, in those churches that have been marked for closure, parishioners will learn the date this weekend. Cullen directed every Mass this weekend to include special scripture readings and prayers to help worshippers with the process.
- RCC.
The Associated Press
~ May 30, 2008
VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican is slamming the door on attempts by women to become priests in the Roman Catholic Church. It has strongly reiterated in a decree that anyone involved in ordination ceremonies is automatically excommunicated.
A top Vatican official said in a statement Friday that the church acted following what it called "so-called ordinations" in various parts of the world.
Monsignor Angelo Amato of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith says the Vatican also wants to provide bishops with a clear response on the issue.
- RCC.
United Pres International
May 30, 2008
VATICAN CITY, (UPI) -- The Vatican has announced it would excommunicate from the Catholic church anyone who would ordain a woman as a priest along with the woman herself.
The general decree said the excommunications would be effective immediately, CNN reported Friday.
The decree, announced Thursday, probably won't be taken seriously by some, said Regina Nicolosi, a program coordinator for Roman Catholic Womenpriests, who was ordained two years ago. She said her organization counts as members between 40 and 50 women priests, none recognized by the church's leadership.
- RCC. Bp Geoff Robinson has clear and direct opening.
City of Angels
By Kay Ebeling, ~ May 30, 2008
[with link to Cardinal Mahony's letter]
LOS ANGELES (CA) -- What a clear and direct opening paragraph: "Sexual abuse of minors by a significant number of priests, together with the attempts by many church authorities to conceal the abuse, constitute one of the ugliest stories ever to emerge from the Catholic Church. It is hard to imagine a more total contradiction of everything Jesus Christ stood for, and it would be difficult to overestimate the pervasive and lasting harm it has done to the Church."
The book quoted above caused Roger Mahony to write: "I am hereby requesting that you cancel your visit to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Canon 763 makes it clear that the Diocesan Bishop must safeguard the preaching of God's Word in his own Diocese. Under the provisions of Canon 763, I hereby deny you permission to speak in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles." -- Signed His Eminence, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, May 9, 2008.
Showing all the respect due Roger Mahony when it comes to the issue of predator priests, Bishop Geoffrey Robinson from Australia, pictured above, will be speaking and signing his book, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church, in Los Angeles June 12th at 7:00 PM , in the ballroom at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel near Fox Hills Mall, Culver City, 7:00 PM, admission free, $4 to park or you can take the 439 bus like me.
- Canadian RC leaders trying to obstruct Bp Geoff Robinson.
Catholica,
~ May 30, 2008
AUSTRALIA -- Bishop Geoffrey Robinson has certainly been generating plenty of media coverage from his speaking tour in North America. Our colleagues, Ted Schmidt and John Quinn at New Catholic Times Sensus Fidelium in Toronto, Canada, report that the Archbishop of Toronto has now attempted to obstruct Bishop Robinson from speaking in his Archdiocese. Bishop Robinson is persisting though in his quest to have the issues of power and sex discussed openly and sensibly in the Church. These articles by the editor of New Catholic Times, Ted Schmidt, and John Quinn is how they are reporting the developments in Canada.
- FLDS.
Vancouver Sun,
by Daphne Bramham, Published: Friday, May 30, 2008
CANADA -- The idea of child brides is disgusting, but seeing photographs of 12- and 14-year-olds with their adult husbands is stomach-churning.
That's why Elissa Wall passed out photos of her 14-year-old self after testifying against Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, last September.
If not for her, Jeffs might still be marrying young girls. Instead, he is serving two consecutive terms of five years to life and preparing to go to trial on similar charges in Arizona later this year or early next year when, once again, Wall will be the key witness.
Yet even while he sits in jail, Jeffs's sermons form the basis of the religious instruction at Bountiful elementary-secondary school, which is both accredited and funded by the B.C. government.
[COMMENT: Is the writer aware that the founder of another religion consummated marriage with a 9-year-old girl? And that the Provincial Governments are quite possibly paying for schools that teach this as a good example? ENDS.]
[Smith] - RCC. Money.
The Plain Dealer,
by John Caniglia, Friday, May 30, 2008
CLEVELAND (OH) -- Retired Bishop Anthony Pilla testified Thursday that he was stunned when an anonymous letter accused Joseph Smith, one of his closest friends and advisers, of fleecing the Cleveland Catholic Diocese out of $784,000 through an elaborate kickback scheme.
"My reaction was disbelief and secondly shock," Pilla said. "That was not the person I knew. Why was I shocked? We had a close relationship. I trusted him, for good reason."
Pilla, looking pale and tired, testified in U.S. District Court for three hours in the second week of Smith's trial on charges of conspiracy, mail fraud, money laundering and filing false tax returns.
- Anglicans. AUD $ 2m at risk.
ABC News,
~ May 30, 2008
SOUTH AUSTRALIA -- The Anglican Church could face more compensation claims as a result of the Mullighan Inquiry into abused state wards in South Australia.
End of year financial documents reveal the church paid more than $700,000 to sexual abuse victims last year.
But the documents say "it is uncertain whether any part of these paid claims or the future potential claims paid may be covered by insurance".
A meeting of Anglicans tomorrow in Adelaide will be told future claims could cost the church $2 million.
- FLDS.
Wall Street Journal,
By STEPHANIE SIMON and ANN ZIMMERMAN, Page A3, May 30, 2008
TEXAS -- Texas authorities prepared to return hundreds of children seized from a polygamist ranch after the state Supreme Court ruled that child-welfare authorities were wrong to have separated the children from their parents.
The Texas Supreme Court let stand an appellate ruling that the state acted illegally in taking custody last month of 468 children from the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado.
"Removal of the children was not warranted," the justices wrote.
Texas Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins said the agency would "prepare for the prompt and orderly reunification of these children with their families."
[COMMENT: Removal WAS warranted.]
The Dallas Morning News,
By ROBERT T. GARRETT and EMILY RAMSHAW / ~ May 30, 2008
AUSTIN, TEXAS – Children removed from a West Texas polygamist ranch could be heading home within days, after Texas' highest court ruled against the state in a massive child custody case Thursday.
The Texas Supreme Court said in an unsigned opinion that Child Protective Services' removal of children was "not warranted." It left intact an appellate court's finding that CPS hadn't proved the children were in immediate danger and failed to fully explore alternatives to removing them. The appellate court had ordered Judge Barbara Walther of San Angelo to vacate her orders putting sect children in CPS custody.
The Supreme Court said that Judge Walther still has tools at her disposal to protect kids, even if she releases all of the more than 450 children.
- FLDS.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By JOHN MORITZ, ~ May 30, 2008
AUSTIN, TEXAS -- In a stinging rebuke to the agency charged with protecting youngsters, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Child Protective Services overreached its authority when it seized more than 460 youngsters from a polygamist outpost near Eldorado last month.
The much-awaited ruling chides the agency for failing to pursue less drastic remedies to ensure that the children at the YFZ (Yearning For Zion) Ranch were not being subjected to what state welfare officials described as a culture of sexual abuse that dates back several generations within the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS).
"On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted," the justices wrote in the ruling. "The Department [CPS] argues without explanation that [returning the children to their families] leaves the Department unable to protect the children's safety, but the Family Code gives [the state] broad authority to protect children short of separating them from their families and placing them in foster care."
- RCC.
Los Angeles Times,
By Carla Rivera, May 30, 2008
CALIFORNIA -- It was midday on Oct. 5 at Daniel Murphy Catholic High School when a voice on the public address system directed students at the all-boys campus to report to the chapel.
Senior Bryce Vinson, 17, thought it must be something routine; maybe someone had pulled the fire alarm. Gregory George, 18, noticed the principal and several teachers crying and got a strange sensation. James Ward, 17, recalls saying to a friend, "What if they're closing the school?"
Enrollment had been declining for years as operating costs had increased, officials of the Los Angeles Archdiocese said. Keeping the school open was untenable.
The chapel went silent, the students recalled. It felt like a "slap in the face," James Ward said.
- RCC.
Larchmont Chronicle,
by Suzan Filipek, ~ May 30, 2008
CALIFORNIA -- DANIEL MURPHY High School bell ring for the last time on June 6.
After 82 years of various religious education on the Third and Detroit streets site, the L.A. Catholic Archdiocese is poised to sell Daniel Murphy High School. The last day of school is at the end of student finals Fri., June 6.
The decision to close the boys' school at 241 S. Detroit St. was made amid declining enrollment and the high cost of clergy abuse scandals, said Archdiocese spokesman Tom Tamberg. Future plans for the property have not been determined, he added.
The Catholic Messenger
~ May 30, 2008
DAVENPORT (IA) -- Here is the list of non-monetary measures that are a part of the Diocese of Davenport's bankruptcy settlement. All actions are to take place within 30 days after the effective date, unless otherwise noted:
Publicly release the names of all perpetrators responsible for abuse.
For a period of at least nine years after the effective date, the diocese will post on its Web site a prominent link on the home page to the names of all known perpetrators, including deceased perpetrators and those previously listed.
- RCC.
Zenit,
MAY 29, 2008
TORONTO, CANADA (Zenit.org).-- Three years after his election to the See of Peter, Benedict XVI's relationship with the press has markedly developed, and the Pope's U.S. trip reflects the newness, said the Vatican spokesman.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, this change is due in large part to the Holy Father's positive vision of the press and the service it offers.
The spokesman affirmed this today at 2008 Catholic Media Convention taking place in Toronto, Canada, through Friday, on the theme "Proclaim It From the Rooftops." …
Father Lombardi, who also directs Vatican Radio and Vatican Television, revealed elements of this attitude. He noted that, like Pope John Paul II, Benedict XVI meets with the press directors after each of his trips to evaluate the impact his message has had.
- RCC.
Morning Sentinel
BY KELLEY BOUCHARD
Blethen Maine Newspapers, ~ May 30, 2008
PORTLAND (ME) -- Maine's Roman Catholic bishop prayed Thursday for God's forgiveness for the "horrific sin of sexual abuse" by clergy.
During a special Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, Bishop Richard Malone encouraged all members of the Diocese of Maine to strive to make sure the church is the "safest, most secure of environments" and worthy of parents' trust.
He also urged victims to report sexual abuse to church officials or legal authorities, saying that no pain is deeper than abuse by a representative of the church.
"Come to me when you feel ready to do that," Malone said during his homily.
[Shanley]
The Boston Globe,
By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press / May 30, 2008
BOSTON (MA) -- Advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse said yesterday that they were outraged that a priest at the center of the Boston clergy sex abuse scandal is seeking a new trial, based on a challenge to the theory of repressed memories.
Former priest Paul Shanley, 77, is serving a 12-to-15-year sentence for repeatedly raping and fondling a boy at a Newton parish in the 1980s. The victim testified that his repressed memories of the event surfaced in 2002.
Shanley was in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday for a hearing on his motion for a new trial, during which his new lawyer, Robert Shaw Jr., argued that the theory of repressed memories was "junk science."
Shaw said Shanley's trial lawyer failed to vigorously challenge the theory during his trial. "Paul Shanley, just like any other citizen, is entitled to a fair trial," he said.
Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston lawyer who represented more than 100 clergy abuse victims who reached civil settlements with the Boston archdiocese, said he has been flooded with calls about Shanley's motion for a new trial.
"The victims [are] outraged that Father Shanley might have any possibility of having a new trial," Garabedian said. "The victims desperately want closure."
Robert Costello, a Norwood man who said he was sexually abused by another priest during the late 1960s and early 1970s, said he attended the hearing to remind Shanley about the victims of clergy sexual abuse.
[Mercure] - RCC.
Renew America,
by Matt C. Abbott, May 30, 2008
[with text of the lawsuit]
NEW YORK -- The following lawsuit was filed May 23, 2008 against Father Gary Mercure, Bishop Howard Hubbard and the Albany Catholic diocese.
Several years ago, Father Mercure gave pornographic photos of himself to John Watkins, the plaintiff, who alleges that the priest manipulated him into a sexual relationship.
The Albany diocese has a history of dissent and corruption, culminating in the 2004 apparent suicide of whistleblower priest Father John Minkler.
[1950s Feeney] - RCC. 3 boys.
The Olympian
By Jeremy Pawloski | Published May 30, 2008
LACEY (WA) -- Three men allege in a civil lawsuit filed Wednesday that they were sexually abused as boys by a Catholic priest at the former Saint Martin's High School in Lacey in the mid- to late 1950s.
It is the second lawsuit filed this year alleging sexual abuse by Father Leonard Feeney, who died in 1980. Both suits were filed by Seattle attorney James S. Rogers.
"All three came forward separately after the first lawsuit was filed because they, too, were victims of the same priest," Rogers said.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 7:44 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Fri May 30, 2008
Abuse Chronology:
http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont148.htm
For good teachings to be heeded, a big clean-up is needed.
- Fake godmen and thangals.
Hindustan Times,
by Ramesh Babu, for June 01, 2008
KERALA, India, -- Is God's Own Country turning into godmen's own country? Scandals involving self-styled godmen are surfacing almost every day in the most literate state. Intelligence sources say the 'spiritual business' is worth roughly Rs 2000 crore. Almost 36 such gurus are under police scanner and many are absconding.
The CPM's youth outfit, DYFI, has called for a 'second renaissance' to rein in the so-called 'godmen'. Senior Congress leader Aryadan Muhamed's son's statement that fake Thangals (Muslim spiritual leaders) would also be targeted had almost wrecked the Congress-Muslim League tie-up. Finally, the Congress president had to intervene to cool frayed tempers of the ally.
The campaign against 'godmen' began with the arrest of Santosh Madhavan alias Amrutha Chaitanya, a temple priest-turned small-time astrologer. A couple of days after his arrest, gun-toting Himaval Bhadrananda Swamy created a scare after firing two rounds at a police station.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 5:49 PM]
- CTA founders to retire.
Chicago Tribune
By Margaret Ramirez | 3:43 PM CDT, May 31, 2008
CHICAGO (IL) -- In the late 1970s, with memories of Vietnam still raw and the Cold War raging, hundreds of activists rallied in peace and justice movements, pressing the government for change.
Here in Chicago, a former priest and a former nun saw a chance for similar activism within the Roman Catholic Church. In 1976, Dan and Sheila Daley launched Call To Action, a group of Catholics seeking to act out God's vision in society and hold leaders accountable.
Bold and controversial from the start, Call To Action made history as the first lay group to publicly question the church's prohibitions on birth control, women's ordination, homosexuality and celibacy for priests. Its actions paved the way for other reform groups, including Voice of the Faithful and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Along the way, many church leaders branded the group's members as dissidents and rebels, with one conservative bishop punishing Nebraska members with excommunication.
Tribune religion page
Now the group's founders have announced they will retire this fall as co-executive directors of Call To Action after 32 years. Though a horrific 2006 collision that permanently injured Sheila Daley was a factor in the decision, the married couple, both 65, say the time is right to pass the movement to younger Catholics.
- RCC parish mergers.
Olean Times Herald
By JOHN T. EBERTH, for May 31, 2008
OLEAN (NY) -- The Diocese of Buffalo announced Transfiguration Church of Olean and St. Helen's Church of Hinsdale will merge with Olean St. John's Church on July 5.
They are among the last local churches to join as part of the diocese's Journey in Faith and Grace strategic plan launched by Bishop Edward U. Kmiec in June of 2005.
Bishop Kmiec announced in June of 2007 that the three churches would become one. Members of Transfiguration Church have been fighting that decision since it was announced.
Sue Fox, spokesperson for the Committee to Save Transfiguration Church, said the group has notified Bishop Kmiec they plan to appeal his decision to the Vatican.
Mrs. Fox said the group has hired a lawyer that specializes in Catholic church law to draft their appeal. They hope to have the appeal finished within the coming days so it can be sent to the Vatican.
- RCC.
Catholic News Service,
Staff, ~ May 30, 2008
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Here is the English text of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's general decree on the attempted ordination of a woman, signed by Cardinal William J. Levada, congregation prefect, and Archbishop Angelo Amata, secretary. It was released by the Vatican May 30.
In order to protect the nature and validity of the sacrament of order, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in virtue of the special faculty given by the supreme authority of the church (cf. Canon 30, Code of Canon Law), in the ordinary session of Dec. 19, 2007, has decreed:
Without prejudice to the prescript of Canon 1378 of the Code of Canon Law, both the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incur an excommunication "latae sententiae" reserved to the Apostolic See.
- RCC.
Whispers in the Loggia
~ May 30, 2008
[with link to text of the Vatican document]
Lest any doubt remained, a decree (fulltext) released yesterday from the CDF announced formally that the parties directly involved in a woman's attempt to be ordained incur latae sententiae (read: automatic) excommunication:
"Both the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incur an excommunication 'latae sententiae,'" or automatically, said a decree from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. …
While only a handful of cases of the attempted ordination of women occur each year, the ceremonies themselves are given widespread publicity as are the decrees of excommunication that have been pronounced by the bishop of the place where the ceremonies are held.
Dominican Father Augustine Di Noia, undersecretary of the doctrinal congregation, told Catholic News Service May 30 that the decree explicitly applies what canon law says about the offense of attempting to enact a sacrament.
"The problem is not that all of a sudden there was a tsunami of attempted ordinations of women," Father Di Noia said, but that the Code of Canon Law and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches "never anticipated that such a thing would happen."
- VOTF.
Midland Daily News,
By Angela E. Lackey, 7:06 AM EDT, Saturday, May 31, 2008
MIDLAND (MI) -- It formed in response to the Catholic Church's priest sexual abuse scandal. It has grown as a voice for Catholics who want greater say and involvement in their church.
"The people are the church," said Harry Grether of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and coordinator of MidMichigan Affiliate of Voice of the Faithful.
"We would just like to be recognized that we have a role to play," said Joe Schoren. Schoren is a member of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church and the affiliate's chairman.
The Voice of the Faithful formed in 2002, "To provide a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit, through which the Faithful can actively participate in the governance and guidance of the Catholic Church."
- Various Churches.
International Herald Tribune (France),
The Associated Press, Published: May 31, 2008
TORONTO, CANADA: A truth-and-reconciliation commission examining what Indian leaders call one of the most tragic and racist chapters in Canada's history will begin its work on Sunday.
The commission will study Canada's decades-long government policy requiring Canadian Indians to attend state-funded church schools, often the scenes of physical and sexual abuse.
From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 aboriginal children were required to attend Christian schools in a painful attempt to rid them of their native cultures and languages and integrate them into Canadian society.
The federal government admitted 10 years ago that physical and sexual abuse in the once-mandatory schools was rampant. Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages and losing touch with their parents and customs.
That legacy of abuse and isolation has been cited by Indian leaders as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations.
[1984 C'Cruz] - RCC. AUD $ 500.
Herald Sun,
by James Campbell, 12:50am, for June 01, 2008
AUSTRALIA -- A PRIEST convicted of the indecent assault of a teenage girl has been fined only $500.
The Catholic Church acknowledged Father Adelrick D'Cruz abused five other girls from the same extended family, but then asked if they minded if he held a mass for their relative.
D'Cruz, of Clayton South, was convicted on May 22 of indecent assault.
He admitted attacking a 17-year-old girl who sought his help when he was a priest in Victoria's northeast in 1984.
[Shanley] - RCC.
Wicked Local Braintree,
By Robert Aicardi, 05:38 PM EDT, Fri May 30, 2008
BRAINTREE (MA) -- A defrocked Roman Catholic priest at the center of the Boston clergy sex abuse scandal, who was assigned to St. Francis of Assisi Church in Braintree in the late 1960s, is seeking a new trial based on a challenge to the theory of repressed memories.
Paul Shanley, 77, is serving a 12-to-15 year sentence for repeatedly fondling and raping a boy at St. Jean's Catholic Church in Newton in the early 1980s.
The victim, a member of the parish's CCD class when Shanley was assigned there, said that Shanley carried out the assaults, starting when he was six, in the bathroom, the rectory, the pews, and the confessional, and his repressed memories of what happened surfaced in 2002 when the media began reporting about the abuse scandal.
- RCC's laws banning women clergy.
LifeSite News,
By Hilary White, May 30, 2008
ROME, (LifeSiteNews.com) – After years of well-publicised media stunts in which radical feminist organisations staged mock "ordinations" of women, the Vatican has ruled that these events have no religious reality and that those who participate in them, both lay and clerics, including bishops, are automatically excommunicated.
In recent years, feminists, who interpret the priesthood in political rather than religious terms, have staged a number of mock "ordination" rites as media events to attempt to force what they call the Church's "oppressive" intractability. According to the Church's own understanding of the meaning of the priesthood, all attempts to "ordain" women, even if they include a validly ordained Catholic bishop, are invalid, a technical term meaning lacking all objective sacramental reality.
But the new decree, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's highest doctrinal authority under the Pope, makes clear that the act also means that those who attempt it have removed themselves "by the act" from communion with the Church. The decree says, "Both the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incurs excommunication latae sententiae."
[COMMENT: But did Jesus ever actually specify the gender of his ministers, and say women can't be minister? Didn't Jesus say that people then living would see him come back in his glory? ENDS.]
- RCC.
The New York Times
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
Published: May 31, 2008
ROME – The Vatican on Friday reaffirmed a ban on ordaining women as priests, warning that the consequences of any such ordination would be the automatic excommunication of anyone involved.
The decree was a reaction to specific episodes of "so-called ordinations in various parts of the world," according to Msgr. Angelo Amato, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which issued the decree. In recent years, dozens of women have been ordained by individuals acting outside of the church's authority.
The document was also drafted to give bishops uniform guidelines on an increasingly contentious matter, as a growing number of Catholics contest the church's position that only men can be ordained as priests.
[1979 Mons. Goodman] - RCC. Boy.
The Journal Star
By ANDY KRAVETZ
Posted 12:41 AM, May 31, 2008
PEORIA (IL) – Another lawsuit alleging a former priest molested a young parishioner has been dismissed because it was filed too late after the alleged victim "remembered" the abuse.
Peoria County Judge Kevin Galley, who has dismissed seven similar suits for similar reasons, wrote in a five-page order this week that the suit, filed by Richard Jones, violated the state's statute of limitations.
Jones filed the case in 2007 after "rediscovering the abuse" by Monsignor Norman Goodman, who was the pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church in Lincoln in 1979 when Jones alleges he was molested when he was seven or right.
Twice, the suit had been thrown out for similar reasons but he was allowed to re-file to restate his claim. Galley's order, handed down May 28, is a final order, meaning that barring a successful appeal, the case is over.
- RCC.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
By Ann Rodgers, Saturday, May 31, 2008
PITTSBURGH (PA) -- In a decree intended to close loopholes in canon law, the Vatican has said that any attempt to ordain a woman will bring automatic excommunications that can be lifted only by Rome.
It is aimed at a number of rituals worldwide, including one in Pittsburgh in 2006, that claim to have ordained women as Catholic priests. Experts say that because canon law is designed to be flexible and to favor the accused, and because no law previously dealt explicitly with penalties for attempting to ordain a woman, this decree is intended to eliminate all wiggle room.
It was signed by Cardinal William Levada of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
[Whipkey] - Sweat, so clothes off.
The Tribune,
by David Young, dyoung@greeleytribune.com , May 31, 2008
COLORADO -- A priest's profession will not be referenced in his indecent exposure trial next month.
Rev. Robert Whipkey, 53, who is charged with indecent exposure for jogging naked in June 2007 in Frederick, according to police. Police said he was jogging naked in the early morning hours down a Frederick street. He told police that wearing clothes while he ran made him sweat profusely.
Friday in court, Whipkey's appearance was waived for his pre-trial readiness conference, in which Weld District Judge Timothy Kerns approved a motion to exclude any reference to Whipkey's profession as a priest during the trial because it has no bearing on the charge.
[Unnamed priest] - RCC. Boy.
The News Journal
By SEAN O'SULLIVAN, May 31, 2008
DELAWARE -- A 58-year-old man who claims he was sexually abused as a child by a priest filed an anonymous lawsuit Friday in Kent County Superior Court against the man he says molested him and against the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington.
The "John Doe" civil action, which leaves the claimant unidentified, is believed to be the first of its kind in Delaware in a priest abuse case, according to the man's attorney, Thomas S. Neuberger.
"This case is very important because we are beginning to use John Doe plaintiffs so the victims do not have to identify themselves, add to their injury and suffer public embarrassment in revealing what occurred to them," he said.
Neuberger said he hopes the use of the "John Doe" status will encourage others to come forward before the deadline for filing retroactive abuse lawsuits expires next year.
- RCC.
PoliGazette (Netherlands)
by Michael van der Galien, 1:24 pm CEST, May 31, 2008
VATICAN CITY -- Reuters reports that the Vatican has announced that women priests, and those who (try) to ordain them, will be automatically excommunicated. 'The decree was written by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano,' meaning that it immediately went into effect.
Excommunication means that the person cannot receive the sacraments, nor that he or she can participate in acts of public worship. For Catholics, then, excommunication is very, very serious.
According to Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, the decree 'was meant to send a warning to the growing number of Catholics who favor admitting women to the priesthood.' "I think the reason they're doing this is that they've realized there is more and more support among Catholics for ordaining women, and they want to make clear that this is a no-no," Reese said.
- RCC.
Cincinnati Enquirer
for May 31, 2008
UNITED STATES -- On Thursday, Reuters reported that the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano included a decree that women priests, and those who ordain them, will automatically be excommunicated.
The Roman Catholic Church, which already bans the ordination of women priests, now forbids those who participate in such activities from receiving the sacraments or sharing in acts of public worship.
Why does the Catholic Church ban women's ordination? Because Christ chose only men for his apostolate, the pope says.
There are two serious problems with this assertion.
First, Jesus also selected women apostles. In fact, Jesus selected Mary Magdalene for his original apostle. At the tomb scene, Jesus deliberately did not appear to his male disciples, including Peter and John; he waited until they left before appearing to Mary Magdalene (John 20). Then he commissioned her to tell his followers he had appeared, making her the primary witness to the Resurrection. This transformed her into the unique role of first apostle, the earliest person sent to tell Jesus' followers he had risen from the grave. If Jesus could entrust a woman with the status of primary apostle, why can't the Vatican?
[COMMENT: A Daniel come to judgement! Well, perhaps! ENDS.]
- Re RCC.
The Spoof (satire),
~ May 30, 2008
(Vatican City) - The Vatican today announced that anyone attempting to ordain a woman into the priesthood would be excommunicated, as would the woman herself. The decree was signed by Cardinal William "Misogy" Levada, prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of faith, and was itself a compromise doctrine when Vatican officials realized they could no longer order people burned at the stake.
An official Church statement released Thursday by the Vatican Office of Suppression, Ignorance & Intolerance read: "Women, with their fuzzy triangles of doom, can hypnotize a man's mind, causing the blood to flow hot and the body to become tumescent. The resulting confusion causes a decrease in rational thought and an increase in wild parties, to which we never get invited. For this reason and many, many, many, many others, The Church has decreed that a woman priest is a Heretic Jezebel doomed to Hell for all Eternity, as is anyone who aids these filthy, whore-y, bitchy women. In this day and age, when all the ancient and stupid practices of the Church that we so enjoy are under increasing attack, we have decided this is where we must make our stand." …
The story above is a satire or parody. It is entirely fictitious.
[~1991+ LeBlanc] - RCC. Altar boy.
Houma Today,
By JOHN DeSANTIS, Acting City Editor, for May 31, 2008
MORGAN CITY (LA) -- When Jared Ribardi told authorities that the former pastor of Holy Cross Church had sexually molested him for years beginning when he was 9, the former altar boy, now 26, expected them to do something besides file a police report.
Yet little more has happened in the nine months since he made the allegations.
Detectives have yet to question the Rev. Etienne LeBlanc, who officials at the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux said is undergoing counseling at an undisclosed location out of state.
The priest was placed on administrative leave in August and removed from his post at Annunziata Catholic Church in Houma.
[LOOK BACK: August 31, September 1, 2007.]
- FLDS.
Los Angeles Times,
By Miguel Bustillo and Nicholas Riccardi, Staff Writers,
May 31, 2008
ELDORADO, TEXAS -- As officials haggled Friday over how to return more than 400 children to their parents, it was becoming increasingly clear that Texas' audacious attempt to rein in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had backfired -- and become a lesson in the difficulty of cracking down on the 10,000-member polygamist sect.
"If you want to make any change … it has to go case by case, one child at a time," said Ellen Marrus, co-director of the Center for Children, Law and Policy at the University of Houston. "It's going to be very slow."
- RCC.
The Tablet (RC paper, United Kingdom),
by Rocco Palmo, ~ May 30, 2008
NEW YORK -- CARDINAL EDWARD EGAN of New York has attempted to crack down on clergy in his archdiocese whom he accuses of making what he called "false and shameful" allegations in press reports that he is to reassign almost 10 per cent of his 470 active priests to different parishes.
His criticisms appeared in a terse one-sentence note sent to his priests that accompanied the agenda of a regular meeting of the priests' council last Thursday. The note, obtained by The Tablet, expressed the cardinal's desire "that priests serving in the archdiocese are properly informed about the false and shameful statements that have been made and reported in the media about personnel matters." Although the cardinal did not explain what the statements were, his note came a day after the New York Times and other media outlets published stories of the reshuffle. There is a history of friction between the cardinal and his priests. In this latest row, barely a month after Pope Benedict's successful visit to his archdiocese, clergy were informed of their moves in phone calls made by archdiocesan officials, rather than applying for or being asked to consider transfers. Priests spoke to the press on condition of anonymity criticising the cardinal's handling of the event. One said it had caused devastation and hurt among his fellow priests.
Of the 40 changes, several were said to involve the transfer of priests to new assignments part-way through fixed six-year terms, and in a number of instances outgoing priests reported learning of their departures in calls from their successors. Six more transfers are expected. Spring is traditionally the peak period for reassignments and retirements of clergy in American dioceses.
- FLDS.
AlterNet,
By Richard Wexler, The Nation, Posted May 31, 2008.
TEXAS -- Foster care is a toxic intervention, to be used sparingly. In the case of the Yearning for Zion ranch, Texas prescribed megadoses of foster care.
A little boy, maybe 3 years old, walks past row after row of cots arrayed in a sports coliseum in Texas, carrying a little pillow. "I need someone to rock me," he says. "I just want to be rocked, I want to find a rocking chair." Two adults, whose job is child protection, are following him. But they make no move to comfort him. They just follow him and write in their notebooks.
Other children, with their mothers, are jammed into a building dating to the 1800s, with no air conditioning and no indoor plumbing. Chicken pox quickly spreads; many children come down with diarrhea, some are hospitalized. At night, hostile overseers keep the women awake with their loud conversations and sometimes shine lights in their eyes.
More than 400 children and their mothers endured those conditions in the first days after Texas Child Protective Services raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, according to the only independent eyewitnesses -- mental health professionals brought in by the State of Texas. (Their statements were published in the Salt Lake Tribune.) The state alleges that because some of the mothers are underage, all of the girls are at risk of sexual abuse and all of the boys are at risk of being "groomed" to be abusers.
- FLDS.
The Dallas Morning News,
By EMILY RAMSHAW and ROBERT T. GARRETT / ~ May 30, 2008
AUSTIN, TEXAS – An agreement to reunite children removed from a West Texas polygamist ranch with their parents fell apart at the last minute on Friday, after a district judge and attorneys for the religious sect sparred over the details.
The courtroom drama followed four hours of negotiation on a plan that would've returned the youths to the Yearning for Zion ranch starting Monday, as long as their parents agreed to keep them in Texas and fully cooperate with child welfare investigations.
Now, it's unclear when the children, separated from their parents for seven weeks, will go home and how soon a new compact can be reached.
[Jeffs] - FLDS. Girls.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
By R.A. DYER, ~ May 30, 2008
AUSTIN, TEXAS -- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs, jailed in Arizona on several counts of incest and sexual assault of a child, has surrendered DNA samples to law enforcement officials investigating allegations of sexual conduct with underage girls at the group's West Texas compound, officials confirmed Friday.
Jeffs, 52, is revered as a prophet by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the polygamist sect embroiled in a child custody tug-of-war with Texas. The group's YFZ Ranch near Eldorado was raided by law enforcement April 3, although the Texas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state overreached its authority by rounding up more than 400 children after allegations of child sex abuse.
A top official from the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott traveled to Kingman, Ariz., on Thursday to obtain DNA swabs from Jeffs as part of an investigation of claims of sexual conduct with four underage girls. At least three suspected violations occurred at the YFZ Ranch, according to a warrant provided by Abbott's office.
- FLDS.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
By BILL HANNA, ~ May 30, 2008
SAN ANGELO (TX) -- A state district judge who had been ordered by two higher courts to send children from a polygamist sect back home refused Friday to sign an order that would have started the process of reuniting them with their parents.
The judge's unexpected move came after four hours of legal wrangling where it appeared some of the children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) would be going home as early as Monday.
Attorneys left the courtroom scratching their heads over Judge Barbara Walther's abrupt end of the hearing.
The sticking points centered on restrictions Walther added to an order that had been agreed upon among attorneys for Child Protective Services, the parents and the children.
- RCC.
Winston-Salem Journal
By Nicole Neroulias
RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
Published: May 31, 2008
UNITED STATES -- During his recent trip to America, Pope Benedict XVI attended a youth rally at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y. -- the same school where enrollment has dwindled to the point that no new prospective priests are enrolled next fall.
As the U.S. church ordains its crop of about 400 new priests in the coming weeks, church leaders hope that Benedict's words of encouragement will inspire more men to consider the priesthood.
The Rev. Donald Cozzens of John Carroll University, however, says that it will take a major change in Vatican policy on celibacy to revitalize the priesthood.
Cozzens, 69, has tracked the decline in vocations for more than 10 years, including as rector of Cleveland's St. Mary Seminary from 1995 to 2000. In his 2006 book, Freeing Celibacy, and in lectures all over the country, he argues that celibacy should be optional for Catholic priests.
[COMMENT: And read the relevant scriptures commanding a mature age and marriage for clergy selection, in Timothy and Titus. END.]
[Pfleger]
American Thinker
by James Lewis, ~ May 30, 2008
CHICAGO (IL) -- If you want another proof that the Catholic Church has completely lost control of its ordained priests, consider another one of Obama's mentors, one Father Michael Pfleger -- a white race-baiting Marxist. Like Rev. Wright, you have to hear the truly demonic tones in his voice --- simply reading the text isn't enough.
Your inner "reading voice" just won't say it like he does. (Not unless you hear demonic voices in your head, like some paranoids and multiple personality victims.) …
The Catholic Church has a responsibility in this matter. It has bent over backwards to protect the privacy of ordained priests who have been engaged in regular sexual abuse of children. I have not seen evidence that child abuse occurs more often among priests than in the general population. I understand the Church has its own ways of dealing with errant priests. Nevertheless, the public seems to have the accurate impression that the Church is tainted with the worst public behavior in centuries. This has done immense damage to its reputation among Catholics and the general public all around the world. The response of the Church is widely considered to be grossly inadequate, even by faithful Catholics.
- RCC.
Mountain Home News
Saturday, May 31, 2008
MOUNTAIN HOME (ID) -- Father Raul Covarrubias will return to Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Mountain Home Sunday, the Diocese of Boise has said.
Father Raul was placed on administrative leave in September following allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.
The church determined the allegations to be false but found evidence of other unspecified and unrelated misconduct.
- RCC Bp Geoff Robinson opens Church windows.
The Boston Globe,
By Michael Paulson / May 31, 2008
DEDHAM (MA) -- He is an unlikely hero for the Catholic left: a retired Australian bishop who served for years as an aide to the very conservative [sic] cardinal-archbishop of Sydney.
But now Bishop Geoffrey Robinson is under investigation by the Australian bishops conference, and multiple American bishops are trying to ban him from their dioceses after he published a book suggesting the Catholic Church examine the roles that power and sex played in the clergy abuse crisis.
The Catholic left - whose weakened influence was captured in a Time magazine essay this month headlined "Is liberal Catholicism dead?" - has rallied to this little-known bishop, packing his speaking appearances and driving up sales of his book.
On Thursday night, Robinson drew a crowd of about 550 to St. Susanna Church in Dedham, which he said was the largest audience he has drawn on a US speaking tour that began earlier this month. On Wednesday night, 110 showed up to hear him speak at the Paulist Center in Boston.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 8:11 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
Sat May 31, 2008
* -- NEW*, and in later entries summarising the facts just an asterisk (*), signify clergy who were not known to the public, and probably/possibly not included in previous overall statistics and enumerations of the numbers of seducing etc. clergy.
≤ means "less than or equal to," and in addition is used here to signify before or during that year, or, before or on that date.
~ is being used to signify approximately.
FOR GOOD TEACHINGS TO BE HEEDED, A BIG CLEAN-UP IS NEEDED
Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.bishop- accountability. org/ abuse tracker for current on-line
The Boston Globe book: http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse USA
Weblog starts: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm
Petition at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/optional.htm
Books list: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/carnalbooks.htm
Overview at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/minilist.htm
US Archive: www.BishopAccountability.org
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USA memory jogger: AK = Alaska; CO = Colorado; IA = Iowa; MN = Minnesota; MO = Missouri; MT = Montana; NE = Nebraska.
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PARTIAL CONTENTS and ANCHOR LIST (After reading an article, use Browser's "Back" button to return to Anchor List)
* Abreast of the Catholics at Bethel Covenant Community. PERTH, W. AUSTRALIA.
May 12, 2008
* Archbishop denies role in job for ex-priest. W. AUSTRALIA. Anthony McMahon case.
May 6, 2008
* [Bethel friendship in time of need.] PERTH, W. Australia. Letter reporting unwavering help from Bethel group.
May 19, 08
* [Bethel group displays problems on Internet blogs; Feedback on Inside Cover.] W. AUSTRALIA: A humorous comment on two of the blogs about the RC Bethel group's breast-baring escapades in the name of religion and family values.
May 13, 09
* [Bethel member's blog closes]. W. AUSTRALIA.
May 26 2008
* Broken Rites website is praised in "The Age". AUSTRALIA:
May 17, 2005
* Child abuse accused given job by Church. AUSTRALIA: Ex-priest Anthony McMahon, one alleged incident when boy aged 4.
May 5, 2008
* Christian chief Horgan quits amid breast-groping claims; Sex assault police called in as women list complaints. W. AUSTRALIA: Bethel Covenant Community, founder Kevin Horgan. Sorted women by nipple colour, etc., etc.
May 10, 2008
* Church knew of sex claims; Sexual complaints about Bethel community emerged only last year and were investigated, says Catholic archbishop. W. AUSTRALIA.
May 26 2008
* ["Crime of Solicitation" so private almost unknown in U.S. R.C. dioceses;] excommunication for telling anyone of sex crimes. Later sex-abuse power was taken to Vatican. Expert evidence, John P. Beal III.
Orig. Aug 24, 2004, e-mail copy received May 5, 2008
* Disturbing developments at Catholic
Covenant community in Perth; NEWS STORY. PERTH, W. Australia. In early April 2008 stories circulated of sexual impropriety, financial irregularities and disquiet over "cult-like activities" at Bethel Covenant Community, West Leederville (a suburb).
May 2, 08
* How leader 'sent them down the road to hell'. W. AUSTRALIA: Bethel Covenant Community, co-founder Kevin Horgan, close attention to members' breasts, etc.
May 10, 2008
* How the mighty have fallen. PERTH, W. Australia: Bethel leader shook JP II's hand.
May 19, 08
* Lapses in incest case: Minister. AUSTRIA, Europe: Fritzl 24yrs raping, kidnap, false imprisonment: No religion link reported.
May 8, 2008
* Marist Brothers 'ignored' complaints about sex abuse. CANBERRA, Australia: Bro Kostka.
May 13, 2008
* Officer in court over sex photos. W. AUSTRALIA: Det-Sgt Curran. [No religion link reported]
May 8, 08
* 'Pay us compo while we're still fit'. W. AUSTRALIA: Two Bindoon "old boys" want State Government to hasten paymens.
May 24, 08
* Priest pleads guilty to indecent assault of a teenage girl in northern Victoria. AUSTRALIA: 1970s, 1984 D'Cruz.
May 22, 2008
* Sect leader charged with sex crimes. NEW MEXICO, USA: Bent, aka The Messiah.
May 8, 08
* Sex-abuse teacher was molested as a child. CANBERRA, Australia 1985-89 Bro. Kostka, 6 boys.
May 10, 2008
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