Kelley has filed a legal response admitting he committed indecency with a child, but denied some allegations in the suit.
• Sex abuse victims target Jehovah's Witness in civil suit [1970s-80s, Villegas] - Jehovah's Witness. Children.
Napa Valley Register, www.napanews. com/templates/ index.cfm? template=story-- full&id=418D0B2 C-444E-45D5-A47F- 41C07DA4F610 , By DAVID RYAN, Wednesday, April 14, 2004
CALIFORNIA: Napa child molester Edward Bedoya Villegas died in prison nearly 10 years ago, but the legal aftermath of his actions is still being hashed out in Napa Superior Court.
Two of his victims are suing two Napa Jehovah's Witness Congregations and other Jehovah's Witness groups, saying high-ranking elders and church policymakers were negligent in supervising Villegas and concealed records for more than 20 years.
The church, including its Brooklyn-based national headquarters, is fighting back.
In 1994, Villegas was convicted of molesting several local children at a Napa Jehovah's Witness congregation during the 1970s and 80s. During much of that time Villegas and his wife Marsha operated a Jehovah's Witness day care center.
His alleged victims include Clarissa Welch, now 35, and two women who are not fully identified in court papers: Nicole D., now 32, and Tabitha H., now 30. All three claim Villegas, who was an elder in the congregation, forced them to perform oral sex on him. Welch and Tabitha H. said Villegas penetrated them with his fingers, while Tabitha H. said she was raped by Villegas as well. [. . . ]
Love and Norris attorney Kim Norris said she had spoken to more than 2,000 alleged victims of sexual abuse at the hand of Jehovah's Witness members. She said many congregations can be insular, with little incentive for members to go outside the church to seek help for abuse. Even still, she said, with small meetings like the one in Santa Rosa, word about her law firm gets around.
"A lot of them call me on pay phones down the street (from where they live) whispering because their whole support structure is inside the congregation," she said.
Four years ago, a Kentucky Jehovah's Witness elder named Bill Bowen resigned from the Jehovah's Witness Church for asking questions about a fellow elder who was accused of sexual molestation. He started a support group for Jehovah's Witness abuse victims called Silent Lambs.
"As an elder, I am instructed ... if it is one person's word against another and not two witnesses to the wrong, no action would be taken and no authorities would be notified," he wrote in a Dec. 2000 letter he posted onto the Silent Lambs Web site. "The victim? Cautioned to keep silent or face discipline within the congregation that could go as far as being disfellowshipped for slander."
Disfellowshipping is what witnesses call being cast out from the church. Unlike the Catholic tradition of being excommunicated, Jehovah's Witnesses are no longer allowed to speak to a disfellowshipped member unless it's an emergency.
In June, a Napa judge will decide whether the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society of Pennsylvania, the Religious Order of Jehovah's Witnesses, and Jehovah's Witness's legal arm, Kingdom Support Services, should be removed from one of the local lawsuits entirely, and perhaps have their legal costs paid by their accusers.
That would still leave more than 20 defendants in the case. #
• Former Mormon bishop charged with child sodomy [1989-90, Gomez] - Mormon. Boy.
The Salt Lake Tribune, "Former LDS bishop charged with child sodomy," www.sltrib.com/2004/Apr/04242004/utah/160203.asp , By Ashley Broughton, April 24, 2004
UTAH: A Utah Department of Corrections administrator and former Mormon bishop appeared in court Friday, charged with sexually abusing a teenager who sought religious counseling more than 13 years ago.
Salt Lake County prosecutors late Thursday charged David James Gomez, 57, with three counts of sodomy on a child, a first-degree felony, and three counts of child sex abuse, a second-degree felony.
Court documents allege Gomez, on several occasions in 1989 and 1990, sexually abused the 13-year-old boy. The boy was inappropriately touched, documents said, and also engaged in oral and anal sex with Gomez. The incidents occurred in a high school parking lot, in Gomez's car and at Gomez's home, documents said.
Police said earlier this week they had interviewed more than one victim, but only one is mentioned in a probable-cause statement accompanying criminal charges.
In addition, court documents make no mention of Gomez's being a bishop, although police have said he was a bishop at the time the alleged abuse occurred, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has confirmed he served in that capacity.
• State Cites Boarding School in Abuse Case - Ministerial Christian Academy. Violence using handcuffs, shackles.
Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cited24apr24,1,4628866.story?coll=la-headlines-california ; By Carla Rivera, April 24, 2004
CALIFORNIA: Three weeks after a Montclair boarding school was shut down by police amid allegations of abusive punishment, its owners were cited Friday by the state for operating without a license.
Officials from the state's Community Care Licensing Division said that Otis and Doris McIntyre ran the Ministerial Christian Academy as a group home without obtaining proper approval. The citation does not carry a penalty but the McIntyres could be fined $200 a day if they reopen the facility without approval.
If the academy seeks a license, it would have to undergo an extensive examination of its programs and finances, background checks, a physical inspection of the facility and periodic monitoring, said Robert Pate, regional manager of the state's Community Care Licensing Division.
Montclair police removed 26 young people from the academy last month after former students and employees alleged that children were beaten, handcuffed to beds and locked into bathrooms.
Police confiscated handcuffs, shackles, computers and financial records during the raid at the Montclair apartment complex that the academy used as a residence and at its school and church in Pomona.
• Plaintiffs get $8 million from Lutherans in child sex abuse settlement - Evangelical Lutherans.
Church Central, "Plaintiffs get $8 million from ELCA in child sex abuse settlement," www.churchcentral.com/nw/s/id/19018/template/Article.html , 23 Apr 2004
CHICAGO (IL): The terms of settlement in the civil suit against the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) have been released.
According to an ELCA news release the 14 plaintiffs and their attorneys in the case involving sexual assault against children by a former pastor will receive $8 million from the ELCA.
Gerald P. Thomas, Jr. was found guilty of sexual assault against children in a trial last year and was sentenced to a more than 397 years in state prison.
The churchwide organization settled March 27 with the 14 plaintiffs in a civil suit brought against the church in Marshall, Texas. The settlement was approved April 12 in a Marshall court by District Judge Bonnie Leggat. At the request of the plaintiffs' attorney, terms of the settlement were not disclosed immediately by the court because some parties in the suit chose to defend themselves in a subsequent trial, according to John R. Brooks, a spokesman for the ELCA.
Those defendants were the ELCA Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, its former bishop, the Rev. Mark B. Herbener, and a former assistant to the bishop, Earl H. Eliason. The trial concluded with a jury returning a verdict totaling nearly $37 million, divided among nine plaintiffs.
• Weblog: Lutheran Church Abuse Victims Receive $69 Million Settlement [Thomas] - Lutheran.
Christianity Today, www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/116/51.0.html , Compiled by Rob Moll | posted Apr/23/2004
TEXAS: In what may be the largest per capita clergy abuse settlement ever, nine victims will receive $36.8 million from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America's Northern Texas/Northern Louisiana Synod and two former officials.
The civil case follows the conviction of Gerald P. Thomas, former pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Marshall, Texas, for sex crimes against children. An additional $32 million out-of-court settlement was reached before the trial ended. Total awards amounted to nearly $69 million awarded to 14 victims.
Individual awards ranged from $50,000 to $9.8 million depending on medical needs and the amount of abuse suffered. The settlements involve Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Ohio, a Michigan candidacy committee that ordained Thomas, Good Shepherd Church, the Northern Texas/Northern Louisiana Synod, and Bishop Mark Herbener of the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod and his assistant Earl Eliason. According to the ELCA, the 5 million-member denomination will pay $8 million of the total settlement.
Thomas was first accused of misconduct in a West Texas church, where he served as an intern. The Marshall News Messenger writes, "Among the information the synod did not disclose was that Thomas had given tequila shots to two teenage boys and that the boys had found a homosexual pornographic video in the parsonage when Thomas served as a ministry intern."
The Associated Press writes: Other terms of settlements reached by plaintiffs' attorney Edward Hohn include apologies to victims and parishioners nationwide; development of a strategy for preventing and handling sexual misconduct, including a review of all current ministers; and creation of a denomination-wide national reporting system for sexual abuse.
"Just as important today are the non-economic agreements, which will hopefully not only be the start of a new reformation for the Lutheran Church but will also serve to raise the bar nationally for all institutions charged with public trust over our children," Hohn said.
The ELCA says: "People who seek to become ordained ministers in the ELCA go through an extended process of study and evaluation, [spokesman John] Brooks said. To the church's knowledge, no other pastor who completed this process has ever been accused of the conduct for which Thomas was convicted in Texas. 'Still, in a continuing effort to guard against such tragedies, the ELCA will review its guidelines and procedures for candidacy for the ordained ministry,' Brooks said."
• Lutheran bishop apologizes to victims in molestation case [$US 69m, Thomas]
: Houston Chronicle, www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2527281 , Associated Press, 9:46PM, April 23, 2004
WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS-- A day after his synod was hit with a nearly $37 million verdict in a sexual abuse lawsuit, Bishop Kevin S. Kanouse apologized Friday to the victims but said church officials had no idea former minister Gerald Thomas was a predator.
"We do express our regrets. We pledge to make sure people like Gerry Thomas never serve a church again," Kanouse, who heads the Dallas-based Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod, told The Associated Press.
The actions of Thomas, who is serving 397 years in prison for molesting boys, are at the center of the massive verdict in the civil suit. Jurors in Marshall sided Thursday with nine alleged sex abuse victims who sued the synod, part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, claiming a former bishop and his assistant ignored warnings about former pastor Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr.
Separate earlier settlements involved the award of another $32 million. Church officials say the combined payout will be less than $69 million because of a complicated system of credits.
The verdict in the court case came a day before the synod began an annual three-day assembly in Wichita Falls. Plaintiff's attorney Tracy Crawford was penciled in to address the 600 church leaders today and answer questions about the lawsuit.
• Mater Dei's E-Mail Stirs New Pain
Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-materdei24apr24,1,3588466.story?coll=la-headlines-california ; By Dave McKibben, April 24, 2004
CALIFORNIA: A new controversy has erupted at Mater Dei High School over allegations of sexual abuse at the Santa Ana parochial school.
Former students who have alleged that they were molested say they are infuriated by an e-mail graduates received March 31 that they contend minimizes their concerns.
Mater Dei officials say the e-mail was an attempt to inform former students that the school was not responsible for a series of e-mails to alumni that included attachments of news stories reporting allegations of abuse at the Roman Catholic school.
"It's painful to see the repeated rehashing of alleged incidents at our school," Jonathan Tufo and Joseph Medlin, Mater Dei's director of development and alumni director, respectively, wrote in the March 31 e-mail. "It is a shame that the thousands of graduates who had a positive experience at Mater Dei do not receive the same attention from the news media."
Friday afternoon, Tufo and Medlin e-mailed an apology to officials at a victims' rights group, Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
• Judge: Church's response to report disappointing - RCC.
Pantagraph, www.pantagraph.com/stories/042404/new--20040424009.shtml , By Steve Arney, sarney@pantagraph.com , Saturday, April 24, 2004
BLOOMINGTON (IL): Bishops were sharing "a moment of panic" when they formed a commission to investigate sexual abuse, said Anne Burke, an Illinois appellate judge who chairs the commission.
The panic has waned, and some bishops who jealously guard their autonomy want the scandal to fade and ideas about accountability, oversight and power-sharing to go away, said Burke.
The judge was keynote speaker at a conference for abuse survivors Friday in Bloomington. To loud applause, she declared to those bishops who want unquestioned authority, "I have news for them: It's not their church. It's our church."
She didn't name individual bishops opposing the commission, called the National Review Board for the Protection of Young People.
She said they have given her the irreverent nickname "Mother Superior."
Bishop Daniel Jenky declined to attend Friday's conference or to send a representative.
• SNAP will distribute leaflets in at Stacyville, Greene churches
Courier, www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2004/04/23/news/regional/2eb6b00a03af549e86256e7f0042564a.txt ; Friday, April 23, 2004
HUDSON (IA): Members of the Northeast Iowa chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP] will leaflet two churches in Stacyville and Greene Sunday.
Steve Theisen and Larry Kramer, both victims of religious sexual abuse, will distribute printed information at the Church of the Visitation in Stacyville at 8 a.m. and at St. Mary's Church in Greene at 10 a.m. The effort, they said, is to let victims of religious sexual abuse and their families know about the SNAP chapter in Northeast Iowa.
Theisen has notified both parishes about the leaflets.
Kramer of Byron, Minn., was abused as a child by a priest. Theisen's abuser taught in Stacyville both before and after she abused him at Sacred Heart School in Dubuque.
St. Mary's was selected as a site to pass out information because a priest who abused a female child at Sacred Heart in Dubuque was later transferred to Greene.
• Priests' victims still hurting [1952]
Pantagraph, www.pantagraph.com/stories/042404/new--20040424008.shtml , By Steve Arney , sarney@pantagraph.com , Saturday, April 24, 2004
BLOOMINGTON (IL): What happened to Rick Springer, the optimistic teenage Catholic convert who wanted to become a priest?
The youngster confided to a priest about the sexual thoughts filling his mind at age 14. Springer said the priest was so concerned that he invited him to the rectory for counseling to free him of his perversions.
The rectory counseling included an order from the priest that Springer drop his pants. Rick Springer didn't become a priest.
He became a depressed alcoholic who couldn't keep a job, who couldn't form relationships, who could love but not be loved and who eventually became homeless.
His recovery started in 1981 with alcoholism recovery. Now he speaks freely about the sexual abuse that happened in 1952.
He reported the abuse to another priest. He doesn't know what sanctions were taken but said the abusive priest died in good standing in the church.
Springer, now 66, drives a cab in Chicago.
• Priests Convey Concerns to Archbishop - RCC. Due process if accused; vacations; celibacy; restructuring; priestly role.
Beliefnet, www.beliefnet.com/story/145/story--14500--1.html , By Mary M. Byrne, Religion News Service, April 23, 2004
ATLANTA (GA): Catholic priests, demoralized by the past two years of the clergy sex abuse scandal, asked a leading archbishop to convey their concerns about priests' rights to the church hierarchy.
Some 240 priests who gathered here for the annual National Federation of Priests' Councils convention grilled Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee on celibacy, false abuse accusations and priestly life. One priest argued for due process and the rights of priests accused of sexual abuse. Another told Dolan, head of the bishops' Priestly Life and Ministry Committee, that bishops act like "deer in the headlights" whenever priests dare to question them.
Vacations, said another, are practically out of the question in the current priest shortage; in his diocese, each priest covers three or four churches at once. And another pressed for an official church dialogue on celibacy and the notion of married priests.
The April 21 afternoon session marked an emotional high point during the group's four-day convention, during which delegates and leaders called for a serious restructuring of the priest-bishop relationship and a creative rethinking of the role of the priest in a church devastated by scandal.
"The area of due process will get a lot of attention," Dolan responded. "It's dawning on us this is far from a precise science. The last two years have been trial and error, and now we're seeing glitches that we need to rectify."
• Scandal put priests' rights at odds with church policy [Too many cases at Vatican]
Centre Daily Times (State College's home page), www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/living/8510623.htm , By Geneive Abdo, Chicago Tribune, Posted on Sat, Apr. 24, 2004
BOSTON (MA): Now that the Catholic Church has taken steps after years of inaction to purge itself of abusive priests, canon lawyers, church officials and other experts are beginning to voice a new concern: The legal rights of accused priests are being slighted.
In some cases, priests are forced to leave their parishes even before the abuse allegations are investigated. These men have little hope their cases will go to trial swiftly, in large part because of a logjam at the Vatican as it processes mountains of paperwork.
As a result, members of the National Review Board -- the watchdog group commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops -- are calling for uniform regulations that would protect priests' legal rights.
"There will be some priests who are accused who are innocent," said Anne Burke, the Illinois Appellate Court judge who chairs the board. "Priests throughout the country should have uniform justice and due process."
• Catholic organization that created policy on sex abuse by clergy to close - RCC. Helped victims; no more lease
Seattle Times, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001911373--tara24m.html , By Janet I. Tu, Saturday, April 24, 2004 -
SEATTLE (WA): After helping hundreds of priests, nuns, ministers and sexual-abuse victims during its 19 years, a Seattle-area nonprofit counseling center that was one of the first of its kind will be holding its last hurrah tomorrow.
Therapy and Renewal Associates - TARA - was founded in 1985 under the auspices of then Seattle Roman Catholic Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, and is perhaps best known to lay people for its work on the issue of sexual abuse by priests.
Experts and church officials gathered in 1986 at TARA's office in South Seattle for discussions that later led to the development of the Seattle Archdiocese's policy on sexual abuse by clergy - one of the country's first. And its two co-directors, Sister Fran Ferder, a Franciscan nun and clinical psychologist, and the Rev. John Heagle, a diocesan priest and psychotherapist, are considered experts in sexual abuse by clergy.
"We're disappointed," said Ferder, who, along with other TARA supporters, will take part in a private closing celebration tomorrow in West Seattle. "We didn't have the funds or the time to find another site."
TARA is closing because its lease, whose terms were favorable, was not renewed by the Seattle Archdiocese, Heagle said. TARA's office was in a former convent adjacent to Our Lady of Lourdes parish in South Seattle.
The archdiocese informed Ferder and Heagle a year ago that it would need the space to accommodate the growing number of Vietnamese Catholics in the area.
The Rev. Anthony Ton, pastor to the more than 1,500 households that comprise the local Vietnamese Catholic Community, said they celebrate Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes twice on Sundays, in addition to about six other services at the nearby Vietnamese Catholic Center.
"Every Mass is standing-room crowd only," he said. "This is too small a place for us."
Other than the lease, TARA was independent of the Seattle Archdiocese. It was funded by grants, donations and fees for services.
In many ways, TARA was groundbreaking at the time of its founding.
Originally, Hunthausen envisioned it as a way of providing "ministry to ministers" - with counseling and resources for Catholic priests, nuns, brothers and career lay ministers, Heagle said. [...]
Over the years, TARA has served people from different faith traditions and those not involved in ministry, as well as many clergy in the Seattle Archdiocese.
Ferder estimates that at least half the priests in the Seattle Archdiocese have consulted with TARA on matters ranging from personal growth to ministry issues in their parishes.
"I think (that) along with many others in the archdiocese, the archbishop expressed his gratitude to Father John and Sister Fran for their ministry over the years and wishes them the very best in the future," said Seattle Archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:03 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Saturday April 24, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont78.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sunday April 25, 2004 edition follows:-
• Lutherans, in wake of scandal, maintain faith - Lutherans.
News 24 (Houston, Texas), www.news24houston.com/content/headlines/?ArID=27794&SecID=2 , Associated Press, 3:57 PM, April/25/2004
GRAPEVINE, DALLAS-FORT WORTH, TEXAS (AP) -- Lutherans who filled church pews today were determined not to let a sexual abuse scandal that led to millions in court awards and legal settlements hamper faith in their leaders.
Tom Watson, who attended services at Living Word Lutheran Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Grapevine said, "People do bad things everywhere, police officers, Lutheran ministers, priests, you name it."
On Thursday, jurors in the East Texas town of Marshall sided with nine sex abuse victims. The victims had sued the Dallas-based Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The nine claimed a former bishop and his assistant ignored warnings about former pastor Gerald Patrick Thomas Junior. The jury agreed, awarding nearly $37 million. Separate earlier settlements involved another $32 million.
Thomas was assessed a 397-year state prison sentence after being convicted last year for molesting boys.
At Living Word, the Reverend Brad Carroll made no direct reference to the scandal during early services. But by using Peter as an example, he urged parishioners to stay true to their faith in Christ despite challenges. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:25 PM]
• Priest charged with nun's murder [1980, Robinson]
The Advertiser, Adelaide, S. Australia, http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story--page/0,5936,9391863% 255E1702,00.html , From correspondents in Toledo, Ohio; Apr 26 04
TOLEDO, OHIO (AP): US investigators have re-examined the 1980 slaying of a nun whose body was found in a chapel surrounded by candles after another woman alleged she was abused by Roman Catholic priests during satanic and sadomasochistic rituals.
Officials in Toledo, Ohio said they could not substantiate the woman's allegations, but her mention of the Reverend Gerald Robinson spurred police to take another look at the nun's murder - in which he had always been a suspect. Robinson, 66, was charged on Friday with murdering Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, who was strangled and stabbed about 30 times on April 5, 1980.
Her body was found in a hospital chapel, surrounded by lit candles with her arms folded across her chest. Authorities said the nun's murder was part of a "ceremony" that took place in the chapel, where she was the caretaker, but they would not elaborate. However, they alleged Robinson acted alone in the slaying.
Robinson was the hospital chaplain and performed the funeral for the 71-year-old nun. Her body was posed to look as though she had been sexually assaulted, but investigators said yesterday they found no evidence of sexual activity.
They said they had re-examined the evidence and concluded that the murder weapon, which they did not identify, was "in the control of the suspect". They used a rarely used technique called "blood transfer patterns", which analyses the patterns made when an item is laid down, but DNA evidence was not a factor, police detective Steve Forrester said.
The woman whose allegations led to the reopening of the case testified before a church review board in June and wrote a detailed statement alleging years of abuse by priests during her childhood.
The woman, now in her 40s, alleged the clerics killed an infant and a three-year-old child, performed an abortion on her and mutilated dogs, according to a copy of her statement obtained by The Blade newspaper. . . .
• Nun's Murder; Accused Priest Appears In Court [1980, Robinson]
ONN (Ohio News Network), http://www.onnnews.com/story.php?record=29986 , April 25, 2004
TOLEDO, OHIO (AP): A Toledo priest accused of killing a nun in 1980 made his first court appearance Monday morning, where a judge set bond at $200,000. The Reverend Gerald Robinson is charged with murder in the death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, whose body was found in the chapel at Toledo's Mercy Hospital. She was surrounded by lit candles with her arms folded across her chest.
Authorities say they decided to re-examine the case after a woman accused Roman Catholic priests of sexually abusing her during bizarre rituals. The 66-year-old Robinson wore a brown jail jumpsuit and stood silently during the hearing, his arms at his sides and hands folded. A preliminary hearing is set for next Monday.
Robinson's lawyer says he expects the case to be presented to a grand jury this week. He says Robinson's supporters are trying to raise bail money. -- © Associated Press and Dispatch Productions, Inc.
• Quiet cleric not well-known by his neighbors, colleagues [1980, Robinson]
Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040425/NEWS03/404250394/-1/NEWS , By DAVID YONKE, yonke@theblade.com, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, Sunday, April 25, 2004
TOLEDO, OHIO: The Rev. Gerald John Robinson was born in Toledo, ordained in Toledo, and served as a priest in Toledo for nearly 40 years. But he is a quiet man and a loner and few priests or neighbors seem to know him very well. "He was not much of a socializer," said the Rev. Joseph Jaros, a retired Toledo priest.
Father Robinson, charged Friday night with the murder of a nun, was ordained in 1964, the same year as the Rev. Martin Donnelly. But Father Donnelly said last night that he does not really know Father Robinson. Most of the priests in the class of 1964 went to Mount St. Mary Seminary in Cincinnati, while Father Robinson attended seminary in Orchard Lake, Mich., Father Donnelly said.
Edward and Martha Wesley, who live around the corner from Father Robinson's tidy brick home at 1401 Nebraska Ave., said they rarely talked to him. "It was a shock," Mr. Wesley, 85, said of the cleric's arrest.
• Pain, questions linger a year after poisoning at church [2004]
Chicago Tribune, Pain, questions linger a year after poisoning at church, www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0404250415apr25,1,3756197.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed , By Jerry Harkavy, Associated Press, April 25, 2004
NEW SWEDEN, Maine -- For survivors of the nation's worst case of arsenic poisoning, cold and numb limbs and intermittent pain linger as reminders of an episode that many in this tiny community would like to forget.
Questions about what happened a year ago at Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church gnaw at Dale Anderson, 54, who drank tainted coffee at a church gathering and now has constant pain from his knees down and complains of memory loss.
"There's always this feeling: Who did this? We want to know the full story," he said.
Even with the suicide of the prime suspect in the case, questions remain. A detective is working on the case nearly full time, and two new books promise answers.
The poisonings at church last April 27 killed Walter Reid Morrill, 78, and sickened 15 others, some severely.
Five days later, church member Daniel Bondeson shot himself in the chest at his home. He left a suicide note that implicated him in the attack and convinced investigators that he hadn't acted alone.
• Priest is charged in 1980 killing of nun, 71 [1980, Robinson]
Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0404250416apr25,1,4149414.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed , By John Seewer, Associated Press, April 25, 2004
TOLEDO, Ohio -- A Roman Catholic priest charged in the 1980 strangling and stabbing of a nun whose body was found in a hospital chapel was always a suspect in the killing.
Police could not gather enough evidence, though, until they reopened the case about five months ago. On Friday, police arrested Rev. Gerald Robinson, who performed the funeral for the 71-year-old nun.
Police Chief Mike Navarre said only that "new technology" led them back to Robinson, 66, who was charged with murder. Navarre would not talk about evidence or a motive.
Robinson and Sister Margaret Ann Pahl worked together at Mercy Hospital, where he was chaplain.
Pahl was stabbed about 30 times and strangled April 5, 1980. Her body was found surrounded by lighted candles with her arms folded across her chest in the chapel, where she was the caretaker.
It was described by some investigators as a "ritualistic" killing.
• Priest removed from Plaquemines Parish church [1993, Sanders]
Sun Herald, South Mississippi, www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/politics/8513253.htm By BRETT MARTEL, Associated Press, Posted on Sat, Apr. 24, 2004
NEW ORLEANS - Allegations of sexual misconduct with minors during a church-related trip to Biloxi 11 years ago led to the removal of a priest this week from a Plaquemines Parish church, the Archdiocese of New Orleans announced Saturday evening.
The Rev. Patrick Sanders, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Belle Chasse, lost his priestly functions on Friday after an archdiocese review of allegations by two men who were 16 at the time of the 1993 trip, archdiocese spokesman the Rev. William Maestri said.
Sanders, who also was the dean of the Algiers-Plaquemines Deanery, has denied the allegations. He was the vicar at Resurrection of Our Lord Parish in New Orleans at the time of the alleged wrongdoing.
No other allegations have been made against Sanders, Maestri said, and Sanders' removal "is not meant to convey any sense of guilt or innocence."
Both alleged victims asked that their names not be released, Maestri said.
The first allegation came on Feb. 16 of this year. Maestri said the man met with an archdiocese victims' assistance coordinator because he was "concerned about the welfare of others who may be injured or harmed and therefore felt a responsibility to come forward."
The man said Sanders acted inappropriately with him while he and another youth traveled with the priest to a function in Biloxi.
The archdiocese then sought to reach the other youth, who no longer lives in Louisiana. He was tracked down and reported the second allegation on March 29.
• Allegations renew nun's death case; Priest arrested in '80 slaying surfaced in ritual-abuse claim.
Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040425/NEWS03/404250380/-1/NEWS By DAVID YONKE, yonke@theblade.com , BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, Sunday April 25, 2004
TOLEDO, Ohio: Allegations made last year by a Toledo woman that she was sexually and physically abused as a child by Catholic priests during Satanic and sadomasochistic rituals led to the reopening of the 1980 case of a nun's murder for which the Rev. Gerald J. Robinson was arrested Friday, authorities said.
Investigators said yesterday that while they could not substantiate the bizarre allegations made by the woman, now in her 40s, her mention of Father Robinson convinced the cold case squad to take another look at the 24-year-old murder in which the priest originally was a suspect.
Father Robinson, 66, who lives next door to the Toledo police's Scott Park district station on Nebraska Avenue, was arrested at 10:15 p.m. Friday and charged with the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, a 71-year-old Sister of Mercy of the Union nun who was strangled to death and then stabbed up to 32 times in the Mercy Hospital chapel on Holy Saturday, 1980.
Detective Steve Forrester and Tom Ross, an investigator with the Lucas County Prosecutor's Office, said during a news conference in the Safety Building yesterday that a "ceremony" took place in the chapel, and that the nun's murder was part of the ceremony. They would not elaborate.
• Church closes agency that counseled victims
The Daily News, Longview, Washington, USA, www.tdn.com/articles/2004/04/25/area--news/news07.txt , By Associated Press, 12:13:34 am PDT, Apr 25, 2004
SEATTLE - The Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle has closed a church agency that for years counseled sexual-abuse victims of clergy and helped develop some of the first rules for dealing with accused priests.
Therapy and Renewal Associates' co-director, Sister Fran Ferder, said Saturday that the agency quietly closed its office in a former convent in south Seattle after the archdiocese told directors last year that the center's lease would not be renewed.
Its closing, which will provide more room for the Vietnamese church next door, comes as people continue to come forward with claims of sexual abuse by priests.
There have been more than 65 Roman Catholic priests in Washington state accused of sexually abusing more than 260 children from 1950 to 2002, according to a church-sanctioned study.
"It was a surprise to us that the archdiocese would not really want an organization that had a history and reputation for having part of its primary focus be to serve victims," Ferder, a Franciscan nun and clinical psychologist, told The Associated Press Saturday.
Calls to the Seattle Archdiocese were not immediately returned.
Ferder was in Seattle Saturday with the Rev. John Heagle, also a TARA director, and the two planned to attend a reception for TARA on Sunday in West Seattle.
They recently returned from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire where they lectured on their book, Tender Fires: The Spiritual Promise of Sexuality.
Ferder said they had known for a year that the lease would not be renewed, and on March 31, the agency closed its doors. The closing was first reported in The Seattle Times on Saturday. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:59 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sunday April 25, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont78.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Monday April 26, 2004 edition follows:-
• Parishioners Back Priest in Nun Slay Case [1980, Robinson]
Phillyburbs, Parishioners Back Priest in Nun Slay Case www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/1-04262004-289731.html , By JOHN SEEWER, The Associated Press, Apr 26 2004
TOLEDO, Ohio - Supporters of a Roman Catholic priest charged with the 1980 killing of a nun rallied around the cleric Monday, trying to raise money for his release and legal defense. The Rev. Gerald Robinson, 66, wearing a brown jail jumpsuit and appearing tired and unshaven, didn't enter a plea at a Monday hearing in Toledo Municipal Court. He made no statement.
Robinson's lawyer, John Thebes, argued he was not a flight risk. "He's not going anywhere," he said. "He hasn't gone anywhere in 24 years." Bond was set at $200,000. Thebes said he hoped supporters of the cleric would raise the money. "We will take any financial, emotional and prayer support we can take," Thebes said.
Robinson, 66, was charged Friday with killing 71-year-old Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. Her strangled and stabbed body was found in a hospital chapel, surrounded by lit candles, her arms folded across her chest. Robinson later performed her funeral.
Parishioners at St. Anthony church, where Robinson was a pastor after the slaying, were setting up a legal defense fund. "There's no way he could've done this," said Mary Ann Plewa, a distant cousin of the priest. "He couldn't have lived 24 years and had that on his mind." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:59 PM]
• Dublin's Cardinal Connell, 78, Retires
Zenit, www.zenit.org/english
[Can't find this one; found a substitute on Zenit, and displayed -jcm 29 Apr 04]
• Millstone marks the suffering of priestly abuse; Monument dedicated in Mendham is for the children sexually assaulted by Catholic clergy. [1970s, 1980s, Hanley]
The Star Ledger(Everything Jersey), www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1082961023166930.xml BY JEFF DIAMANT, Monday, April 26, 2004
NEW JERSEY: The priest's study in the rectory is small, the furniture appearing to be positioned similarly to how it was in the 1970s and 1980s when the Rev. James Hanley sexually abused children there.
More than a dozen adults remember that room at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Joseph's in Mendham for those horrific scenes from their childhoods, where they say Hanley would give them alcohol and pornography and molest them.
Yesterday, about 120 people -- including about a dozen of Hanley's victims -- stood in the rain about 150 feet from that second- floor room to dedicate a memorial to sex-abuse victims at the church and elsewhere.
The 400-pound basalt memorial is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States, coming two years and three months since the clergy sex abuse scandal in Boston began receiving national attention.
It is shaped like a millstone, with words from the Gospel according to Matthew in which Jesus says that whoever harms children would be better off "to have a millstone hung around his neck and (be) thrown into the depth of the sea."
"It's such a powerful message of how children should be treated," said Bill Crane, 38, a Hanley victim who now lives in Oregon. "We needed something physical. We need something that is a touchpost."
• Archdiocese places former county priest on leave [1990s, OBrien]
The Columbian (serving Clark county, Washington), www.columbian.com/04262004/clark--co/138850.html , Monday, April 26, 2004
A priest who left St. John's Catholic Church in 1999 after 20 years in Clark County has been put on administrative leave from his current post in Monroe. The Rev. Michael OBrien has served as priest at St. Mary of the Valley Catholic Church in Monroe after leaving St. John's, in the Glenwood area.
Members of the St. John's congregation said the church's current priest, Father Armando Perez, read a letter announcing the suspension during services on Sunday. A church investigation is focused on an alleged incident involving OBrien that occurred in the early 1990s while he served at St. John's.
Perez and parishioners, after meeting at the church Sunday night, declined to comment and referred questions to the Archdiocese of Seattle . Representatives of the Archdiocese of Seattle, which oversees both churches, could not be reached Sunday evening.
OBrien, who headed the second-largest Catholic church in Clark County, maintained an active community-service role while he served here. He was active in a prison-ministry program, served the state School for the Deaf, expanded Spanish-language church services for the county's growing Hispanic population, worked on behalf of pro-life causes, was active in the interfaith community and worked with programs aimed at helping the homeless and hungry, according to a 1999 Columbian story published when OBrien left the county.
• Ohio Priest Makes Court Appearance in Nun's Murder [1980, Robinson]
Reuters, www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=4944187 , Mon Apr 26, 2004
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Catholic priest charged with the 1980 murder of a nun whose body was covered by an altar cloth and surrounded by candles was ordered held on $200,000 bond on Monday, court sources in Toledo, Ohio, said.
The Rev. Gerald Robinson, 66, has been charged in what investigators described as the "ceremonial" murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, the Toledo Blade newspaper said. Robinson made his first court appearance before Toledo Municipal Court Judge Mary Trimboli, who set bond.
Robinson, who performs clerical duties around Toledo, did not enter a plea at the arraignment and the case will likely be presented to a grand jury for an indictment. The case of Pahl's strangulation and stabbing was reopened after police were told of testimony about alleged satanic rituals by a woman now in her 40s to a diocesan panel as part of an investigation of sexual abuse by priests.
Robinson was initially a suspect in Pahl's murder, but there was insufficient evidence to make the case, the Blade reported, based on interviews with former investigators. Pahl's body was found in the chapel of the hospital where she worked with Robinson and had been posed as if she had been sexually abused -- although she had not been. When the case was reopened, investigators told the Blade that they had the murder weapon and it had been in Robinson's "control."
• 'Turning a new page'
The Daily Record, www.dailyrecord.com/news/articles/news1-millstone.htm , By Abbott Koloff, April/26/04
MENDHAM, USA: Tom Kelly thanked a friend who came up with the idea of a monument to victims of child sexual abuse. He talked about his brother, Jim, a victim of abuse who became known for reaching out to other victims before he committed suicide last year. He thanked St. Joseph's parish members for allowing a monument on church grounds. He did not say anything about his own childhood memories of St. Joseph's.
Kelly made a speech Sunday during the dedication of a monument to victims, but it was not until afterward that he publicly said for the first time that he, too, had been abused as a child by James T. Hanley, a former priest who had been pastor at St. Joseph's in the 1980s. Kelly is one of about two dozen people who say they were abused years ago by Hanley, who has admitted to abusing children, according to church officials.
About 200 people gathered in the rain for the dedication of the monument -- a 400-pound millstone that evokes a biblical passage about child abuse. Many were parishioners coming out of noon Mass, while others were victims and their families.
The dedication came at the end of a series of meetings over the weekend for dozens of sex abuse victims and their supporters -- and a little more than two years after Hanley's victims held their first summit at St. Joseph's. "It was like turning a new page," Kelly, 36, of Morristown, said afterward. ...
• Vatican Replaces Dublin's Archbishop [> 450 lawsuits]
The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Ireland-New-Archbishop.html?ex=1083643200&en=8b175eb335958ff8&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE ; THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Published April 26, 2004
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- The Vatican replaced Cardinal Desmond Connell as the archbishop of Dublin on Monday after years of criticism that he didn't do enough to stop sexual abuse by priests. Pope John Paul II announced Monday in Vatican City that Diarmuid Martin, the coadjutor archbishop of Dublin, had succeeded Connell as leader of the archdiocese's nearly 1.1 million Catholics.
The pope's statement said Connell's resignation -- originally offered in 2001 -- had now been accepted because of his age. Pressure had been mounting on Connell, 78, to quit ever since the Irish television network RTE broadcast an October 2002 documentary into the scope of abuse cases within the country's largest archdiocese. The program accused Connell of using church funds to provide a confidential $50,000 loan to Ivan Payne, a priest who then used the money to buy the silence of an alleged abuse victim.
The documentary said archdiocese leaders were facing more than 450 lawsuits from alleged victims, and had long been aware of a pedophile ring in the diocese involving eight priests, including Payne. The program accused the cardinal of demonstrating little sympathy for abuse victims.
• Judge rules enough evidence to hold trial on bid to hold Porter [1960s, 70s; 28 victims]
The Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/04/26/judge--rules--enough--evidence--to--hold--trial--on--bid--to--hold--porter--1083004719 ; By Denise Lavoie, AP Legal Affairs Writer, April 26, 2004
BOSTON -- A Superior Court judge ruled Monday that there is enough evidence to hold a trial on the state's bid to keep former priest James Porter locked up indefinitely as a sexually dangerous person. Judge David McLaughlin's ruling came after a two-week hearing on Bristol District Attorney Paul Walsh's petition to have Porter committed to the Massachusetts Treatment Center for sexual offenders.
Porter, 69, was convicted in 1993 of molesting 28 children during the 1960s and 1970s while he was a priest in the Fall River Diocese. He completed his prison sentence in January, but has remained in custody while prosecutors made their case to commit him civilly. In order to move the case forward to trial, prosecutors were required to show that Porter suffers from a personality order or mental abnormality that makes it likely he will commit additional sex crimes if he is released from prison. No immediate trial date was set.
McLaughlin said the state presented "a substantial record" of Porter's crimes, allowing two prosecution psychologists to find that Porter is a pedophile and would be likely to molest more children if he is not locked up. The judge cited a letter Porter wrote to his ex-wife in 1996 in which he said that there "always will be" temptations. "Any fair reading of that letter requires the conclusion that (Porter), at that date, was admitting to deviant sexual urges and a need to control the same," the judge wrote in his decision. . . .
• Priest arraigned in 1980 murder of nun [1980, Robinson]
Action 2 News, Wbay TV, www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=1814084, ~ April 26, 2004
TOLEDO, Ohio AP -- Bond has been set at 200-thousand dollars for a Roman Catholic priest in Ohio, accused in the murder of a nun in 1980. The Reverend Gerald Robinson made his initial court appearance today in Toledo, where he was arraigned on a murder charge.
He's accused of killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. She was found strangled and stabbed about 30 times in April of 1980. Her body was found in a hospital chapel. It was surrounded by lit candles. The nun's arms were folded across her chest.
Pahl and the priest had worked together for several years at Mercy Hospital -- where Robinson was the chaplain. He performed the nun's funeral. It wasn't until last year that some new allegations caused authorities to reopen the case. A woman alleged that Roman Catholic priests had sexually abused her during bizarre rituals.
• Diocese detective is on the job
The Republican, http://masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/108288273673440.xml?nnae , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Sunday, April 25, 2004
SPRINGFIELD - The man hired by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield to check allegations of sexual abuse is a retired state police officer who has investigated more than 100 homicides. Kevin Murphy, who retired in June after 30 years on the job - the final 22 with the Northwestern district attorney's office - was hired this month by the diocese to look into allegations of sexual abuse made against priests and other diocesan workers.
The new position was created to help the diocesan Review Board streamline investigations. The nine-member, all-lay Review Board, formerly known as the Misconduct Commission, previously investigated complaints, determined whether they were credible and then made recommendations to the bishop for possible action.
Former board chairman James L. Bell repeatedly said he and the other panel members, all of whom are volunteers, were frustrated because they felt their investigations took too long. It was something for which the panel was criticized by victims. Bell and diocesan officials said that in addition to speeding up the process, they believe Murphy may bring expertise to the investigations.
• Lutheran Sex Scandal: $37 million verdict makes a good point
The Dallas Morning News, www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/042604dnedilutheran.4e27f.html ; Editorial, 12:10 AM CDT on Monday, April 26, 2004
DALLAS, Texas: Defensive Catholics who complain about the media coverage of the church's clergy sex-abuse scandal often allege that other churches suffer from the same problem, though one doesn't hear about it as often. Recent events in Marshall show what they're talking about.
On Thursday, a jury awarded nine plaintiffs a whopping $37 million in a civil suit against the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America over sexual abuse committed by the now-imprisoned Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr., the former pastor of Marshall's Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. The total church payout in settlements to Mr. Thomas' victims is about $69 million.
This case has a depressingly familiar ring to it: Plaintiffs demonstrated that church officials knew that Mr. Thomas had a record of inappropriate behavior with boys and an interest in pornography, yet ordained him anyway.
Moreover, former Lutheran Bishop Mark Herbener of the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod and top assistant Earl Eliason - who testified that he has a chronic problem with exposing himself in public restrooms, for which he pleaded "no contest" three times - did not tell the Marshall congregation of Mr. Thomas' past when they sent him to the church.
Under terms of the settlement, the Lutheran Church has to follow in the same well-trod path as the nation's Catholic bishops: apologize to victims and parishioners, develop abuse policies and investigate all active ministers. It is a tremendous burden for the church, to be sure, but far greater is the burden on the child victims of church leaders' negligence.
The Lutheran scandal was not remotely of the magnitude of the Catholic catastrophe, but it is one of the worst scandals to hit an American Protestant denomination. In all these cases, the same denial and dysfunction are present, and given the paramount importance of religious institutions in the lives of believers, the damage is much magnified.
If church leaders had taken seriously their responsibilities to be good shepherds, a wolf like Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. would never have been in a position to prey on the lambs. The jury's harsh punishment fits the crime.
• Pope accepts Connell resignation
Ireland On-Line, http://212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=102069950&p=yxzx7x656&n=102070710 , 11:39:54, April/26/2004
VATICAN CITY: The Pope has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Desmond Connell from his role as Archbishop of Dublin.
The move was announced by the Vatican today. Cardinal Connell tendered his resignation on his 75th birthday in March 2001 in accordance with Canon Law.
He will automatically be replaced by the Coadjutor Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, who was appointed as his successor last year.
• Archbishop of Dublin Quits [1988 onwards]
The Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland), http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2841212 , "PA" News, Mon 26 Apr 2004
EUROPE: The Pope has accepted the resignation of Dublin archbishop Cardinal Desmond Connell, 78, who has been under fire for mishandling sex abuse cases that have rocked Ireland's Roman Catholic Church.
The Vatican said Pope John Paul today accepted the resignation for reason of age.
Monsignor Diarmuid Martin, a former Vatican official who has been serving as coadjutor archbishop in Dublin, takes over from Connell.
The Irish church has been battered by sex abuse allegations, with the first major abuse case exposed in 1994.
In October 2002, Connell apologised for his Church's neglect of sex abuse victims, asking for forgiveness in a letter read at all Masses in Dublin.
"I deeply regret the mistakes I have made in seeking to come to grips with the problem," he wrote.
Victims of sexual abuse have been demanding his resignation. Connell has been archbishop of Dublin since 1988 and the Pope elevated him to cardinal in 2001.
• Bizarre tale led to Toledo priest's arrest [1980, Robinson]
Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-nun26.html , BY JOHN SEEWER, April 26, 2004
TOLEDO, Ohio -- Investigators re-examined the 1980 slaying of a nun whose body was found in a chapel surrounded by candles after another woman alleged she was abused by Roman Catholic priests during satanic and sadomasochistic rituals, a newspaper reported Sunday. Investigators said they could not substantiate the woman's allegations, but her mention of the Rev. Gerald Robinson spurred police to take another look at the nun's murder -- in which he had always been a suspect.
Robinson, 66, was charged Friday with murdering Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, who was strangled and stabbed about 30 times on April 5, 1980. Her body was found in a hospital chapel, surrounded by lit candles with her arms folded across her chest. Authorities said the nun's murder was part of a "ceremony" that took place in the chapel, where she was the caretaker, but they would not elaborate. However, they allege Robinson acted alone in the slaying.
• Ex-officer: Priest was suspected early in case
The Toledo Blade, "1980 MURDER; Ex-officer: Priest was suspected early in case; Retiree questions police inquiry of nun's slaying;" www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040426/NEWS03/404260357/-1/NEWS , By ROBIN ERB robinerb@theblade.com and CHRISTINA HALL chall@theblade.com , Monday, April 26, 2004
TOLEDO, OHIO: Dave Davison was one of the first officers to see Sister Margaret Ann Pahl lying dead in a Mercy Hospital chapel, and he said Father Gerald Robinson quickly emerged as a suspect in her murder. Now, 24 years later and retired, Mr. Davison wants to know why it took so long to arrest and charge the priest in connection with the 1980 murder. From the beginning, hospital employees told police they suspected Father Robinson, Mr. Davison said.
"They named him, and the ones who didn't use his name said 'the priest,' " he said.
• Penance, yes; extreme ritual, no [1980s, Jablonowski]
Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/04/26/editorial/forum/206f76327adf8dd487256e7f00519afd.txt ; Perspective, By FR. MICHAEL CARR, Monday, April 26, 2004
CASPER, Wyoming: The news of the actions of Anthony Jablonowski, his strange and inappropriate behavior, the question "was this behavior religious or sexual?" and labeling it as church ritual has prompted this reflection.
The Catholic Church believes in the beauty of all creation. God created all things good, Genesis tells us, and God created humankind as the greatest of his creatures. Pope John Paul II has, in the last 20 years, emphasized the holiness of humankind, our bodies and spirits including our sexuality, in his "Theology of the Body." Our bodies and all their parts are created good.
In the Middle Ages, especially around the 11th Century, church practice, particularly in monastic life, included penitential practice of self-whipping with cords and even chains or the wearing of hair shirts or other very rough and extremely uncomfortable clothing. This was also sometimes applied as a punishment in monasteries. Sin and evil were recognized in very different terms in those days and the body was often seen as a necessary evil. They recognized Christ's suffering for their sins and were encouraged to join in those sufferings of Christ. Extreme practices, which developed, have subsequently been condemned by the Church and disappeared, except for some moderate forms under the direction of a competent spiritual director.
Prayer and act of penance continue to be part and parcel of Christian life. We have just ended our season of Lent, where Catholics and Christians are encouraged to pray and do acts of self-denial, such as missing a meal or not eating meat on Friday. These acts of mortification are meant to lead us out of materialism and self-centeredness to a deeper relationship with our God.
Anthony Jablonowski's "penance practices" were not Church ritual at all. At best they were an extremely exaggerated form of self-denial and at worst they were deviant, sinful behavior. They have no relationship to the normal practice of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where we ask our priest to pray with us and impart the healing mercy of Jesus Christ. In the name of the Church, I express deep sorrow and profoundly apologize to his victims. The Diocese of Cheyenne and I continue to encourage counseling for those still impacted by the trauma and pledge to work with them as best we can for their complete restoration of peace. I pray for their healing and for that of Anthony.
The Catholic faith is rich in its belief about the sanctity of human life and the beauty of creation. Our bodies are miraculous gifts. May we all grow in our appreciation of self and our respect for the inherent dignity of each individual. As St. Paul says, "Because you are God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, with kindness, humility, meekness and patience ... Over all these virtues put on love, which binds the rest together and makes them perfect ... Whatever you do, whether in speech or in action, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Col. 3.
(Fr. Michael Carr is the pastor of St. Anthony's parish in Casper and a native of Cheyenne. He is the Vicar General for the Diocese of Cheyenne. The Vicar General serves as vice president of the Diocesan Corporation and is the Bishop's first assistant in the administration of the Diocese.)
• Rituals weird even by medieval standards
Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/04/26/editorial/columns/334a7b9311524aba87256e80005ef95a.txt ; By TOM MAST, Star-Tribune staff writer, Monday, April 26, 2004
CASPER, Wyoming: Sometimes the only way to sort things out is to seek a broader context. What may seem strange, or even bizarre, when framed within a more sweeping perspective, suddenly becomes comprehensible.
And sometimes not.
Anthony Jablonowski, 67, served as a priest at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Guernsey from 1980-88. He had his own ideas about penance.
Several people told investigators that during his tenure, Father Tony conducted strange rituals in the church basement. Young men in their teens and 20s would strip naked and be gagged, bound and blindfolded. Then their genitals would be tied in a particular fashion, they would be hoisted by a winch and hung upside down, the better to be flogged. All the while, prayers would be said.
Father Tony, according to his attorney, claims he did nothing sexual, but he pleaded no contest to a charge of molesting a 17-year-old boy and was sentenced earlier this month to between 15 months and seven years in prison.
The 17-year-old, according to the prosecution, stopped by the church rectory, whereupon Father Tony fondled and performed a sexual act on him.
Father Tony did not deny performing "religious" rituals, but called them "prayers of penance."
Frankly, such rituals seem like practices straight out of medieval Europe. But as it turns out, they would have been alien even at the time of Richard the Lion Heart.
So explains Christine Caldwell, an assistant professor of history at St. Louis University, a highly respected Jesuit school in St. Louis, Mo. Her area of expertise is the Middle Ages.
In an e-mail, the activities of Father Tony were recounted briefly, to which Ms. Caldwell replied:
"There is certainly a precedent in the history of Christianity generally and Catholicism specifically of the use of the body (that is inflicting pain/discomfort upon it) for the purposes of penance. For example, the Rule of Benedict (the most important rule for monasteries in the early and high Middle Ages) prescribed that monks committing various infractions should be disciplined by beating, and that beating was a supremely effective means to tame errant or disobedient wills.
"However," she goes on to say, "this was by no means common among laypeople -- that is, 'normal' Christians who were not clergy, monks, or nuns. It is true that extremely serious sinners (for example, penitent former heretics) could be given the penance flogging, and this flogging could indeed take place in a ritualized setting (during a procession, during a mass, done by a priest). Otherwise, the medieval church was not happy with lay movements that incorporated penitential flogging (for example, banning the 'flagellant' movement that arose in the wake of the Black Death in 1348, in which crowds of laypeople moved from town to town, whipping themselves and preaching penance).
"As far as I know, then, there is emphatically no explicit precedent up until the end of (the Middle Ages) for the ritual this priest claims, or for binding, gagging, tying the testicles and hanging upside down as forms of penance. I'll point out too that even the very limited application of penitential flogging to laypeople in the Middle Ages was not only public and ordered, but also would not have been limited to one demographic (i.e., teen boys)."
Ms. Caldwell concludes, "It would not be extremely unusual for a teen boy who had been found guilty of heresy to be beaten by his parish priest during mass in full view of his congregation. But if a bishop in the Middle Ages heard that a group of teen boys who were not in a religious order (especially if the beating was not a precise penance for a specially confessed sin, but a vague 'ritual') had such things as you recount done to them by a local priest, the matter would be very unusual and very serious indeed for the priest."
There is no amount of rationalization, no amount of grasping for illusory "good" ends, that excuses behavior like that of Father Tony, not by a priest or a teacher, a physician or a counselor, indeed, not by anyone in a position of authority. It's a betrayal, it's abuse, and it's wrong.
We only hope that as Father Tony serves his state-ordered penance behind prison walls, he takes ample time to reflect upon that fact.
One footnote: Platte County Attorney Eric Alden points out that the activities of Anthony Jablonowski came to light because his office was notified by the Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne, whose officials acted in a proactive and appropriate manner throughout the investigation.
Tom Mast is the Star-Tribune Sunday and special projects editor.
• Where is DA Conte in 2004 ? [Kane, Diocese, Burns, Coyle, Riordan, Rueger]
Worcester Voice, http://worcestervoice.com/why--no--crimanl--investigation.htm , ~ April 26, 2004
Where was District Attorney John Conte in 1987 and why has he failed to seek criminal indictments for the crimes committed by Rev. Thomas Kane and the Diocese of Worcester concerning the House of Affirmation?
UNITED STATES: More investigation is needed into the running of the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville, which closed in the early 1990s after allegations were made of gross fiscal mismanagement by one of its founders, the Rev. Thomas A. Kane.
Monsignor Edmond Tinsley, a priest of the Diocese of Worcester and member of the House Board of Directors, has testified that the records from the House of Affirmation were destroyed. George E. Rueger, auxiliary bishop of Worcester, also a board member has remained silent and failed to assist clergy abuse victims when they came forward with his knowledge.
The House of Affirmation was founded by Father Thomas A. Kane, Sister Anna Polcino and lay Catholic psychiatrist Conrad Baars. It was formally opened with a Mass of dedication at 11:30 a.m. in St. Patrick's Church, Whitinsville, followed by a benefit buffet at 2 p.m. at Pleasant Valley Country Club, Sutton on June 1, 1974 according to published report in The Catholic Free Press. The newspaper never said who benefited from the buffet.
Cardinal John Wright, according to the Free Press article, helped get Vatican permission for opening of the house. Among hierarchy at the dedication were Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan of Worcester, Cardinal Humberto Medeiros of Boston and Cardinal Alfrink of the Netherlands.
The "House" opened with a great flourish of publicity. Yet, not one news article mentioned that one of its reasons for existing was treatment for sexually dysfunctional priests. You would think it was just tired and overworked priests and religious who went there. The term "stress" shows up a lot in newspaper clippings of the era. Although not part of the church, it had close ties to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester.
The House of Affirmation, a non-profit corporation, was said to be independent of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester. Yet in review of the board members shows that Bishop Timothy J. Harrington of the Worcester Diocese was president and treasurer of the five-member board of directors. Two other Worcester directors were Father Kane and Sister Polcino and two New York priests, the Rev. Alcuin Coyle and the Rev. Brendan P. Riordan completed board membership.
In dealing with the financial scandal at the House of Affirmation, those who attempted to expose the truth to Attorney General James P. Shannon and later to Cardinal Bernard Law paid a heavy price for their truthfulness. Most were fired, and co-founder Dr. Conrad Baars, who was legitimate and tried to expose existence of "double books," was not only fired but became the subject of rumors spread by both Kane and Polcino of being incompetent to cover their now exposed embezzlement activities, according to an 1987 statement given by his widow, Virginia Baars. Why did the attorney general and Cardinal Law, who was later driven to resignation when it became known that he actively covered up for abusive priests in the Boston archdiocese, not take action on this information of alleged criminal misconduct?
When it was determined that financial mismanagement occurred on the part of Father Kane, he avoided litigation by agreeing to write the House of Affirmation a big check on Oct. 16, 1987 and was barred from participating on the board. Bishop Timothy J. Harrington of the Worcester Diocese then sent Fr Kane on sabbatical "to get rest." Sister Polcino retained an emeritus title with the House and retired to Seaside, N.J.
At a closed-door meeting held at the bishop's house, in 1987 the directors elected George E. Rueger, auxiliary bishop of Worcester, and the Rev. Edmond Tinsley to the board to replace Father Kane and Sister Polcino.
Public documentation now shows that the House of Affirmation closed in the 1990s among financial hardships and was never able to recover from the public scandal of financial mismanagement to the original pricey $300.00 a day fees once charged for services provided to those who became subject of treatment for sexual addition to young children and adolescents.
Testimony has been given by Rev. Tinsley that he destroyed all the records from the House of Affirmation. One must question why these important records
were destroyed. Could it have been to protect discovery of documentation that
would have supported the accusations made by victims of sexual abuse by priests
who were sent to the House for treatment of deviant behavior against children?
The diocese recently documented that it knew priests of the Worcester diocese
had been molesting children going back to the 1950s.
Catholic priests being treated at the House for this deviant behavior against children were given weekend permission to attend local parishes within the communities surrounding Whitinsville. This practice resulted in numerous accusations of clergy sexual abuse. Father Robert Burns, recently the subject of revisited clergy sexual abuse suits by Boston archdiocese legal representative Wilson Rogers Jr., was named in a suit with the House of Affirmation. That suit was filed and immediately impounded so no one could find out what the accusations were. Still, Mr. Rogers was able to go back in 2002 and get parts of the suit unimpounded for his own reasons.
Activity within the House of Affirmation has long been a contention of clergy sexual abuse with in the Worcester diocese. Many board members have faced sexual abuse accusations. Father Kane has been the subject of at least two civil lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct, to which the Worcester Dioceses has paid a monetary settlement in return for confidentiality agreements. Rev. Alcuin Coyle of New York was removed from his pastoral duties for allegations of sexual abuse. The Rev. Brendan P. Riordan, was the subject of a confidential settlement in a civil lawsuit by Mark Barry, which absolved him and other priests of legal liability involving misconduct at the House. Bishop Rueger was the defendant in a sexual abuse lawsuit which was later dismissed by the complainant. The accusations made in the suit, however, are still under current investigation by state police detectives assigned to the district attorney office, according to DA John Conte.
Father Kane remained a priest in good standing of the Worcester diocese even after he passed over a check to make good on the fiscal irregularities discovered during an investigation. He later was hired to be executive director of the Guild of Catholic Psychiatrists on a recommendation by Bishop Harrington who continued to say the fiscal scandal was behind them and he was still a priest in good standing. Father Kane was later removed from priestly duties in 1993 when allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced and could no longer be publicly denied. e-mail us at Worcestervoice@msn.com
• Editorial | The Bishop and the Governor; Churches may lobby, but not ordain.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/8519874.htm?1c , Mon, Apr. 26, 2004
UNITED STATES: Gov. James McGreevey of New Jersey is not a good Catholic - according to Bishop John M. Smith, head of the Diocese of Trenton. He said so in a March 27 homily. McGreevey should keep that in mind - but not only that.
In the church's eyes, McGreevey is on the wrong side of many hot issues. He supports abortion rights and domestic partnerships, and he has expedited laws that allow the state to fund stem-cell research. New Jersey, where politics trend center-left, also is home to almost a quarter of all the medical research companies in the world. What the Vatican dislikes, many New Jersey voters like. Good luck, governor.
In the last two years, church officials have been stepping up the pressure on Catholic political figures. In October 2002, Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit read a sermon widely seen as a public tongue-lashing of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jennifer Granholm, a Catholic who favors abortion rights. She was elected anyway.
In January 2003, the Vatican declared that Catholic officeholders have a "grave and clear obligation" to oppose laws or policies that permit abortion, euthanasia or human embryo research. That same month, California Bishop William Weigand called on then-Gov. Gray Davis to stop taking communion until he changed his mind on abortion.
And on Friday, Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Vatican official, said a leader who supports abortion rights is "not fit" to receive the eucharist. A warning to Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts? Many find it ironic that a church whose moral authority has been weakened by the priest sexual-abuse scandal, a church so slow and obdurate before such outrage, would thus protest.
Then again, it has every right to voice its displeasure. As a special-interest group in America, it has every right to exert whatever pressure it can using what leverage it has. Some interest groups use money; the church is using sermons. That's our system; it helps keep leaders accountable. It would be wrong for leaders to pass laws that favored one specific religion, or established one religion for all Americans.
But that's not what this campaign is. It is a church lobbying. McGreevey should consider his religion when making his decisions. But he can't stop there. He is governor for Catholics and non-Catholics alike. A bishop's censure must be only one of the many factors he considers. Most of the time, he won't cross swords with his church - but sometimes he will. The heartbreaking irony of politics is that its lifeblood is compromise, deal-making. That's the agony of the leader torn between conscience and constituents.
• Pain, outrage mark clergy abuse victims
www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=242236&category=REGION&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=4/26/2004 ;
Ex-judge listens to congregants' accounts as he devises plan to aid those injured in scandal
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, mailto:mbolton@timesunion.com , Monday, April 26, 2004
ALBANY (NY) --Retired Court of Appeals Judge Howard Levine gained a new insight on devastation over the past four months after meeting with victims of clergy sex abuse and the therapists who counsel them. The emotional and physical effects are indescribable, said Levine, who was appointed by Bishop Howard Hubbard in December to create a support program for victims. "Many are hurting, too, because they've also lost their faith."
Levine is working on the plan that seeks to make amends -- spiritually, psychologically and financially -- to those who were sexually abused by priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.
"We're beginning to see daylight," he said of the approach -- to be presented to Hubbard in June -- that will be fair and open. "We want a fresh start." Levine, who retired from the state Court of Appeals last year, is senior counsel at the Albany firm of Whiteman Osterman & Hanna. He also is a former state Supreme Court justice, Schenectady County Family Court judge and Schenectady County district attorney.
His proposal, if adopted by the diocese, would be voluntary. "We're eager to see the results of his efforts," diocesan spokesman Kenneth Goldfarb said. "We continue to want to see what can be done to assist these people who have suffered under the current circumstances." Some victims and their advocates expressed little faith that the program, whatever it entails, will be of much help.
"At the end of the day, it's really too little, too late," said Mark Furnish, who is director of the Capital District chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. The process is going too slow, he said: "It's time for the diocese to step aside and let law enforcement take over. It's beginning to look like a lot of window dressing."
National SNAP director David Clohessy said many Catholic dioceses around the country have done nothing. Some have created programs focused on what they can afford rather than what is needed, he said. In Boston, where the scandal erupted four years ago and resulted in Cardinal Bernard Law being replaced, church officials last week sold $90 million worth of church property to Boston College to raise the funds needed to pay a settlement with victims.
Some dioceses claim to routinely offer therapy, but it's often hard to qualify for or the conditions are restrictive, Clohessy said. Some victims must sign lengthy documents swearing not to sue once benefits are received, he said, adding: "I don't think that when Jesus was approached by the blind man he said, 'I'll help you, but first would you mind signing this 18-page contract?' " Curtis Oathout, 40, is a Columbia County man who first spoke out in January 2003 of his longtime abuse as a young adolescent by the Rev. David Bentley and other priests. The Albany diocese paid Oathout several hundred thousand dollars and met with him repeatedly in sessions he tape-recorded. But he said more is needed.
"Where are the laws that protect victims ... the tenderness and the caring?" he asked. "Where is the Legislature? They know who we are." New York lawmakers continue to be stalled on a measure that would add the clergy to the list of those required to report cases of child sexual abuse to law enforcement. Delays have been caused by a debate over the time frame for reports -- whether they should be limited to the statute of limitations, or go as far back as 20 to 50 years. Sexual victimization at the hands of a priest leaves lifelong scars, Oathout said: "Why haven't they brought us in for a memorial for victims? If they wanted to, they could have done something, anything long ago."
"My life is half done," Oathout said. "And they have stood their ground. These are crimes. And these men belong in shackles."
In Mendham, N.J., survivors of clergy sex abuse gathered Saturday as the nation's first memorial to such victims -- and created by them -- was dedicated. Randy Sweringen, 38, of Berkeley, Calif., said that he hasn't received money from the diocese, nor has he asked for any beyond reimbursement for years of therapy costs. Sweringen was in town last week to meet with Hubbard, who gave a personal apology for the sexual transgressions of the Rev. Charles Celeste, a chaplain at the RPI fraternity where Sweringen lived as a student in his late teens and early 20s in the 1980s.
"I would be immediately skeptical of a policy where victims had to go get something from anyone with ties to this diocese," he said of any plan that would limit therapy and other services to those provided by the church. "Imagine the pain of putting your mind, heart and soul in such a vulnerable place. Sweringen said his trip last week was about an apology.
"The next trip will be about how we can come to make amends and how they can change their ways in the future," he said. Celeste took a leave from his post as pastor at Holy Family parish in Little Falls in November 2003 after admitting he had sexual relations with Sweringen and another male.
Sweringen has asked the diocese to publish information about Celeste's admitted abuse in The Evangelist newspaper and notify every school, fraternity, hospital, prison and church of the priest's admissions. #
• Monument for sex abuse victims dedicated at Mendham church [? 1970s Hanley] - RCC. Millstone monument. Boys.
Newsday, www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--churchabuse-monum0426apr26,0,6060612.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire ; April 26, 2004
MENDHAM, N.J. -- A Roman Catholic church where several men say they were molested by the same priest many years ago now houses a monument to child sex abuse victims.
About 200 parishioners and others gathered Sunday at St. Joseph's Church to see the 400-pound monument, which was carved out of black basalt stone and shaped like a millstone. It came about last year when friends and family gathered for the funeral of James Kelly, 37, of Morristown.
Kelly, who committed suicide in October by stepping in front of a train, was one of more than 20 people who said they were sexually abused by James T. Hanley, who served at the Mendham church more than 20 years ago. Church officials have said Hanley admitted abusing children there and he eventually was defrocked, but he was never criminally charged because the statute of limitations had expired in the cases.
Kelly's brother, Tom, 36, was among those who spoke at the ceremony. The Morristown man -- who for the first time publicly acknowledged that he also was one of Hanley's victims -- said it was uncomfortable to be back at the church, but decided he had to be there for his late brother.
"(Seeing the monument) was like turning a new page," Kelly told the Daily Record of Parsippany after the ceremony.
Bill Crane, a former classmate of James Kelly who now lives in Clackamas, Ore., commissioned the monument. It was funded by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests support group and erected just outside the Morris County church, which is part of the Diocese of Paterson.
• Guernsey church holds 'healing' service [1980s, Jablonowski] - RCC.
Casper Star-Tribune, Casper, Wyoming; www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/04/26/news/wyoming/3a764f27cb5f83d087256e82000ee96a.txt ; Monday, April 26, 2004
GUERNSEY, USA -- Bishop David Ricken, the top Roman Catholic official in Wyoming, led a "healing" service Sunday evening in this town, which has been rocked by revelations of a secret naked bondage ritual that involved a former priest and young male parishioners. "I would like to offer to you our apologies for any of us who would have acted this way," Ricken said. "I think we need to express our apologies and our sorrow for anyone who may have gone through this." Several men have told investigators that roughly 20 years ago they allowed themselves to be stripped, blindfolded, suspended upside-down, whipped and have cords tied around their genitals while praying for penance with Father Anthony Jablonowski at St. Anthony Catholic Church. The ritual was supposed to intensify their prayers and help them get closer to God. But three men said the ordeal was more sexual than religious, and a prosecutor was ready to file sexual abuse charges until a plea agreement was reached a few weeks ago. Ricken said that Jablonowski's actions were "not just a sin, but a crime, and he is behind bars, and it is a sad day." . . . [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:13 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Monday April 26, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont78.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tuesday April 27, 2004 edition follows:-
• Sex and satanic rituals claim as priest is accused of murdering nun [Robinson] - RCC.
TOLEDO (OH) Independent, http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=516002 , By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles, for 28 April 2004
Depending on whom you believe, Gerald Robinson is either a quiet, somewhat remote, balding cleric who has faithfully served the Catholic Church for the past 40 years, or a sexual pervert and participant in bizarre Satanic rituals who killed a 71-year-old nun and covered up the crime.
Either way, the 66-year-old priest is the talk of the Rust Belt town of Toledo, Ohio, where he has been arraigned on murder charges and imprisoned in the county jail after his arrest last weekend.
His case is not only replete with details straight out of a Gothic melodrama, including one particularly lurid report of a ritual involving a teenage girl, a snake and a human eyeball. It is also once more throwing an unwelcome spotlight on the moral integrity of the Catholic hierarchy, which in this case supported Fr Robinson and allowed him to continue his pastoral duties even after he was formally placed under investigation for murder last year.
At the heart of the matter is the killing of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in the sacristy of a church hospital on Easter Saturday 24 years ago. Sister Margaret Ann was one day short of her 72nd birthday when she was strangled and then stabbed between 27 and 32 times.
Police say that Fr Robinson was a suspect from the start - a factor that did not prevent him from officiating at Sister Margaret Ann's funeral. They also believed some kind of ritual was involved, since the nun's body was found covered with an altar cloth. At the time, however, the evidence trail went cold, in part because the murder scene had been scrupulously cleaned up before the police arrived. The authorities offered nearly $30,000 for information that could solve the case, but none was forthcoming. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 09:55 PM
• Diocese Suspends Priest Accused of Murder
WTOL, www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=1820482 , ~ April 27, 2004
TOLEDO (OH) -- The Diocese of Toledo has placed a priest accused of murder on a leave of absence. Father Gerald Robinson was arrested Friday night in connection with the murder if Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in 1980. Her body was found in the chapel of Mercy Hospital.
Father Robinson has been held in the Lucas County Jail since his arrest. Tuesday, Bishop Leonard Blair of the Diocese of Toledo visited Robinson in jail, and delivered the news that the diocese had put him on a leave of absence. The diocese says Father Blair accepted the restrictions.
The leave of absence means Father Robinson is excluded from public ministry. He can only celebrate Mass alone with no one else present, and he may not celebrate the other sacraments of the church.
Before his visit to the jail, Bishop Leonard Blair spoke to Dan Bumpus of News 11. Speaking of the murder charge faced by Father Robinson, Bishop Blair said, "I'm completely shocked and deeply troubled that one of our priests could be accused of such a thing." He went on to add, "Obviously the police and the prosecutor have determined there is new or compelling evidence to make this charge."
• Pains of Youth - RCC. Stage play.
The Village Voice, www.villagevoice.com/issues/0417/mcnulty.php , by Charles McNulty, April 26, 2004
The Tricky Part, By Martin Moran, McGinn/Cazale Theatre, 2162 Broadway, 212.239.6200
NEW YORK: A small photograph of a smiling boy in a life preserver sits atop a table on a spare stage, as though waiting for its story to be told. That haunting tale makes up Martin Moran's solo performance piece, The Tricky Part, a memoir of sexual abuse recounted as a private conversation between actor and audience, without a single sensationalizing turn.
Childhood horror stories have become a crowded genre in our Prozac Nation, yet Moran's genial presence refreshes the art of confessional, calmly piecing together events that altered his life in ways that sometimes seem incommensurate with his ambivalent experience of them. Never more moving than when registering surprise at the lifelong fallout from the camping trip that shattered his 12-year-old innocence, Moran sifts through his feelings of guilty complicity, wondering if he can forgive himself, though blameless, for the betrayal of his youth.
Like many an unsuspecting altar boy, Moran was brought up in parochial schools within a religious community where the assurance of safety provided an ideal cover for predators. Moran regales his audience with anecdotes involving the nuns who educated him on the joys of music, the mystery of grace, and the sinfulness of the flesh. But it's a seminary dropout in a sleeping bag who teaches him a lesson so profound it takes decades to sink in -- that evil can wear a friendly face, seductive on the surface, treacherously sad underneath.
• Jury Selection Begins In Alleged Abundant Life Pastor Abuse Case [Tucker]
Click 2 Houston, Jury Selection Begins In Alleged Pastor Abuse Case, www.click2houston.com/news/3240225/detail.html , ~ April 27, 2004
HOUSTON (TX): Jury selection will begin Tuesday for a northeast Harris County pastor accused of sexually assaulting a member of his church.
James Eugene Tucker Jr., 51, was arraigned April 19 after being charged with sexually assaulting a member of his church.
The pastor was accused of sexually assaulting a member of the Abundant Life Church, 713 Airtex Drive, in north Harris County, while he was a pastor.
Harris County sheriff's investigators said that in late January, a church member in her early 30s told them that she had been sexually assaulted by Tucker in September 1998 while she was undergoing marriage counseling from him.
Abundant Life Church officials told News2Houston that Tucker has not been a pastor at the church for the past two months, after 12 years of employment.
During his arraignment, about 40 members from his church and other friends showed up to support Tucker.
• Church Discipline: An Ignored Truth
Agape Press, http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/4/272004mc.asp , By Rev. Mark H. Creech, April 27, 2004
UNITED STATES (AgapePress): Last week Cardinal Francis Arinze, a high-ranking Vatican official said in a news conference in Rome that Catholic pro-abortion politicians should not be served communion. Arinze, a Nigerian who has been mentioned as the Pope's possible successor, refused to comment directly on whether presidential candidate John Kerry should be excommunicated. But the inference was clear and the cardinal left no doubt concerning Kerry and his pro-abortion politics, saying, "If they should not receive, then they should not be given."
According to The New York Times, church officials say that failing to call prominent Catholics to account on such issues creates the impression one can still be a good Catholic while disobeying church teaching. Without question, Cardinal Arinze's statement clarifies that U.S. bishops not only have a right to address matters of "serious pastoral concern," but also a responsibility. Some leading Catholic laity and clerics have already told Kerry he is excommunicated because of his abortion stance.
At the risk of being perceived as cruel and hard-hearted, I rejoice in seeing a renewed emphasis on the practice of church discipline. If Catholics had taken this approach toward homosexuality years ago, then the large number of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse would have likely been avoided. Eighty percent of the abuse cases at issue were of a homosexual nature. The scandal cost the Catholic Church more than $500 million and created a tremendous credibility gap in the church's witness.
• Victory Baptist Pastor accused of molesting boy at church [Neathery] - Baptist.
Star-Telegram, Pastor accused of molesting boy at church, www.dfw.com/ mld/startelegram/ news/state/ 8533605.htm?1c , By Deanna Boyd
FORT WORTH (TX): The pastor of the Westside Victory Baptist Church was arrested Monday, accused of sexual assaulting a 13-year-old male church member at least four times, three of them inside the pastor's church office.
Detective Dennis Hutchins arrested 55-year-old Larry Nuell Neathery at the Alliance for Children office, where the man and his attorney were meeting with Child Protective Services workers.
He was released from Mansfield Jail on Monday night after his attorney, Don Carter, posted a $50,000 bail bond.
"He adamantly denies this and was in as much shock as anyone else," Carter said. "I posted his bond without any money (from him) because I believed him. I wouldn't have done that if I thought he was an outlaw."
Neathery did not return a phone message left at his home seeking comment.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, allegations against Neathery surfaced after the boy's mother, concerned that her son may have been sexually assaulted, asked the boy earlier this month if anyone had ever touched his private area.
• First Female Sex Suits Emerge Against Diocese
ThePittsburghChannel.com ; www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/3243435/detail.html , ~ April 27, 2004
PITTSBURGH (PA): More sex abuse lawsuits are being filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Attorneys for six people, including at least three women, say they plan to file suit Wednesday in Allegheny County Common Pleas court.
The lawsuits will claim a cover-up and will name the diocese, Bishop Donald Wuerl and Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua as defendants.
These are the first local lawsuits involving women and claims of child sexual abuse by priests.
Six current or former priests who were allegedly involved will not be named in the lawsuits because of the statute of limitations.
• Former county priest investigated for sexual abuse of a minor in '90s [O'Brien]
The Columbian, www.columbian.com/04272004/clark--co/139085.html , By ERIK ROBINSON, Tuesday, April 27, 2004
WASHINGTON: A former Clark County priest is under investigation for sexual abuse of a minor, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Seattle confirmed Monday.
The Rev. Michael OBrien left St. John's Catholic Church in 1999. He agreed April 2 to take administrative leave from St. Mary of the Valley Catholic Church in Monroe while the investigation continues.
Greg Magnoni, spokesman for the Seattle Archdiocese, said an independent panel is reviewing an allegation made against OBrien in the early 1990s while he served at St. John's, in the Glenwood area north of Vancouver. OBrien spent 20 years at St. John's.
Magnoni said an investigation by civil authorities a decade ago failed to substantiate the allegation. Magnoni would not identify the investigating agency.
Bob Kanekoa, director of the county's Child Abuse Intervention Center, said his department had no record of an investigation involving OBrien in Clark County.
"We didn't investigate anything," he said.
• Morons in the News: Church Coverups May Extend to Murder [1980, Robinson] - RCC.
Morons.org ; http://web.morons.org/article.jsp?sectionid=1&id=4905 , ~ April 27, 2004
TOLEDO (OH): We know that the Catholic Church has a history of moving child molester priests around rather than letting the law deal with them; it looks like they may do the same for murderers. ...
Rev. Gerald Robinson has been charged in the ritualistic slaying of a nun back in 1980. He stands accused of killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl over 24 years ago, stabbing her 30 times then leaving her body in Toledo's Mercy hospital chapel surrounded by candles with her arms crossing her chest. Sister Margaret was the caretaker at the chapel; Robinson was the hospital chaplain.
Authorities had re-opened their investigation in the case after hearing from a woman who claimed to have been abused by priests for years. According to the Toledo Blade:
She described Satanic ceremonies in which priests placed her in a coffin filled with cockroaches, forced her to ingest what she believed to be a human eyeball, and penetrated her with a snake "to consecrate these orifices to Satan."
She also alleged that the group of clerics killed an infant and a 3-year-old child, performed an abortion on her, and mutilated dogs during the rituals, according to a copy of her statement obtained by The Blade.
Investigators re-examined evidence and were able to use "blood transfer patterns" to place the alleged murder weapon at the crime scene under the control of Robinson. Robinson had long been suspected of committing the homicide, but at the time of the initial investigation, the technology to demonstrate that the weapon had been at the crime scene did not yet exist.
Nearly as disturbing as the murder itself are details coming to light that the local diocese may have thwarted the investigation with some retired detectives in the case believing that the church put pressure on investigators to stall or derail their work. Retired police officer Dave Davison told CBS, "You have to remember on our department, the people in the upper command levels that had control on this are good Catholics. And I'm sure that some kind of friendly deal was cut. I think basically he was under house arrest under the church care."
• Priest disqualified from mayoral race
Manila Times, www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/apr/28/yehey/prov/20040428pro1.html , By Harley Palangchao , Northern Luzon Bureau, ~ April 27, 2004
BAGUIO CITY, PHILIPPINES --A Roman Catholic priest, who was placed on probation after pleading guilty to a sexual harassment case filed in court against him last year, has been disqualified from running for mayor in his hometown in Buguias, Benguet, a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official revealed.
The lawyer Julius Torres, election supervisor for Baguio and Benguet, told a media forum here Tuesday that Fr. Nardo Cayat was disqualified from the race by the Comelec en banc.
In 2003, Cayat was sentenced to four months in jail by the late Judge Benjamin Buena of the Baguio Municipal Trial Court after he pleaded guilty to a sexual harassment case filed by a a woman member of a prominent family in Benguet.
Cayat, however, applied for probation following his conviction by the court. But while on probation, the priest filed his certificate of candidacy (CoC) for mayor of Buguias, about four hours drive away from Baguio.
• Did Diocese Handle Nun's Death? [1980, Robinson]
CBS, www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/27/earlyshow/main613948.shtml , ~ April 27, 2004
TOLEDO (OH): (CBS/AP) One of the first police officers at the scene of the 1980 killing of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in Toledo, Ohio, told CBS News Tuesday that he believed the slaying was not investigated as vigorously as it should have been.
The Rev. Gerald Robinson, a Roman Catholic priest who worked at the same hospital as the 71-year-old nun, was charged this weekend with the bizarre, ritualistic slaying. He is being held on $200,000 bond.
In an interview on The Early Show, retired Toledo police officer Dave Davison said Robinson's was the only name ever mentioned as a suspect when the crime was first investigated in 1980.
"Everybody I talked to - and I talked to dozens - said either Father Robinson or that they didn't know his name, they said it was a priest," Davison told co-anchor Harry Smith. "I mean, there was no other name mentioned."
Davison, a patrolman at the time, was not involved in the investigation. He happened to be among the first at the scene because he was having breakfast in the hospital cafeteria when the nun's body was found in the chapel.
"A nurse ran down, told us that we should get up to the chapel, that there was a nun dead," Davison recalls. "We ran up. We got there before the call came into the police department, because everybody at the hospital knew us."
The investigation that followed "seemed to go nowhere," the retired officer said. "I mean, you talk to the guys, ask what progress. And basically they would toss you off. So it didn't go anywhere."
One of the police investigators at the time now says that he thought that the case had not been thoroughly investigated, and Davison agrees, suggesting that authorities may have been pressured to keep the investigation stalled.
"You really don't want to call it a coverup," Davison said, noting "I think the diocese took control of him." The priest was removed from Mercy Hospital, where he was practicing, but stayed in Toledo.
• In Stunned City, Priest Is Arraigned in Killing of Nun
The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/04/27/national/27PRIE.html?ex=1083729600&en=5b13d1005131b292&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVER ; By STEPHEN KINZER, Published: April 27, 2004
TOLEDO, Ohio, April 26 - A Roman Catholic priest was arraigned here today on a murder charge in the killing of a nun 24 years ago. She was strangled, then stabbed at least 27 times.
The priest, the Rev. Gerald Robinson, 66, is a Toledo native who has worked in this area since his ordination in 1964. Prosecutors said they would present evidence against him to a grand jury this week and hoped for an indictment by the weekend.
Ohio has a death penalty, but it could not be applied in this case because the punishment was not in force at the time of the murder.
Early this morning, Father Robinson was taken from his cell and escorted through an underground tunnel to Toledo Municipal Court. Unshaven, looking haggard and dressed in a brown prison jumpsuit, he said nothing during the brief proceeding.
The victim, Margaret Ann Pahl, who belonged to the Sisters of Mercy of the Union, was killed on Holy Saturday in 1980, one day before her 72nd birthday. Her body, covered with an altar cloth, was found in the chapel of Mercy Hospital in Toledo, where she and Father Robinson had worked for several years. Father Robinson celebrated her funeral Mass.
Investigators said they discovered new evidence against Father Robinson by analyzing "blood transfer patterns," which they described as an unusual new technology that is based on analyzing patterns left when objects are laid down. They would not give more details.
• Cleric agrees to vacate abbey
Oakland Tribune, www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1726~2111077,00.html , By John Geluardi, CORRESPONDENT, ~ April 27, 2004
ALAMEDA (CA): The Rev. Donald Weeks agreed Monday to move out of the three-story building where he ran St. Patrick Abbey, a transitional housing facility for substance abusers and parolees.
Oakland city officials moved quickly to shut down the abbey for code violations in March shortly after Weeks offered housing to four-time convicted sex offender Cary Verse.
On Monday, Weeks told Alameda Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco he is no longer contesting the lawsuit filed by building owners Gary and Mary Martin over possession of the property. Weeks and three other remaining residents agreed to vacate the building at 3700 E. 12th St. by noon Friday.
"We are about three-fourths of the way moved out," Weeks said. "We are in the process of hiring some helpers for the remaining heavy items."
He said he has found a place to move in Alameda County, but declined to say where.
Clinton Killian, an Oakland attorney representing the Martins, said he plans to file another lawsuit against Weeks today for back rent and other fees.
• Judge OKs trial on Porter's freedom
Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=3778 , By Jessica Heslam, Tuesday, April 27, 2004
MASSACHUSETTS: Calling the victims' testimony "chilling," a judge ruled yesterday there is enough evidence to hold a trial on the state's bid to keep pedophile priest James Porter locked up as sexually dangerous.
In his written ruling, Superior Court Judge David McLaughlin cited several factors, including a 1996 letter Porter penned from prison to his former wife, in which he confessed that there "always will be" temptations.
"Any fair reading of that letter requires the conclusion that (Porter), at that date, was admitting to deviant sexual urges and a need to control the same," McLaughlin wrote.
The 69-year-old Porter pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 Bay State children in the 1960s while he was a priest. Porter's prison sentence wrapped up in January, but prosecutors are seeking to keep him civilly committed as a sexually dangerous person.
The judge's ruling came after a two-week probable cause hearing in Taunton Superior Court, where Porter's victims recalled the horrifying abuse and two psychologists testified Porter is likely to reoffend if freed.
McLaughlin wrote that prosecutors had established that Porter suffers from a personality disorder or mental abnormality, which makes it likely he will molest again unless he's locked up.
"The credible evidence of the seriousness of the threatened harm would allow a reasonable jury to conclude that the seriousness is grave," the judge wrote.
• Victims' group faults reaction by local diocese [1980, Robinson]
Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040427/NEWS03/404270341/-1/NEWS , By CHRISTINA HALL, April 27 2004
TOLEDO (OH): A priest accused of killing a nun 24 years ago continued to serve until his arrest, and a local victims' group wants to know why the Toledo Catholic Diocese didn't place him on leave last year after a woman accused him of perpetrating sadomasochistic sex or when investigators reopened the murder investigation.
Standing outside Toledo Municipal Court, the leaders of the Toledo chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) raised the question yesterday after the Rev. Gerald Robinson was arraigned on murder charges. He is charged with the April 5, 1980 slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in the sacristy of a Mercy Hospital chapel.
The 66-year-old priest was being held in the Lucas County jail last night in lieu of a $200,000 bond, though some of his supporters are trying to raise the funds to free him. SNAP co-leaders Claudia Vercellotti and Jon Schoonmaker said the diocese didn't follow its own protocol when it failed to place Father Robinson on leave after he was mentioned in an allegation of abuse against another priest or when the murder case was reopened.
"Father Gerald Robinson has been on the radar for over a year," Ms. Vercellotti said.
• $20 million abuse suit names priest [1971-73 Durand]
The Oregonian, www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1083066959140130.xml , By ASHBEL S. GREEN, Tuesday, April 27, 2004
PORTLAND (OR): A Portland man has filed a $20 million lawsuit claiming that a Roman Catholic priest molested him and three friends when they were boys in the early 1970s.
The man says he was a student at St. Francis Assisi School in Portland when the Rev. Donald Durand repeatedly molested him between 1971 and 1973.
The Oregonian is not naming the man because he is an alleged sexual assault victim. He said Durand not only fondled him but also required him and his friends to disrobe, take a sauna with him and wrestle with him.
The lawsuit was filed by Portland attorneys Gary A. Bisaccio and Randall Vogt.
Durand, 70, retired in 2001, according to a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Portland.
"Father Durand adamantly denies that he sexually abused (him)," said Bud Bunce, a church spokesman.
• Support grows for charged priest [1980, Robinson]
Cincinnati Enquirer, www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/04/27/loc--loc1priest.html , By John Seewer, The Associated Press, April 27 2004
TOLEDO (OH): Parishioners and friends of a Roman Catholic priest charged with the 1980 killing of a nun began collecting money Monday to pay for his release from jail and legal bills.
The Rev. Gerald Robinson, appearing tired and unshaven, made an initial appearance but did not enter a plea to the murder charge Monday in Toledo Municipal Court. Judge Mary Trimboli set bond at $200,000.
Robinson, 66, was charged Friday with killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, who was strangled and stabbed about 30 times on Easter weekend in 1980. Her body was found in a hospital chapel, surrounded by lit candles with her arms folded across her chest.
Robinson later performed the funeral for the 71-year-old nun.
Robinson, wearing a brown jail jumpsuit, said nothing during the brief hearing. His lawyer, John Thebes, told the judge that his client was not a flight risk.
"He's not going anywhere. He hasn't gone anywhere in 24 years," Thebes said.
• New Archbishop may sell diocesan assets
Irish Examiner, http://breaking.examiner.ie/2004/04/27/story144696.html , 8:10:21 AM, 27/April/2004
IRELAND: The new Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has reportedly indicated his willingness to sell diocesan assets to compensate clerical sex abuse victims.
Reports this morning said Dr Martin had signalled that he was willing to consider selling any assets that could be legally disposed of as part of a "non-adversarial model" of dealing with victims of sex abuse.
He reportedly suggested that one such asset could be the 20 acres of land attached to the Clonliffe College seminary in the Drumcondra area of Dublin.
• Cleric caught in turbulent times
Irish Independent, www.unison.ie/ irish--independent /stories.php3? ca=36&si=117 1292&issue--id=10789 , ~ April 27, 2004
IRELAND: Cardinal Desmond Connell's sixteen years as head of the country's biggest diocese coincided with perhaps the most tumultuous era in the modern history of the Church in Ireland.
Given his national profile, it was perhaps inevitable that he would act as a lightening rod for public anger at the clerical sex abuse scandals and at the Church generally.
It is not a job he wanted, and it is certainly not one he sought. When Rome turned to him he was a professor of philosophy at University College Dublin approaching a peaceful retirement.
Upon his appointment he made a remark that in retrospect may offer a clue as to his subsequent handling of the clerical abuse scandals. He said: "I shall have as my primary concern the welfare of my brother priests",
He may have been motivated to say this out of concern that his "brother priests" did not see him as a pastor. Notable by its absence was any mention of the laity.
The first real controversy to embroil Cardinal Connell was, like several to follow, one that was largely of his own making.
In a newspaper interview given in 1990 he described homosexuality as "a disorder which afflicts people." There was uproar, and Senator David Norris delivered a devastating quip to the effect that the Archbishop may know a lot about angels, but he clearly knew nothing about 'fairies'.
• Church's man of the people faces enormous challenge
Irish Independent, www.unison.ie/irish--independent/stories.php3?ca=36&si=1171198&issue--id=10789 , ~ April 27, 2004
IRELAND: THE FIRST and most pressing task on Archbishop Diarmuid Martin's agenda now that he has taken up the reins of the Dublin Archdiocese will be the final resolution of the clerical sex abuse issue.
He must find a way of delivering justice to the victims of abuse in a way that will satisfy both them and the wider community.
As indicated in today's Irish Independent, he has already been examining non-adversarial models of addressing the matter in a bid to take child abuse claims out of the courts with their unavoidably adversarial procedures.
Notably, the Archbishop has said that he will consider the sale of any diocesan asset that can be released for this purpose. That could even include the acres surrounding Clonliffe College, a prime piece of real estate given its proximity both to the city centre and to Croke Park.
In Boston, Archbishop Sean O'Malley, the successor to the now notorious Cardinal Bernard Law who resigned over his handling of the sex abuse scandals, has already put on offer some $80m (€68m) to compensate abuse victims. To raise this money he is even selling Archbishop's House. Can we expect something similar here?
• Archbishop will sell assets to pay abuse victim bill
Irish Independent, www.unison.ie/irish--independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1171319&issue--id=10789 , ~ April 27, 2004
IRELAND: THE new Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, last night indicated he is willing to consider selling any and all diocesan assets that can be legally disposed of as a way of compensating clerical sex abuse victims.
Dr Martin (59) was speaking to the Irish Independent as he took over the Dublin archdiocese following the announcement that the Vatican had accepted the resignation of Cardinal Desmond Connell as head of the country's biggest diocese.
The new archbishop said one of the assets that could be for sale is the 20 acres attached to Clonliffe College, Drumcondra, the former seminary near Croke Park.
He indicated that this was part of a search for a "non-adversarial model" of dealing with victims of clerical sex abuse.
As he officially took office at 11am yesterday, Archbishop Martin said his predecessor had loved, served and suffered for the Church while insisting that Dr Connell had acted in good conscience during the child abuse scandals.
Cardinal Connell (78), who was seen as the Vatican's chief 'defender of the faith' in Ireland, headed the Dublin archdiocese for 16 turbulent years.
The Dublin Council of Priests described his time in office as "amongst the most difficult in centuries".
• Porter to face trial on longer commitment [1969-70, 1980s Porter] - RCC.
Star Tribune, www.startribune.com/stories/484/4744400.html , by Kevin Diaz, Star Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent, April 27, 2004
MASSACHUSETTS, USA -- A Massachusetts judge ruled Monday that former Minnesota priest James Porter, who became a symbol of the past decade's sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, must stand trial to be locked up indefinitely as a sexually dangerous person.
Porter, 69, has been accused of molesting more than 100 children in parishes in Minnesota, Massachusetts and elsewhere around the country over a span of three decades. He was scheduled to be released from prison in January after serving 10 years of an 18-to-20-year sentence for molesting 28 children while he was a priest in Massachusetts.
Superior Court Judge David McLaughlin's ruling came after a two-week hearing in Taunton, Mass. Among those who testified against Porter were his ex-wife, Verlyne Gray of Oakdale, Minn.; two former Twin Cities baby sitters, and a former altar boy at St. Philip's Catholic Church in Bemidji.
Altogether, more than 20 allegations of sexual abuse were made against Porter pertaining to the time he worked as a priest in Bemidji in 1969 and 1970. The baby sitters, who are sisters, said Porter abused them separately in the 1980s, after he had left the priesthood, married and settled in their Oakdale neighborhood.
• Former RC priest, Protestant minister, now faces fourth suit. [1985-87, Yim] - RCC, Protestant. Boys.
Post-Dispatch, Ex-priest, minister now faces fourth suit , www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/St.+Louis+City+%2F+County/9B1728561AB450C886256E83001239B4?OpenDocument&Headline=Ex-priest,+minister+now+faces+fourth+suit ; April/26/2004
ST. LOUIS (MO): A fourth person claiming to be a victim of sexual abuse filed suit Monday in St. Louis Circuit Court against Robert J. Yim, a former Catholic priest and Protestant minister.
The alleged victim said he was a teenager whose family attended St. Paul Catholic Church in Fenton when he was molested by Yim from 1985 to 1987. The plaintiff is now in his 30s and lives in another state, according to the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP].
SNAP demonstrated Monday in front of Barnes-Jewish Hospital to publicize Yim's alleged prior conduct. Yim was a chaplain at the hospital for several years.
Yim resigned as a priest in 1995 and later became a minister. He was removed from the ministry of the United Church of Christ last year.
• Dublin's archbishop replaced - RCC. Ivan Payne case.
Seattle Times, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001913647--irishbishop27.html , By Shawn Pogatchnik, The Associated Press, ~ April 27, 2004
DUBLIN, Ireland - The Vatican replaced Cardinal Desmond Connell as the archbishop of Dublin yesterday after years of criticism that he didn't do enough to stop sexual abuse by priests.
Pope John Paul II announced that Diarmuid Martin, the coadjutor archbishop of Dublin, had succeeded Connell as leader of the archdiocese's nearly 1.1 million Catholics. However, Connell, 78, will remain as Ireland's only current cardinal.
The pope's statement said Connell's resignation - first offered in 2001 - had been accepted because of his age. The Vatican considers 75 the normal retirement age for bishops, but the pope often leaves prelates in their posts for several more years.
Pressure had been mounting on Connell to quit ever since the Irish television network RTE broadcast an October 2002 documentary into the scope of abuse cases within the country's largest archdiocese.
The program accused Connell of using church funds to provide a confidential $50,000 loan to Ivan Payne, a priest who then used the money to buy the silence of an alleged abuse victim.
• Monroe priest on leave after allegation of abuse [1990s, OBrien]
Herald, http://heraldnet.com/Stories/04/4/27/18532476.cfm , By Yoshiaki Nohara, April 27, 2004
MONROE (WA): A priest at St. Mary of the Valley has been put on administrative leave as the Archdiocese of Seattle investigates an accusation made against him of sexual misconduct with a minor.
The accusation stems from the early 1990s when the Rev. Michael OBrien was a priest at St. John's Catholic Church in Vancouver, Wash.
It was unclear Monday whether police were also investigating. A new policy by the Roman Catholic church requires such accusations to be reported to police.
OBrien, 64, could not be reached for comment Monday.
OBrien was put on administrative leave about three weeks ago, said Greg Magnoni, the spokesman for the Archdiocese. The Archdiocese includes 169 parishes and missions and serves about 548,900 Catholics in Western Washington.
OBrien's administrative leave will continue until the investigation is finished near the end of May, Magnoni said.
"There's no proof that the allegation is valid, and the investigation is ongoing," he said.
• Commitment trial ordered for Porter [1960s - 70s]
Pioneer Press, www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/8526489.htm?1c , BY DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press, ~ April 27, 2004
BOSTON (MA): A Superior Court judge ruled Monday that there is enough evidence to hold a trial on a bid to keep former priest James Porter locked up indefinitely as a sexually dangerous person.
Judge David McLaughlin's ruling came after a two-week hearing on Bristol District Attorney Paul Walsh's petition to have Porter, formerly a priest in Bemidji, Minn., committed to the Massachusetts Treatment Center for sexual offenders.
Porter, 69, was convicted in 1993 of molesting 28 children during the 1960s and 1970s while he was a priest in the Fall River Diocese. He completed his prison sentence in January, but has remained in custody while prosecutors made their case to commit him.
In order to move the case forward to trial, prosecutors were required to show that Porter suffers from a personality order or mental abnormality that makes it likely he will commit additional sex crimes if he is released from prison. No immediate trial date was set.
McLaughlin said the state presented "a substantial record" of Porter's crimes, allowing two prosecution psychologists to find that Porter is a pedophile and would be likely to molest more children if he is not locked up.
The judge cited a letter Porter wrote to his ex-wife in 1996 in which he said that there "always will be" temptations. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 03:30 AM
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tuesday April 27, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont78.htm
• Dublin Prelate Would Sell Assets to Pay Abuse Victims.
Zenit, www.zenit.org/english , April 27, 2004
DUBLIN, Ireland, Zenit, Dublin's new archbishop indicated he is willing to consider selling any and all diocesan assets that can be legally disposed-of to compensate clerical sex abuse victims.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, 59, expressed his thoughts Monday as he took over the Dublin Archdiocese following the announcement that the Pope had accepted the resignation of 78-year-old Cardinal Desmond Connell as head of the diocese, the Irish Independent reported. Archbishop Martin had been coadjutor, with the right of succession.
The new archbishop said one of the assets that could be for sale is the 20 acres attached to Clonliffe College, the former seminary near Croke Park. He indicated that this was part of a search for a "non-adversarial model" of dealing with victims of clerical sex abuse, the newspaper said.
Archbishop Martin said that Cardinal Connell had acted in good conscience during the child abuse scandals.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wednesday April 28, 2004 edition follows:-
• Holt agency president quits
The Register-Guard, www.registerguard.com/news/2004/04/28/a1.holt.0428.html , By Scott Maben, Apr 28 2004
OREGON: The president and chief executive officer of Eugene-based Holt International Children's Services has resigned, two months after the adoption agency learned that he once was accused of molesting an 11-year-old boy while a priest in California.
An independent law firm hired by Holt could not substantiate the allegations made against David Cousineau in a 1994 lawsuit, the organization said Tuesday. But the impact the accusations could have on staff members, donors and foreign partners led the agency to conclude that Cousineau's ability to manage and represent the agency was impaired, board Chairman Larry Cahill said Tuesday.
"I believe he's innocent," Cahill said in a phone interview from his Boston law office.
"He certainly made great contributions and could continue to make great contributions," he said. "Because of the nature of the allegations and David's failure to disclose them in advance to the board and to Holt, his ability to lead the agency has been compromised." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:05 PM
• Connell replaced as Dublin archbishop
Irish Echo, www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=14538 , ~ April 28, 2004
DUBLIN, IRELAND -- The Vatican accepted the retirement of 78-year-old Cardinal Desmond Connell as the archbishop of Dublin on Monday after months of criticism that he didn't do enough to stop sexual abuse by priests.
Pope John Paul II announced in the Vatican that Diarmuid Martin, the coadjutor archbishop of Dublin, had succeeded Connell as leader of the archdiocese's nearly 1.1 million Catholics.
Martin almost immediately set down a marker, disagreeing with the Vatican's pronouncement last Friday that priests should refuse Communion to politicians who take a pro-choice stance on abortion.
Speaking at his first press conference as archbishop, Martin warned against the Eucharist being turned into a battleground and said he would "like to see people make a conscientious decision [on the matter] themselves."
He said he felt it would be "very difficult for priests to make a decision on what was the state of the individual soul" presenting for Communion. "The Eucharist must not become a political battleground," he said.
Pressure had been mounting on Connell to quit ever since the Irish television network RTE broadcast an October 2002 documentary into the scope of abuse cases within the country's largest archdiocese.
• Dousman Priest Accused Of Sexual Abuse [1970s, Schreiter]
TheMilwaukeeChannel.com ; www.themilwaukeechannel.com/news/3246992/detail.html , ~ April 28, 2004
DOUSMAN (WI): An allegation of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest has surfaced in Waukesha County.
Father John Schreiter, 61, of St. Bruno's parish in Dousman, was accused of sexual misconduct 25 years ago.
The district attorney ruled the statute of limitations had expired.
While the church investigates, Schreiter is taking a leave.
Schreiter sent a letter to parishioners that said: "I denied the incident and now the investigation will continue. I am cooperating fully with the investigation. While the investigation is taking place, I will be on leave from the parish."
• In Hock
Weekly Dig , www.weeklydig.com/dig/content/6439.aspx , by Joe Keohane, ~ April 28, 2004
BOSTON (MA): There is irony, but it's probably too obvious by now to point out. The Archdiocese of Boston is getting simultaneously louder and smaller; the Church's $107 million sale of its lavish Brighton headquarters to BC to pay off victims of rampant clergy abuse seems at odds with its escalated efforts to steer matters of social debate and public policy; the Church's looming closure of numerous parishes due to falling attendance and revenues and a scarcity of priests seems at odds with what has been criticized as a reactionary approach to church administration adopted by Archbishop Sean O'Malley.
O'Malley hastened last week to reassure the faithful that the sale of 43 acres of the Archdiocese's 64-acre HQ was not tied to the upcoming parish closings (he has vowed not to put the proceeds of sold churches and schools toward the abuse settlements) but instead an attempt to pay down the Church's $135 million debt.
"It puts us on the road to recovery," O'Malley told the Globe.
Financial recovery from the sex abuse scandal perhaps, but in the long term, the settlements themselves (by far the largest of their kind in America) are the least of the Archdiocese's problems. Beyond nearly bankrupting the Church, the sex abuse scandal eroded the Church's moral authority, its good name and perhaps most importantly the faith of many of its followers.
It became a running joke that the same vastly corrupt body responsible for cosseting deviant priests at the expense of children's well being would deign to offer tips on living the godly life. The favored adage, "we are all sinners" began sounding like a cop-out, a frayed moral equivalency.
• Ohio Diocese Eye Satanic Slay Allegations [1980, Robinson] - RCC.
phillyburbs.com ; www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/1-04282004-291218.html , By JOHN SEEWER, The Associated Press, Apr 28 2004
TOLEDO, Ohio - The Toledo Diocese is taking another look at a woman's previously dismissed claims of satanic sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests now that one of the clergymen has been charged with the "ritualistic" slaying of a nun 24 years ago.
The Rev. Gerald Robinson was arrested last week on charges of strangling and stabbing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, about 30 times during Easter weekend 1980. Her body, covered by an altar cloth and surrounded by burning candles, was found in a hospital chapel.
Pahl's body was posed to look as if she had been sexually assaulted, but investigators said they found no evidence of sexual activity.
Bishop Leonard Blair announced Tuesday that a seven-member diocesan review board will re-examine allegations made by a woman who told the panel in June that when she was a child she was physically and sexually abused by several priests, including Robinson.
The panel had a regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, but what was discussed is confidential, said diocese spokeswoman Sally Oberski.
• Catholic Group Asks for Married Priests
The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/04/28/nyregion/28priests.html?ex=1083816000&en=c69858c548de47d8&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE ; By DANIEL J. WAKIN, April 28, 2004
UNITED STATES: Representatives of priests in at least nine dioceses, from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Long Island, have announced the birth of a new nationwide effort to allow married men in the Roman Catholic clergy.
The priests met in Riverdale in the Bronx on April 20 and 21 and created the Priests' Forum for Eucharist, which the organizers said yesterday would press the church to increase the ranks of the priesthood through optional celibacy.
They said those at the meeting represented groups of priests totaling about 1,000. There are roughly 30,000 diocesan priests and 15,000 religious order priests in the country. The total is down by nearly a third since 1965.
"Priests' Forum for Eucharist sees that the Church law of mandatory celibacy is endangering the identity of the Catholic faithful as a people of the Eucharist," the organizers said. "They believe that making celibacy an option for those who wish to become priests or by ordaining those who are already married is an obvious and welcome way" to bolster those ranks.
• Catholic reformers contest new edict
Plain Dealer, www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1082971852245443.xml , by James F. McCarty, April/26/04
CLEVELAND (OH): An influential group of liberal-minded Catholic reformers is debating a response to Bishop Anthony Pilla, who recently banned the organization from meeting on Diocese of Cleveland property.
Future Church, which claims more than 800 members locally, advocates allowing priests to marry and women to be ordained as the best ways to alleviate clergy shortages.
The group had operated unrestricted in the Cleveland diocese for more than a decade. But the truce ended unexpectedly April 1 after Pilla issued an edict to all pastors.
"Future Church is not an organization affiliated with the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, nor does it have the support or approval of the bishop of the diocese," Pilla's warning read.
• Conservative group fights Future Church
Plain Dealer, www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1082971815245440.xml , by James F. McCarty, April/26/04
CLEVELAND (OH): Bishop Anthony Pilla is not alone in wanting to rid the Diocese of Cleveland of the liberal reform group known as Future Church.
A loose-knit group of conservative Catholics calling itself Save Our Church has dedicated itself to preserving the traditional moral and theological teachings of the church - and to thwart Future Church wherever possible.
David Webster, a former Baptist minister who is now Save Our Church's executive director, estimates that his group has 40 or 50 members, compared to the 800 Future Church claims as members.
Webster, 59, of Lagrange, describes himself as a "reformed anti-Catholic." He communicates with his members via the Internet and occasionally holds meetings at their homes to pray for insight and knowledge, and to "get our hearts and minds straight."
Most of all, they pray for the souls of Future Church members, whom Webster accuses of advocating witchcraft and abortion, of disavowing the existence of the Holy Trinity and of scheming to destroy the church in its present form - accusations that Future Church's executive director, Sister Christine Schenk, denies as ludicrous.
• 400 parishioners attend angry meeting
Newsday, www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lidoms283776943apr28,0,7903506.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines ; BY RITA CIOLLI, BART JONES AND ERIN TEXEIRA, April 28, 2004
LONG ISLAND (NY): About 400 members of one of Long Island's largest and richest parishes met last night in an outpouring of anger over the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal, with many of them lambasting Bishop William Murphy and their pastor, a key figure in the scandal.
While some in the overflow crowd said they came merely to get information about the simmering dispute at St. Dominic parish in Oyster Bay, others openly declared they had lost confidence in Msgr. John Alesandro. A few miles away, he opened a chapel last night for his supporters to gather.
"The moral authority of our pastor has been severely compromised," said meeting organizer Geoffrey T. Boisi, one of the top Catholic philanthropists in the nation and a vice chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
"It pains me to have to say he appears to continue to use methods of secrecy, purposeful procrastination, manipulation and choosing to safeguard image and reputation over the safety and well-being of our children's best interests," said Boisi, who is a former board chairman of Boston College.
He said he and other parishioners had met repeatedly with Alesandro and Murphy to try to get "straight answers" about the sex scandal. "I finally, agonizingly, realized that their answers were simply not credible and the trust and moral authority of our ecclesial chain of command was irreparably broken and we were in the midst of a liturgical 'perfect storm.'" [Emphasis added]
• Accused Priest To Be Released Soon [1980, Robinson]
Ohio News Network, www.onnnews.com/story.php?record=30038 , April 28, 2004
TOLEDO (OH): A Toledo priest accused of killing a nun may soon be out of jail.
ONN affiliate WNWO-TV in Toledo says Father Gerald Robinson's supporters posted bail for him on Tuesday.
Police arrested Robinson on Friday and charged him with murder in the stabbing and strangling of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl back in 1980.
Four or five people apparently came together to post a $600,000 property bond for the reverend.
The people have offered up their own residential property to free Robinson. The group includes two relatives and Robinson himself.
The court is expected to conclude the bond review Wednesday morning.
The group raising money for his defense fund say they are angry with the way the diocese is handling the case.
Bishop Leonard Blair has put Robinson on a leave of absence.
Supporters describe Robinson as a dedicated priest who is rarely seen without his collar. They say he's painfully shy and they say they can't fathom the charges against him.
• Charged Corrections official fired [Mormon ex-bishop]
Salt Lake Tribune, www.sltrib.com/2004/Apr/04282004/utah/161397.asp , by Tribune Staff and Wire Services, April 28, 2004
UTAH: After being charged with several felony counts of child sex abuse, David James Gomez was fired from his position as director of Utah Correctional Industries on Thursday, according to Corrections spokesman Jack Ford.
Gomez was placed on administrative leave earlier in the week after being jailed April 19 on suspicion of 125 counts of sexual abuse for allegedly molesting boys while serving as a Mormon bishop more than a decade ago. Gomez faces three first-degree felony counts of sodomy on a child and three second-degree felony counts of sex abuse of a child, which were filed in 3rd District Court on Thursday.
On Monday, corrections officials named Alan H. James the new director of Utah Correctional Industries. He has been with UCI for 13 years and recently served as its deputy director, according to Executive Director Mike Chabries.
James has been credited over the past two years with reorganizing UCI, bringing in new businesses and creating additional jobs for inmates, according to a UCI news release. UCI is a self-sustaining prison work program that employs about 700 inmates to make license plates, furniture and highway signs, among other jobs.
• Victory Baptist pastor accused in sex assault of male teen Church member [Neathery] - Baptist. Boy.
Star-Telegram, Pastor accused in sex assault of male teen church member , www.dfw.com/ mld/startelegram/ news/local/853 9053.htm?ERIGHTS= 36960399096 5081534dfw:: kashaw@peoplepc. com&KRD--RM=8oo wvxvswtpwovp pxorooooooo| Kathleen|Y ; By Deanna Boyd, ~ April 28, 2004
FORT WORTH (TX): The pastor of Westside Victory Baptist Church was arrested Monday, accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old male church member at least four times, three of them in the pastor's office.
Detective Dennis Hutchins arrested Larry Nuell Neathery, 55, at the Alliance for Children office, where Neathery and his attorney were meeting with Child Protective Services workers.
He was released from the Mansfield Jail on Monday night after his attorney, Don Carter, posted $50,000 bail.
"He adamantly denies this and was in as much shock as anyone else," Carter said. "I posted his bond without any money [from him] because I believed him. I wouldn't have done that if I thought he was an outlaw."
Neathery did not return a phone message left at his home seeking comment.
• That old-time justice is good enough for me
Journal Star, www.pjstar.com/sports/wessler/b2s3fn72073.html , by Kirk Wessler, ~ April 28, 2004
PEORIA (IL): One thing for which I have zero tolerance is zero tolerance.
So when "zero tolerance" was invoked in the explanation for the firing of Notre Dame baseball coach Jerry Rashid, my abundant reservoir of this virtue instantly evaporated.
As it was explained to me Tuesday by Monsignor Steven Rohlfs, vicar general of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, this particular zero-tolerance policy was implemented two years ago by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in response to the sex-abuse scandal that plagued the church and some of its priests.
Rashid has not been accused of abuse, but that doesn't matter. He knew a former Notre Dame colleague, who came to the baseball field last month on his own to throw batting practice and hit some fungoes, had been "indicated" by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Rashid failed to ask the man to leave the premises immediately, waiting until after practice to advise him not to return. Somebody called the DCFS hotline to complain. An investigation was launched.
When Rashid acknowledged the incident, he was fired.
• Former Parmadale resident claims abuse [1969, Banner] - RCC.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1083146132173971.xml , by James F. McCarty, April/28/04
OHIO: Another former resident of the Parmadale children's home has accused a priest of sexually abusing him as a child 35 years ago.
Wolfgang Fifer, 49 and living in Chicago, has filed a lawsuit, accusing the Rev. Russell Banner of molesting him "more than 100 times" from the time he was 12 until he graduated from Parmadale at 14.
Banner, now 66 and retired, living in Bradenton, Fla., denied the former altar boy's allegations in a phone call Tuesday.
"I have no idea where this would have come from," Banner said. "There's no grounds for these allegations whatsoever. I'm just totally floored."
Banner was suspended in 2002 as pastor of Annunciation parish in Cleveland after sex-abuse allegations unrelated to Fifer's were raised.
Eight other former Parmadale residents have sued the Catholic Charities-run home for youth in the last two years, accusing lay employees and another priest, the Rev. Joseph Seminatore, of sexually abusing them. The cases remain unresolved.
• Priest charged with killing put on leave; review set for claims [1980, Robinson]
Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040428/NEWS03/404280366/-1/NEWS , By DAVID YONKE, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, Apr 28 2004
TOLEDO (OH): A Toledo Catholic priest charged in the 1980 ceremonial killing of a nun was placed on a leave of absence yesterday after Bishop Leonard Blair made a "pastoral visit" to the Rev. Gerald Robinson in the Lucas County jail.
Bishop Blair's action bars the 66-year-old priest from public ministry - including celebrating Holy Communion or any other sacrament. Father Robinson remained in jail last night in lieu of $200,000 bond.
He was arrested Friday and arraigned Monday on a murder charge in the April 5, 1980, death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in the chapel of the then Mercy Hospital. The murder occurred on Holy Saturday, one day before Easter and the nun's 72nd birthday.
In a statement released yesterday, Bishop Blair announced the Diocesan Review Board will "revisit" allegations made by a woman who told the seven-member panel in June that she had been sexually and physically abused during her childhood by a number of Catholic priests, including Father Robinson. The Blade does not identify victims of sexual abuse.
The Blade reported Sunday that the woman's detailed statements last year about Satanic rituals and sadomasochistic orgies by Toledo-area Catholic priests led a member of the review board and a local victim's advocate to take the case to the state attorney general's office.
The Diocesan board member, Dr. Robert Cooley, was removed from the panel for his actions.
After reviewing the information, the state contacted the Lucas County prosecutor's office and cold-case investigators from that office and Toledo police to take another look at the 24-year-old murder case in which Father Robinson originally was a suspect.
• Priest put on leave over 1993 abuse inquiry [O'Brien] - RCC. Boy.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/171023--priest28.html , ~ April 28, 2004
MONROE (WA): A priest at St. Mary's of the Valley in Monroe was put on paid leave by the Seattle Archdiocese earlier this month, in the wake of an 11-year-old inquiry into an allegation of child sexual abuse.
In 1993, a 13-year-old boy said that Father Michael O'Brien had touched him inappropriately during a canoeing trip in Mason County, according to archdiocese spokesman Greg Magnoni. Law enforcement authorities investigated at the time but dropped the case after failing to substantiate the charges, he said.
O'Brien, who denies the accusation, nevertheless was removed from ministry, underwent therapy at the archdiocese's insistence and met with a relapse prevention officer before being returned to his post at St. John's parish north of Vancouver, Wash.
No additional accusations were brought against him, Magnoni said, and in 1999, O'Brien transferred to St. Mary of the Valley. But earlier this year his case was reopened by the archdiocese's case review board, an independent body convened to examine allegations of clerical sexual abuse.
• Judge denies O'Brien request to visit Vatican [2003, O'Brien]
East Valley Tribune, www.aztrib.com/index.php?sty=20765 , By Gary Grado, ~ April 28, 2004
PHOENIX (AZ): Maricopa County holds more authority over Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien than the pope these days.
That became evident Tuesday when Judge Stephen Gerst, relying on the recommendation of the Maricopa County Probation Department, rejected O'Brien's request to make a 13-day papal visit to the Vatican next month.
The request put O'Brien in between his vow of obedience to Pope John Paul II and his obligations to carry out his sentence of three years' probation and 1,000 hours of community service.
A jury found O'Brien guilty of leaving the scene of a fatal crash Feb. 17 after a four-week trial. O'Brien hit 43-year-old carpenter Jim L. Reed June 14 near 19th and Glendale avenues and left him in the roadway.
The pope summoned O'Brien a year ago to the visit, known as Ad Limina, which all bishops are required to make every five years, defense attorney Tom Henze wrote in the request.
The rejection further diminishes the retired bishop's position in the Catholic Church because he can no longer take part in his normal duties, said Carolyn Warner, an Arizona State University political science professor who is an expert on religion and politics.
"I think it's quite a blow to O'Brien because it asserts the state's authority over the church's authority," Warner said.
• Hit-and-run death doesn't produce much of a penalty
The Arizona Repubic, www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0428roberts28.html , by Laurie Roberts, Apr. 28, 2004
PHOENIX (AZ): Antonio Vega was sent to prison for close to four years last week. The guy hit a pedestrian with his car then, like so many cowards in this city, he cut and ran.
I know what you're thinking: Why did he get off so easy?
OK, that wasn't what you were thinking at all, given the recent sentence handed to a certain bishop.
But maybe it should be.
If you were disgusted by what happened on Glendale Avenue when Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien was driving, you will be absolutely nauseated by what happened on South 24th Street when Antonio Vega was behind the wheel.
And you might just wonder why prosecutors didn't at least try to put this jerk away for something more than three lousy years.
• Could local priest return to church? [White] - RCC. Women.
ABC 12, http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/news/042604--NW--da--priest.html , By Michael Rosenfield and Taryn Asher, April 26 2004
MICHIGAN: A local priest placed on administrative leave nearly two years ago for allegations of sexual misconduct could soon return to the church.
It's the news Father Leroy White has been waiting to hear. ABC12's Michael Rosenfield had more. White served St. John Catholic Church in Davison from 1994 to 2002, when a past allegation came back to haunt him.
Monday night, he's one step closer to getting back his reputation. White, off the pulpit for close to two years, when he was caught up in the frenzy surrounding priests and the Catholic Church saddened but not surprised by the re-emergence of an old case.
"Well, I wasn't happy, but it was the way things were going," he said. "A lot of priests were going through this. I wasn't the only one."
In 2002, White was in his eight years of service at St. John Catholic Church in Davison when an accusation from his past resurfaced.
Back in 1990, while serving at a church in Kalamazoo, several women complained that they were touched inappropriately by the long-time priest.
• Priest charged with murder described as shy, dedicated [1980, Robinson] - RCC.
Beacon Journal, www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/8535963.htm?1c , By JOHN SEEWER, Associated Press
TOLEDO, Ohio - Parishioners know the Rev. Gerald Robinson as a dedicated Roman Catholic priest who rarely went anywhere without wearing his collar and never turned down a request for help.
Authorities give a much different description.
They say Robinson strangled and stabbed a nun about 30 times in a "ritualistic" killing on Easter weekend in 1980. Another nun found the body, covered by an altar cloth and surrounded by burning candles.
Friends say he was extremely shy. Yet he was popular in the city's Polish neighborhoods, and parishioners often asked him to perform marriages and baptisms.
Robinson sometimes delivered sermons and heard confessions in Polish, which he speaks fluently. For the last six years, he celebrated Mass on Easter weekend and Christmas at St. Anthony church, an inner-city church founded in 1881.
"He always drew a big crowd when he would give Mass," said Mary Ann Plewa, a distant cousin. "People always wanted to come hear him."
Members of St. Anthony set up a legal defense fund for him. The 19-county Diocese of Toledo says it is saddened by Robinson's arrest but has decided against paying his legal bills.
• Catholic priest jailed for murder dies [Victim of Marcos regime]
Ireland Online, http://212.2. 162.45/news/ story.asp?j= 102271160&p= yxzz7y866&n= 102271920 , 07:59:12, 28/April/2004
IRELAND: An Irish Roman Catholic priest, who became the centre of international media attention more than 20 years ago after being arrested on murder charges while working in the Philippines, has died in Italy.
Father Niall O'Brien, a member of the Columban Order of the church, was 64.
He was among eight people, including two other priests, jailed for the murder of a local mayor in 1983.
The charges against the group were subsequently dropped after they had spent more than a year in custody.
The murder counts were withdrawn after Father O'Brien's mother staged a demonstration in a mock cell outside the American embassy in Dublin against Washington support for the then Filipino regime during a visit to Ireland by US President Ronald Reagan.
Father O'Brien later returned to the Philippines after the collapse of the dictatorship of former President Marcos, and edited a church magazine.
• Defense fund set up for accused priest [1980, Robinson]
Cincinnati Enquirer, www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/04/28/loc--ohpriest28.html , By John Seewer, The Associated Press, ~ April 28, 2004
TOLEDO (OH): Parishioners have started collecting money to pay the legal bills and bail for a Roman Catholic priest charged with the 1980 killing of a nun.
"I would do anything for him," Mary Ann Plewa, the priest's distant cousin, said Monday.
"... He couldn't have lived 24 years and had that on his mind."
The Rev. Gerald Robinson, 66, was charged Friday with killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, who was strangled and stabbed about 30 times on Easter weekend in 1980. Her body was found in a hospital chapel, surrounded by lit candles with her arms folded across her chest. Robinson later performed the funeral for the 71-year-old nun.
He appeared tired and unshaven during an initial appearance Monday in Toledo Municipal Court. He did not enter a plea to the murder charge. Judge Mary Trimboli set bond at $200,000.
• Irish murder accused priest dies ["Framed"?]
U TV, www.utvlive.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=45126&pt=n , ~ April 28, 2004
IRELAND: An Irish priest who became the centre of international attention when arrested on murder charges more than 20 years ago has died.
Father Niall O`Brien was one of eight people charged with the murder of a Filipino mayor in 1983.
The charges against Father O`Brien, who spent most of his life working as a missionary in the Phillippines, were subsequently dropped.
• Diocese earns praise for help in abuse case [1980s, Jablonowski]
Billings Gazette, www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/04/28/build/wyoming/35-diocese-praise.inc ; Associated Press, Apr 28 2004
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - When Father Michael Carr received a phone call last July from a man making serious allegations against a former Wyoming priest, there was no hesitation on what to do next.
As soon as the call was finished, Carr notified authorities of the charge, which would eventually put Father Anthony Jablonowski behind bars.
"I was very pleased with the way they handled it," Platte County Attorney Eric Alden said of Roman Catholic officials.
"They didn't try to hide something. They didn't try to keep something, deal with it in-house rather than disclose it. They identified it as criminal conduct that needed to be turned over to appropriate authorities and they did so immediately."
The church has been rocked in recent years by revelations that hundreds of priests have sexually abused parishioners and that leaders often shifted abusive priests to different parishes after the assaults.
But the Diocese of Cheyenne, which guides activities for Catholics in Wyoming, fully assisted the state Division of Criminal Investigation, Alden said.
When the diocese first received word a year ago of secret rituals in which male parishioners were stripped, strung upside down and flogged in the basement of St. Anthony Catholic Church in the small southeast Wyoming town of Guernsey in the 1980s, authorities were notified within days.
The diocese also published a notice in its newsletter to determine if anyone else had been hurt. A man who had no connection to the rituals stepped forward and alleged that Father Tony had molested him as a teenager.
• Investigation of priest stems from '91 incident [OBrien]
Herald, http://herald net.com/Stor ies/04/4/28/ 18540560.cfm , Apr 28 2004
MONROE (WA): The Archdiocese of Seattle released more details Tuesday regarding its investigation of the allegation against a priest at St. Mary of the Valley.
The Rev. Michael OBrien has been on administrative leave since April 2.
In 1993, a teenage boy alleged that the Rev. Michael OBrien sexually abused him during a 1991 canoeing trip. The priest was serving at a church in Vancouver, Wash., at the time.
Afterward, the Archdiocese placed OBrien on administrative leave and reported the allegations to authorities in Pierce and Mason counties. A subsequent investigation in Mason County was dropped when investigators there could not substantiate the charges.
OBrien, 64, denies the allegation, according to a press release issued Tuesday by the Archdiocese. OBrien could not reached for comment.
A church policy adopted by the Archdiocese in 2002 requires an independent board to review all past allegations of sexual abuse involving minors. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:59 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wednesday April 28, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont78.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thursday April 29, 2004 edition follows:-
• Slaying arrest of Ohio priest prompts more claims of clergy abuse, support group says
Union-Tribune, www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20040429-1436-priest-nunslaying.html , By John Seewer, ASSOCIATED PRESS, 2:36 p.m., April 29, 2004
TOLEDO, Ohio - The arrest of a Roman Catholic priest in the ritualistic slaying of a nun has prompted more claims of clergy sex abuse, a victims support group said Thursday.
Two claims, which have not been verified, included "graphic accounts" of ritualistic abuse, said Claudia Vercelloti, the director of the Toledo office of the group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP].
In all, 10 people have contacted the support group - some anonymously - about alleged abuse, Vercelloti said. The group has not checked all the claims and does not know if any had been made previously.
The claims were received in the days after April 23, when the Rev. Gerald Robinson was charged with murder in the 1980 strangulation and stabbing of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71.
Her body, covered by an altar cloth, was found in a hospital chapel. Her body was posed to look as if she had been sexually assaulted, but investigators said they found no evidence of it.
Robinson, whose attorney said he will plead innocent, remains jailed on $200,000 cash bond. None of the recent claims name him.
"I think the victims are being very courageous," Vercelloti said. "Sometimes a groundswell of attention pushes them into hiding." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:35 PM]
• Bishop Investigates Allegations [1979, Miller]
WEEK, http://week.com/morenews/morenews-read.asp?id=4242 , Updated 5:15pm, April 29, 2004
PEORIA (IL): A shake up today in the Peoria Catholic Diocese. Bishop Daniel Jenky has asked a monsignor to step down pending an investigation into sexual misconduct.
The allegation dates all the way back to 1979 when Monsignor Thomas Miller, pastor of Saint Vincent de Paul parish in Peoria, served at Holy Trinity in Bloomington.
A now thirty-six year old man has accused Monsignor Miller of actions involving sexual contact.
A Peoria diocese review commission has determined the actions constitute abuse under current church guidelines.
Bishop Daniel Jenky has responded by placing Miller on administrative leave until an investigation into the allegations are [is] complete.
"We really want parishioners to hear the news and let it settle in and we are here for them if they need more information regarding the process," said Bishop Jenky.
Monsignor Miller has denied key elements of the sexual abuse allegations, but he has admitted to others. He has chosen to seek advice from a church lawyer.
Jenky said Miller also has agreed to refrain from all public ministry during the investigation.
• Dousman priest suspended [1979, Schreiter] - RCC.
GM Today, www.gmtoday.com/news/local--stories/2004/April--04/04292004--01.asp , By DENNIS A. SHOOK - GM Today Staff, April 29, 2004
DOUSMAN (WI): When members of St. Bruno's Catholic Church arrived at church this weekend, there was a new priest standing where their old priest has held sway for the past eight years.
The Rev. Bob Stiefvater stood and read a letter during the weekend services explaining that their regular priest, John Schreiter, had been suddenly placed on indefinite paid leave pending an investigation of allegations of sexual abuse by the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
Kathleen Hohl, speaking for the archdiocese Wednesday, said Schreiter had been placed on paid leave as of April 22.
Hohl said the archdiocese action was sparked after the Sauk County district attorney returned the case to the archdiocese, saying the alleged sexual abuse incident that took place 25 years ago was past the statute of limitations.
• ARCHBISHOP DISMISSES PRIEST KNOWN FOR VICTIM SUPPORT IN ABUSE CRISIS - RCC. Thomas P. Doyle removed from chaplaincy.
National Catholic Reporter, "Chaplain's military career ends in dispute; Archbishop dismisses priest known for victim support in abuse crisis;" http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/nt042904.htm , By Arthur Jones, NCR editor at large, Posted Thursday, April 29, 2004
Dominican Fr. Thomas P. Doyle, who has been an outspoken critic of the U.S. Catholic bishops' handling of the priest sex abuse crisis, was dismissed as a military chaplain by the Catholic Archdiocese for Military Services in September.
Doyle has made no public mention of the withdrawal of his "endorsement to serve," by Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien Sept. 17, but knowledge of the incident, as well as some papers pertaining to it are now circulating.
The Dominican was apparently given no hearing, just notification of the withdrawal, "effective immediately," according to a copy of O'Brien's letter obtained by NCR. [Posted by Dennis Coday, NCR staff writer at 02:28 PM]
• Judge Is Asked to Sanction Mahony
Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-mahony29apr29,1,1938855.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california , By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer, April 29, 2004
LOS ANGELES (CA): Lawyers have asked a judge to hold Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in contempt of court for refusing to appear at a scheduled deposition in sex-abuse cases involving a former Stockton priest he supervised two decades ago.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charles W. "Tim" McCoy on Wednesday gave Mahony until Tuesday to respond to the request for a contempt hearing.
In court papers, the lawyers accused Mahony of "willful disobedience" for reneging on an agreement to give sworn testimony in six civil cases accusing the Stockton Diocese of negligence. Mahony was bishop of Stockton from 1980 until he was named archbishop of Los Angeles in 1985.
Mahony's lawyer J. Michael Hennigan called the motion "irresponsible and frivolous." Mahony would never be cited for contempt in this matter because the judge had forced postponement of the scheduled deposition, his lawyer said.
He accused plaintiffs' lawyers of trying to "grab a headline" at the cardinal's expense.
• Altar cloth in Mercy Hospital hallway may expose nun's killer [1980, Robinson]
Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040429/NEWS03/404290391/-1/NEWS , By ROBIN ERB, Apr 29 2004
TOLEDO (OH): On her way down a Mercy Hospital hallway, a Sisters of Mercy nun instinctively picked up neatly folded linen lying on the floor outside a chapel door on the morning of April 5, 1980.
Believing it to be a pillow case, she picked it up and took it into St. Joseph's chapel. She laid the simple cloth on a pew and - despite what she later described as an "eerie feeling" - went about her task of preparing organ music for that day's Holy Saturday services.
It wasn't until after her discovery moments later of murdered Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in the adjoining sacristy - and the ensuing chaos of responding doctors, distraught sisters, and a team of Toledo police investigators to the chapel - that someone unfolded the linen.
Blood?
The stained linen cloth could be a critical piece of evidence collected at the time of the 1980 murder, according to documents obtained by The Blade. With new forensic investigation techniques, it could help prosecutors 24 years later lay out their murder case against a 66-year-old priest, the Rev. Gerald Robinson.
Father Robinson, who served at the hospital as chaplain at the time of the murder, was arrested Friday at his home next to the Scott Park police station. He remained in the Lucas County jail yesterday while supporters try to raise the $200,000 cash, or $400,000 in property, for his bond. He was placed on leave Tuesday by the Toledo Catholic Diocese.
Meanwhile, longtime Toledo attorney Alan Konop joined attorney John Thebes to defend Father Robinson. Though Mr. Thebes has known Father Robinson since childhood, Mr. Konop does not know the priest personally.
• Bishop launches annual appeal
Republican, http://masslive.com/news/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/108323569016600.xml , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Thursday, April 29, 2004
HOLYOKE (MA): The Annual Catholic Appeal must raise $200,000 more this year to provide the same amount of help to agencies than it did a year ago, when it gave $2.9 million to 41 agencies that help the needy in the four Western Massachusetts counties.
Saying the $3.1 million is not a goal but a "need," Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield Bishop the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell held two press conferences at Annual Catholic Appeal-funded agencies in Pittsfield and Holyoke yesterday to announce the onset of the 45th annual campaign.
"This year, we are not announcing a goal, but instead speaking of our 'targeted need,' because that describes more exactly what is required for these agencies to be able to continue providing all their services," said McDonnell.
Flanked by honorary chaircouple Joan M. and Michael R. Sobon of South Hadley, McDonnell reiterated a part of a letter he sent to all in the diocese, in which he said he was "begging for those who have no one else to beg for them."
Acknowledging the clergy sexual abuse crisis "has hit Western Massachusetts hard," McDonnell pleaded that without funds innocent people would feel the impact.
"Some may feel that a way to express displeasure with the breach of trust that occurred in the church is by not contributing to this appeal. I can understand that feeling," McDonnell said.
• Frisco Kid gets bail, pastor on sex charges [2004, Rev Peter Rennis]
The Jamaica Observer, www.jamaica observer.com/ news/html/2004 0423T210000- 0500--58922 --OBS--FRISCO-- KID--GETS--BAIL---- PASTOR--ON--SEX-- CHARGES.asp ; John Tavares, Observer correspondent, Saturday, April 24, 2004
SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine, JAMAICA: Popular entertainer, 32 year-old dancehall artiste Frisco Kid who has been accused of having sex with a minor, will return to the Spanish Town Resident Magistrate Court on May 11, 2004 when the case will again be mentioned.
The entertainer, whose real name is Clive Wray, was granted bail in the sum of $150,000 when he appeared in court on Tuesday. ...
And a 39 year-old minister of religion, who has been accused of forcefully engaging in oral sex with his landlady and then attempting to rape her, will return to the Spanish Town court on May 18 to answer a charge of indecent assault with intent to rape.
St Catherine resident, Rev Peter Rennis, also had his $50,000 bail extended on Tuesday during his court appearance.
Allegations are that at about 6:00 pm on March 22 of this year, the complainant, who is a 41 year-old higgler, was lying on a bed in her apartment when Rev Rennis approached her. He reportedly dragged her out of her room and into his, locked the door with the keys and then pocketed them.
The court was told that he then ripped off the complainant's clothing and forcibly engaged her in oral sex. The woman suffered bruises to her side as she resisted the pastor's attempt at penetration, according to court documents.
• Former Abundant Life pastor on trial for rape [Tucker ]
KHOU-TV , www.khou.com/ news/local/ stories/ khou040427-- gj--pastorto court.1675b77 ce.html , by James Eugene Tucker Jr., 02:37 PM CDT on Tuesday, April 27, 2004
HOUSTON (TX): Jury selection is under way in the trial of a former Houston pastor charged with sexually assaulting a member of his church.
James Eugene Tucker Jr. is accused of raping a woman in 1998. According to authorities, the woman claims the assault happened while she was undergoing marriage counseling with Tucker at Abundant Life Church.
The woman says she was afraid to come forward at first. Tucker later resigned as the pastor of the church.
• Former Lutheran Pastor Sentenced for Sexual Misconduct [Sebentsfeldt]
KARE, Former Pastor Sentenced for Sexual Misconduct, www.kare11.com/news/news-article.asp?NEWS--ID=62965 , April 29, 2004
MINNESOTA: The former pastor of Bigfork Lutheran Church has been sentenced to one year in jail and 25 years of probation for sexually abusing a girl.
Forty-eight-year-old John Richard Sebentsfeldt pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal sexual conduct in Itasca County District Court in February.
He has resigned from the church where he served as pastor since 1991.
Sebentsfeldt was accused of inappropriately touching a girl on several occasions, the most recent being last fall when she fell asleep in a deer stand. She said he also touched her when they stayed in hotels.
• Priest charged with killing put on leave; review set for claims [1980, Robinson ] - RCC.
Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040428/NEWS03/404280366/0/NEWS , By DAVID YONKE, BLADE RELIGION EDITOR, April 29, 2004
TOLEDO (OH): A Toledo Catholic priest charged in the 1980 ceremonial killing of a nun was placed on a leave of absence yesterday after Bishop Leonard Blair made a "pastoral visit" to the Rev. Gerald Robinson in the Lucas County jail.
Bishop Blair's action bars the 66-year-old priest from public ministry - including celebrating Holy Communion or any other sacrament. Father Robinson remained in jail last night in lieu of $200,000 bond.
He was arrested Friday and arraigned Monday on a murder charge in the April 5, 1980, death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in the chapel of the then Mercy Hospital. The murder occurred on Holy Saturday, one day before Easter and the nun's 72nd birthday.
In a statement released yesterday, Bishop Blair announced the Diocesan Review Board will "revisit" allegations made by a woman who told the seven-member panel in June that she had been sexually and physically abused during her childhood by a number of Catholic priests, including Father Robinson. The Blade does not identify victims of sexual abuse.
The Blade reported Sunday that the woman's detailed statements last year about Satanic rituals and sadomasochistic orgies by Toledo-area Catholic priests led a member of the review board and a local victim's advocate to take the case to the state attorney general's office.
• Church leaders accused of shielding priest [1980s, Wilson]
Albany Times Union, www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=243329&category=ALBANY&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=4/29/2004 ; By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, First published: Thursday, April 29, 2004
ALBANY (NY): A lawsuit filed in Boston this month accuses former Boston Cardinal Bernard Law and Bishop Howard Hubbard of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese of harboring a predatory priest, despite clear evidence that he should not have been allowed around teenage boys.
Joseph Woodward, 37, of Fort Ann is seeking at least $5 million in damages for the sexual abuse he said was inflicted upon him more than 20 years ago -- from age 14 to 19 -- by the Rev. Dozia Wilson. Wilson was defrocked in 1993.
Until last year, Wilson, 58, was working as the spiritual adviser at a home for troubled youths in Westchester County. He had frequently supervised overnight retreats and camping trips.
Wilson was fired from St. Christopher's Residential Treatment Center in Dobbs Ferry last year after being beaten in his apartment by an 18-year-old man he picked up in Manhattan.
Wilson could not be reached for comment, and a representative at the center did not return a call.
On Wednesday, Woodward spoke at a news conference at the Crowne Plaza hotel arranged by his attorney, John Aretakis.
Woodward, a basketball player and guitarist, recalled being the vulnerable product of a broken home in 1980. He said that played into Wilson's manipulation. He said the priest often plied him with alcohol and marijuana and then fondled him when they practiced music for Sunday liturgies at St. Ann's Church in his hometown.
• Murder in the chapel [1980, Robinson]
Cleveland Plain Dealer, www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/108323612087250.xml , by Catherine Gabe, April/29/04
TOLEDO (OH): The details are both lurid and unfathomable. A priest accused of stabbing a nun to death more than two decades ago. Allegations of satanic rituals. Suggestions of a diocese cover-up.
But none of that is what drives retired police officer Dave Davison.
Davison was one of the first on the crime scene on Holy Saturday in 1980, when 71-year-old Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was found dead in a hospital chapel. He has spent 24 years trying to make sure the case does not die.
To Davison, Pahl deserves more dignity than she has gotten in this sleazy, cable TV- style caper. "If I am doing it for anybody, I am doing it for the dead nun," he said.
Since Friday, the St. Anthony Church community and greater Toledo have been thrown into a swirl of uncertainty. The Rev. Gerald Robinson, who just weeks ago officiated at St. Anthony's Easter Mass, was arrested and charged in Pahl's death.
Police reopened the case last year after Robinson, along with several other priests, was named in a woman's story about satanic rituals and abuse. Those stories, which were never confirmed, had nothing to do with the Pahl murder. However, using technology that analyzes blood patterns on items after they are set down, police were able to finally connect Robinson to the murder of Pahl, police told the Associated Press.
• Renewed Interest In Lavigne Case [Lavigne]
WWLP, www.wwlp.com/news2004/story.html?artID=41915 , April 29, 2004
CHICOPEE, MASSACHUSETTS (WWLP) - The interest was renewed this month when police raided Lavigne's Chicopee home and removed computer equipment. Police are also re-interviewing at least some of Lavigne's alleged victims.
Tom Martin says he was called in to speak with the state police on Tuesday, but can't say, at their request, exactly what was discussed. "I can't go into detail about the interview because it's an ongoing investigation and I respect the DA's office with that," says Tom Martin, an alleged Lavigne victim.
Both Tom and his childhood friend Steven Block say Lavigne abused them as children. And they both believe Lavigne is responsible for the death of their other friend, altar boy Danny Croteau. They're hoping new evidence could lead to prosecution in that case, and have spoken of a possible witness to the crime.
It's believed that witness has spoken to police some time ago, but Tom still believes they could be a key to the case. In the meantime both men have also spoken to another authority looking into abuse cases, the church itself.
Both men met last Thursday with new Springfield Bishop Timothy McDonnell. They told the bishop they want priests who witnessed sexual abuse to come forward and talk about it.
• Plaintiff in priest sex abuse suit sanctioned - Freedom of publication hobbled
Telegram & Gazette, http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040429/NEWS/404290368/1008/NEWS02 , by Kathleen A. Shaw, kshaw@telegram.com , April 29 2004
WORCESTER (MA): Timothy P. Staney, who is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester and the Rev. Jean-Paul Gagnon, alleging he was sexually abused by the priest, was sanctioned yesterday by Judge Jeffrey A. Locke for posting a psychological report from the former House of Affirmation on his Web site.
Joanne L. Goulka of Stoneham, lawyer for the diocese, told Judge Locke that the report, which involved Rev. Gagnon and the former House of Affirmation in Whitinsville, was to be kept private by agreement with the court.
The judge denied her request that Mr. Staney be required to provide the names and addresses of anyone who had visited his Web site and information regarding other Web sites where the report might have been linked.
Mr. Staney has been ordered to pay a monetary penalty to be determined by the court. Ms. Goulka was asked by the judge to submit an appropriate figure. Mr. Staney, formerly of Worcester, has since moved to Florida and was not in court yesterday. His Web site, which contained personal information about himself and his suit, has since been dismantled and is no longer in operation.
Ms. Goulka told the judge she feared that potential jurors would have read the report and it would result in prejudicial pretrial publicity.
The judge called posting the report by a party to the suit "a cheap shot on his part." He ordered Mr. Staney to "cease and desist."
Lawyer Daniel J. Shea of Houston, who represents Mr. Staney, said he had no prior knowledge that Mr. Staney intended to post the material. He said some material from that report first appeared in a news story in June 2003 in the Woonsocket Call, in Rhode Island. A reporter for that newspaper alerted Mr. Staney that the report was found in the public case file at Worcester Superior Court, Mr. Shea said.
He said the judge had ordered parts of the report to be redacted, meaning blacked out, and submitted to the case file while the original unredacted version would be sealed.
Mr. Shea said his client went to the courthouse, got the case file, found the report and copied it. It was then posted on his Web site. Judge Locke asked Mr. Shea whether he would relay his judgment to Mr. Staney or would he have to have him brought into the court. Mr. Shea said he would inform his client.
The judge also sanctioned Mary T. Jean of the Worcester Voice when it was discovered that she was tape-recording yesterday's court proceeding. The judge at first ordered her to surrender to a court officer not only the tape but the tape recorder. He was given the tape and did not further ask for the recorder.
The judge asked Mrs. Jean who she was and why she was recording the session. She described herself as a "Web publisher" who was covering the court session for her site, and that she did not know she could not record the proceedings. She apologized; the judge accepted her apology and told her not to do it again.
Mrs. Jean, of Leominster, has started writing some of her own stories on the sexual abuse scandal in the Worcester Diocese; her most recent entries have involved the former House of Affirmation.
Judge Locke cautioned her that it is standard practice not to use a tape recorder in court without specific permission of the judge.
The judge also took under advisement arguments for and against inclusion of the Archdiocese of Boston in at least one of the suits, and whether a Vatican document called Crimen Sollicitationis can be admitted into the lawsuits. He further took under advisement a request by Mr. Shea that all personnel records of accused priests in at least one of the lawsuits be turned over to him.
Mr. Shea, who is representing several people who say they were abused by clergy, said that after filing the suits he discovered two documents that he believes show an ongoing conspiracy by the Catholic Church to hush up sexual abuse by priests. He believes that Crimen and a so-called Ratzinger memo, which he found on the Vatican Web site, are crucial to proving a conspiracy. He argued that he needs to see the personnel records to see how these issues were handled in the past.
Ms. Goulka argued that there is no good reason for admission of these documents and that they are a ploy by Mr. Shea to garner national publicity. Mr. Shea said the records are necessary for his cases. He said he has had difficulty validating the document because it states it is to remain secret and not be published or commented on.
• Priest will go to trial in abuse case [1988, Stein (Norbertine)]
Green Bay Press-Gazette, www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local--15895443.shtml , By Andy Nelesen, anelesen@greenbaypressgazette.com , April 29, 2004
WISCONSIN: The statute of limitations has not run out in the case against a Norbertine priest accused of molesting a 14-year-old boy in 1988, a Brown County judge ruled Tuesday.
The time limit to prosecute sexual-assault charges is typically six years, but Brown County Circuit Court Judge Sue Bischel ruled that the Rev. James Stein lived outside of Wisconsin long enough to allow for prosecution. The statute of limitations laws do not apply if the suspect is not "publicly a resident within the state."
In her ruling, Bischel said she interpreted the statute of limitations law using the common language definitions and said the facts of the case were not in question.
At a hearing in January, Stein's lawyer argued that Stein was in Wisconsin a total of 1,136 days of the last 12 years. During the rest of the time, he was living in either Illinois or Mississippi, teaching, attending school or providing counseling.
Stein was a faculty member at then Premontre High School in Green Bay (currently Green Bay Notre Dame Academy) from August 1996 to June 1989. The alleged victim, now 30 years old, said Stein molested him during trips with Stein to swim at the St. Norbert Abbey in De Pere.
• More Victims of Priest Abuse Coming Forward [1980, Robinson (Oblate)]
WTOL, www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=1824639 , April 29, 2004
TOLEDO (OH): The murder case against a Toledo Catholic priest has more victims coming forward. That according to a group representing victims of abuse. But these victims are not stepping up to make accusations against Father Gerald Robinson, the man accused of killing a nun 24 years ago.
Father Robinson is still in jail and we want to emphasize none of the new victims are accusing him of anything, but somehow his arrest appears to have given the victims courage to the point where SNAP Leader Claudia Vercellotti said in the past five days her phone has been ringing off the hook. She said a conservative estimate is that 10 new victims are stepping forward with allegations. "A lot of times survivors wait and watch and it's hard to break their silence," said Vercellotti. "So I give a lot of credit to those who've called especially in the last few days," she added.
Vercellotti said some of the people are from Toledo who've moved away and some are still in northwestern Ohio. She said this proves there are many more victims than the diocese is willing to admit. "We know there are cases that exist that haven't been publicly acknowledged," Vercellotti told us. "We know that the diocese knows we know about these cases," she added.
When it comes to news of 10 new victims coming forward, Vercellotti said not all center around the Toledo Diocese. A University of Toledo religious studies expert Dr. Richard Gaillardetz said SNAP has done a great job for victims. He said all allegations should be investigated thoroughly although, there are occasions SNAP jumps the gun a bit. "I do think sometimes and I understand it, they are somewhat severe in their expectations about how quickly the church should act against accusations," Gaillardetz said.
• Ohio priest charged in 1980 killing of nun [1980, Robinson]
Philadelphia Daily News, www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/8546129.htm?ERIGHTS=1693572841726940881philly::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD--RM=1impqpknppohhhhhhhhhholjmp|Kathleen|Y ; By CATHERINE LUCEY, luceyc@phillynews.com , April 29, 2004
TOLEDO (OH): FOR YEARS, the Rev. Gerald Robinson was considered a peaceful, holy man, quietly ministering at hospitals and nursing homes.
But authorities in Toledo, Ohio, say that beneath the Catholic priest's kind veneer lurked a godless killer who strangled and stabbed an elderly nun 24 years ago in some kind of "ritualistic" ceremony in a hospital chapel.
And the gruesome slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl may be just a small part of Robinson's heinous history.
Robinson, an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales, might have been in an alleged sordid, satanic cult that sexually abused a girl, forced her to lie in a coffin full of cockroaches and made her eat an eyeball.
Robinson, 66, was arrested last week in Pahl's slaying. Pahl, then 71, was found on Holy Saturday in 1980 wrapped in an altar cloth and surrounded by candles. She had been stabbed in the neck and torso.
"It's almost like fiction, a priest kills a sister," said Sister Karen Zielinski, of the Sisters of Sylvania, an order in the Toledo suburbs. "There is really a somber mood about town."
Robinson was in jail yesterday on $200,000 bail. The diocese has placed him on a leave of absence, which means he can't celebrate any of the sacraments.
• Attorney: Accused FW Baptist pastor says he's innocent [Neathery]
The Dallas Morning News, "Attorney: Accused FW pastor says he's innocent," www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/042904dnmetfwpastor.7dc9b.html ; By TOYA LYNN STEWART, 09:28 PM CDT, Wednesday, April 28, 2004
FORT WORTH (TX): The attorney of a Fort Worth pastor arrested and accused of sexually assaulting a teenager said Wednesday that his client is innocent.
"My client said, 'This is not true, I am innocent and I want a trial,' " said Fort Worth attorney Don Carter, who represents the Rev. Larry Nuell Neathery. "He is devastated," Mr. Carter said. "He couldn't believe it."
Mr. Neathery, 55, pastor of Westside Victory Baptist Church in Fort Worth, was arrested Monday while he and his attorney met with a Child Protective Services worker, Fort Worth Police Detective Dennis Hutchins said.
"He came to meet with CPS" to discuss accusations of sexual abuse, Detective Hutchins said. "I had been told he wasn't going to speak to police so I got an arrest warrant and went to CPS." Mr. Carter said his client agreed to cooperate with police before he was arrested. Mr. Carter added that if police had told him they had an arrest warrant he would have brought Mr. Neathery to them.
• Tufts' Catholics suffer from Archdiocesan financial woes
The Tufts Daily, www.tuftsdaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/04/29/40907c78c88c6 , By Keith Barry, Daily Editorial Board, Apr 29 2004
BOSTON (MA): Financial problems from within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston have led to the sale of the Catholic Center at 58 Winthrop St. and increased student activity fee funding for the Catholic Community at Tufts (CCT)
According to Catholic Chaplain Ann Penick, the Archdiocesan real estate office has been negotiating the sale of the Catholic Center building with the University. "Tufts has made an offer to buy it, the purchase and sale agreement is currently on hold, not because of Tufts, but because of the Archdiocese."
"I know the University has interest in the property," University Chaplain Rev. David O'Leary said. According to O'Leary, the University and Archdiocese were in negotiations, but he was unsure the cause of hold ups in the negotiation process.
"Is [the sale] on hold or is it just posturing?" he asked. "You wait to see who blinks, that's how real estate is done," O'Leary said.
Penick said that if the University is able to purchase the building, there would be a discussion about who would be responsible for much-needed repairs. "The Archdiocese can't pay for [the repairs] now," Penick said. "It doesn't have the money to put into the Catholic Center."
Selling the Catholic Center would alleviate some financial pressure from the Archdiocese. "If Tufts would purchase it, we would be allowed to stay here, but in effect it would be sort of like leasing the space from Tufts," she said. "In other words, even though Tufts would own the building, Tufts would not be sponsoring the Catholic Center. That would be under the auspices of the Archdiocese."
• Insurer sued by church files countersuit
Herald Tribune, www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040429/APN/404290569 , The Associated Press, Apr 29 2004
BOSTON (MA): Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co., accused by the Archdiocese of Boston of fraud and breach of contract for failing to cover settlement payments to victims of clergy abuse, filed a countersuit, arguing that the church owes the company money.
"There is no coverage for damages which were the proximate result of the intentional criminal conduct of priests who committed acts of sexual abuse against minors," the company argued in the counterclaim filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Boston. Lumbermens insists that its policy covering the archdiocese was for accidental injuries.
A member of the Kemper Insurance Cos. of Illinois, Lumbermens says the archdiocese should be forced to reimburse the company for sums it has paid to settle complaints filed by victims of clergy sexual abuse.
In September 2002, after the archdiocese agreed to pay up to $84,250,000 to 552 victims of clergy abuse, Lumbermens wrote to Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley stating that the settlement was a "voluntary payment," and that the company was not obligated to contribute to the settlement.
• Oblates of St. Francis de Sales are teachers, missionaries [Behan (Oblate)]
Philadelphia Daily News, www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/8546128.htm?1c , ~ April 29, 2004
PHILADELPHIA (PA): The Oblates of St. Francis de Sales are a French-based religious order of Catholic priests and brothers that has been active in the Philadelphia area for a century.
A French priest, the Rev. Louis Brisson, founded the Oblates in 1871. The order, which operates worldwide, reached the United States in 1893, where it now has two provinces.
The Wilmington-Philadelphia province, with 186 priests and 19 brothers, was founded in Wilmington in 1903 but now has headquarters in Childs, Md. It includes 34 priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
An Oblate priest who formerly taught high school in Philadelphia, the Rev. James J. Behan, was the first priest charged with sexual abuse of a minor by the Philadelphia grand jury on March 31.
The Toledo-Detroit province, established in the 1960s is based in Toledo, Ohio, the home of the Rev. Gerald Robinson, now facing charges of killing a Toledo nun.
The order is named for a canonized priest famed as a writer and spiritual director in 17th Century France. The order is described as committed to imitating Jesus Christ in the spirit of St. Francis de Sales.
• Appeal for generosity made [1970s Dupre, Wamsher, 1985 Graziano]
Berkshire Eagle, www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101~7514~2115241,00.html , ~ April 29, 2004
PITTSFIELD (MA): In the face of waves of controversy that have engulfed the Roman Catholic Church and the Diocese of Springfield, the church's annual Catholic Appeal will try to raise $3.1 million to support ministries and agencies that rely on private donations.
Seeking to overcome any public mistrust of the church, the newly named bishop of the Springfield Diocese, the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, held a morning press conference at the Catholic Youth Center and made a plea that people not hold past church sins against the appeal.
Allegations of abuse
It is a delicate maneuver for McDonnell, who took over after former Bishop Thomas L. Dupre stepped down in February as allegations were emerging that Dupre molested two boys in the 1970s. Two weeks ago, the Rev. Ronald E. Wamsher was placed on administrative leave and is accused of sexually abusing three brothers years ago. That same week, Michael Graziano, a layperson who was in charge of the diocese's Catholic Communication Corp., resigned after he was accused of sexual misconduct dating back to 1985.
"This appeal comes during a very difficult time for the Diocese of Springfield," McDonnell said yesterday, addressing reporters in the gymnasium of the Catholic Youth Center's Melville Street facility. "The abuse crisis has hit Western Massachusetts hard. Some may feel that a way to express displeasure with the breach of trust that did occur in the church is by not contributing to the appeal. I can understand the feeling. But to withhold funds really is to impact innocent people."
Last year, the Western Massachusetts appeal's goal was $2.9 million, and $2.7 million was raised.
• Another claims bishop looked away on subject of abusive priest [1970s, 1980, Wilson] - RCC.
Troy Record, www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11407207&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept--id=7021&rfi=6 ; By Robert Cristo , April/29/2004
ALBANY (NY): A former Albany Diocese parishioner spoke out Wednesday about being abused by an ex-local priest who the alleged victim says should have caught the attention of Bishop Howard Hubbard back in the late 1970s.
In 1980, Joe Woodward was a vulnerable 14-year-old from an economically deprived background who latched on to then-Rev. Dozia Wilson for spiritual guidance and as a father figure at St. Ann's Church in Fort Ann, Washington County.
Woodward played guitar at Wilson's services, spent many hours alone practicing with him and even lived with the priest, who was finally removed from ministry by Hubbard 13 years ago.
The now 37-year-old vacuum cleaner salesman claims that over a four-year period, Wilson distracted him with expensive gifts, fancy dinners, trips to the West Coast and drugs (marijuana) so he could take advantage of him sexually.
"He provided me with gifts, trips and led me to believe that I was growing spiritually as long as I tolerated his sexual advances," said Woodward, who now lives in Fort Edward and has a wife and six children.
Hubbard's decision to remove the priest is one Woodward wholeheartedly approved of, but he says it should have occurred years before Wilson ever had the opportunity to use his powerful position to allegedly perform sexual acts on him.
In 1976, one year before Hubbard was installed as bishop of the diocese, Wilson was removed from the Albany Diocese and sent to the Boston Archdiocese.
That was largely because it was already known that Wilson, 59, was caught having sex with two boys in an Albany hotel that year.
• Dousman priest on leave during investigation [1980, Schreiter]
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/wauk/apr04/225604.asp , By TOM HEINEN, theinen@journalsentinel.com , Posted: April 28, 2004
DOUSMAN (WI): Father John P. Schreiter, pastor of St. Bruno Church in Dousman since August 1996, has been placed on leave while the Archdiocese of Milwaukee investigates a nearly 25-year-old sexual abuse allegation against him.
Normally, the archdiocese attempts to protect the reputations of accused priests during such internal investigations by not saying why they are on leave.
Schreiter, who has denied the allegation, chose to share information with his congregation, said archdiocesan spokeswoman Kathleen Hohl. Hohl said the incident was alleged to have occurred in Sauk County and "was not parish related."
The accuser was an adult at the time of the alleged incident, she added.
Schreiter, 61, served as vicar of Milwaukee's inner-city churches from 1992 to 1995, overseeing the consolidation of nine parishes into two. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
• New Phoenix Bishop Orders Priests to Disassociate from Gay Document
Life Site News, www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/apr/04042806.html , April 28, 2004
PHOENIX (AZ): (LifeSiteNews.com) - Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, the newly appointed leader of the Phoenix Catholic diocese, has ordered nine priests and one religious brother to remove their names from a document written and promulgated by an activist organization for homosexual clergy, "No Longer Silent: Clergy for Justice."
The "Phoenix Declaration" states, "Homosexuality is not a sickness, not a choice, and not a sin. We affirm that GLBT persons are distinctive, holy, and precious gifts to all who struggle to become the family of God."
The bishop has ordered the priests and brother to remove their names "under obedience" to him. All Catholic diocesan priests make a public promise, or vow, of obedience to the bishop as a condition of their ordination. The bishop, who is writing a series of articles on homosexuality for the diocesan newspaper, said that he invited the priests to talk with him privately "about this serious pastoral matter".
No sanctions were spelled out in the letter against any priest who refuses to comply but a diocesan bishop has a number of possible options in disciplining priests, up to and including suspension, which means a priest may not celebrate Mass, preach or hear confessions.
Bishop Olmsted replaces the recently disgraced bishop Thomas J. O'Brien who stepped down when convicted of killing a man in a hit-and-run car accident. The Phoenix archdiocese has been plagued with scandals involving priests abusing young men.
Bishop O'Brien had been under a cloud after he received immunity from prosecution in cases where he had been accused of covering up sexual abuse committed by the priests of his diocese. Both O'Brien and the interim leader, Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan knew of the document and the priests' participation but neither of them chose to act.
• Catholic priest Tom Doyle, who was one of those who warned of the dangers, and aids Church sexual abuse victims, loses job [Whistleblower dismissed]
The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/04/29/national/29PRIE.html?ex=1083816000&en=a687a9527b8c4a39&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE ; By DANIEL J. WAKIN, Published: April 29, 2004
UNITED STATES: Twenty years ago, the Rev. Thomas Doyle warned the nation's Roman Catholic bishops about the church's looming sexual abuse nightmare. Since then, he has become a hero to the victims, speaking out on their behalf and helping them in legal cases in recent years.
In doing so, Father Doyle also became a thorn in the side of the church hierarchy.
In the latest chapter of his turbulent career, Father Doyle was quietly removed from his job as an Air Force chaplain in a clash with his archbishop over pastoral issues.
He lost his endorsement as a chaplain from the Archdiocese of Military Services in September, a decision that until now had not become public. The leader of the Archdiocese of Military Services, Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, said Father Doyle had flouted his guidelines about requiring daily Mass for Catholics on military bases and other pastoral issues.
But the demotion has outraged abuse victims and their advocates, who point to the last several years of scandals as affirmation of Father Doyle's longstanding concerns. They say they suspect he was reassigned in retaliation by the church hierarchy. And it has produced a messy coda to a military career that Father Doyle said he loved deeply.
Father Doyle had served as an Air Force chaplain since 1986. He was at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany from 2001 until September, when he was transferred to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base near Goldsboro, N.C., where he now provides drug and alcohol counseling services but does not serve as a chaplain.
Speaking from Bamberg, Germany, Archbishop O'Brien rejected suggestions that he was punishing Father Doyle. He said that since he became archbishop seven years ago, he had tolerated the priest's criticisms of the hierarchy even if they were sometimes "over the top." . . .
• Six sue diocese, alleging abuse
Tribune-Review, www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/pittsburgh/s--191662.html , By Glenn May, Thursday, April 29, 2004
PITTSBURGH (PA): The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and its leaders are being targeted again over allegations that the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy covered up and contributed to sexual abuse of children by priests.
On Wednesday, six new plaintiffs -- including the first three local women to allege abuse -- sued the diocese and Bishop Donald Wuerl in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court. The six seek to hold the church leadership liable for abuse that they said they suffered at the hands of priests between 1954 and 1984.
The Rev. Ron Lengwin, diocesan spokesman, said the diocese will offer a statement today on the new lawsuits.
• Davenport Diocese contends 1 Amendment rights have been violated [14 lawsuits]
Quad-City Times, www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story--id=1027520&t=Local+News&c=2,1027520 , By Todd Ruger, ~ April 29, 2004
DAVENPORT (IA): The Catholic Diocese of Davenport has asked the court to eliminate some of the claims against it in one of 14 sexual abuse lawsuits it faces, arguing in part that it had no legal duty to inform parishes of past sexual misconduct by priests.
In a 28-page motion filed as part of a Clinton County case, the diocese contends that there is no legal basis for some claims in the suit because of Iowa law and the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which states that no law should respect a religious establishment or prohibit the free exercise of one.
"That's not to say a church can operate in violation of the law," diocese attorney Rand Wonio said Wednesday. "When a court is being asked to comment on how a church is operated, that's when you start to get into the area of the First Amendment."
The 14 civil lawsuits filed against the diocese allege sexual abuse of boys by priests 20 to 50 years ago. The plaintiffs seek damages and claim that church leaders failed to take action against the priests even though they were aware of inappropriate sexual contact having taken place.
• Lawsuits accuse Catholic diocese of hiding sexual abuse by priests [1952 onwards]
Post-Gazette, www.post-gazette.com/pg/04120/308269.stm , By Jim McKinnon, Thursday, April 29 2004
PITTSBURGH (PA): Six lawsuits filed yesterday charged the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh with ignoring and concealing the sexual abuse of six people by priests as far back as to 1954.
The six plaintiffs, three men and three women, are now adults. Each of the plaintiffs allege 17 counts against the diocese, Bishop Donald Wuerl, who heads the diocese, and Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Wuerl's predecessor.
Attorney Alan H. Perer, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said the suits partly are based on a claim of "institutional pedophilia."
"These victims didn't know of the involvement of the church. Until they saw other lawsuits, they didn't realize the church had a system where they coddled, moved around and didn't monitor priests," Perer said. "In other words, the system was rotten. There was an overall system failure."
No criminal charges can be filed because the statute of limitations has long since expired. That also is why the priests are not being sued individually.
But Perer and his co-counsel plan to argue at a hearing scheduled July 6 that because of the diocese's policies that he said kept the priests' actions secret, the diocese should not be protected by the statute of limitations.
• Insurer files suit against diocese [1954-1983, $US 84m total]
Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/04/29/insurer--files--suit--against--diocese , By Shelley Murphy, April 29, 2004
BOSTON (MA): An insurance company that was sued by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston for failing to cover settlement payments made last year to victims of clergy sexual abuse filed a counterclaim yesterday in federal court, arguing that the church owes the company money.
Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company insists that its policy covering the archdiocese for injuries related to "occurrences," meant only those that were accidents.
"There is no coverage for damages which were the proximate result of the intentional criminal conduct of priests who committed acts of sexual abuse against minors," the company argued in the counterclaim filed in US District Court in Boston.
Lumbermens, a member of the Kemper Insurance Cos. of Illinois, asserts that the archdiocese should be forced to reimburse Lumbermens for sums it has paid to settle complaints filed by victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Although Lumbermens doesn't say in its suit how much it is seeking, the archdiocese disclosed in its suit that the company contributed $2,160,000 toward the church's $10 million settlement in 2002 with the 86 victims of former priest John Geoghan, who was killed in jail last year.
The archdiocese agreed last September to pay up to $84,250,000 to 552 victims of clergy sexual abuse and filed suit against Lumbermens last month in federal court accusing the company of fraud and breach of contract for failing to contribute anything toward that settlement.
By the archdiocese's calculation, $59.3 million of the settlement related to policy periods when Lumbermens was the church's sole insurer and an additional $7.7 million arises out of policy periods when Lumbermens' coverage overlapped with that of another insurer.
The suit chronicled a dispute with Lumbermens over coverage that dates back to 1993, when the archdiocese notified the company that it had received several claims by individuals who alleged they had been molested by priests between 1954 and 1983.
• Lawsuit accuses Manatee ex-priest of sexual abuse
Herald, www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/8545076.htm , By BRIAN HAAS and AIMEE JUAREZ, ~ April 29, 2004
BRADENTON (FL): A former Catholic priest living in Bradenton is being accused of sexually abusing a student in the late 1960s while he was the student's counselor.
In a lawsuit filed last week in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in Ohio, Wolfgang Fifer, 49, contends that the Rev. Russell Banner, 66, repeatedly molested him from 1967 through 1969 while Fifer was a resident and student at Parmalade, a Catholic children's home and school in Ohio.
In a phone interview with the Herald on Wednesday night, Banner's Cleveland-based attorney William Danko said the accusations are unfounded.
"It's totally incredulous and there's no substance to it whatsoever," he said. "It's unfortunate this individual has made these accusations."
The Herald obtained a copy of the lawsuit, which was filed on April 20. The lawsuit, which was filed against the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, the Catholic Charities Services Corporation and Parmalade, seeks damages from the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland for failing to protect Fifer.
• Toledo native Barbara Blaine crusades against sexual abuse in the Catholic church [1969, Warren]
Toledo City Paper, http://toledocitypaper.com/cover.html , by Bill Frogameni, ~ April 29, 2004
TOLEDO (OH): In 1969, Barbara Blaine strived to be a good Catholic. A 13-year-old between seventh and eighth grade at West Toledo's St. Pius X school, she was part of a large devout family and church community that venerated priests.
Blaine founded SNAP, the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests. Nationally, SNAP's become the most influential advocacy group for victims of clerical sexual abuse. SNAP's membership has exploded in conjunction with the unprecedented publicity surrounding the Catholic abuse scandals. Reluctantly,
Blaine's become an embattled media figure. Back in 1969, Blaine was just an awed Catholic girl when Father Chet Warren invited her to Sunday dinner. Warren, assistant pastor at St. Pius, was 42.
Blaine recalls, "I was part of a group of junior high girls called 'The Deaconettes' that helped clean up after mass. One Sunday, Father Warren invited me to stay and have dinner with the priests. It was a special honor." Afterward, Blaine recalls everyone watching TV and eventually being alone with Warren.
"Pretty soon Father wasn't looking at the TV anymore - he was looking at me. It was really confusing. He started saying things like he knew I had feelings for him like he had for me."
"He started telling me things like how I was holier than other kids and that I was closer to Jesus than other kids."
Then, she says, Warren started touching her. "When he started molesting me, I kind of froze. I didn't move, and I didn't say a word. I can remember in my mind saying 'No! Don't do that - don't touch me there," but that's not what I said. No words came out. I was just in shock.
"I remember him saying 'Stop shaking. I'm not going to hurt you.You don't have to be frightened.'" [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 02:08 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thursday April 29, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont78.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Friday April 30, 2004 edition follows:-
• Retaliation, Father Doyle? [September dismissal only now becoming public]
National Catholic Reporter, Story Hunters, http://ncrnews.org/cgi-bin/mt.cgi?----mode=view&--type=entry&blog--id=4 , ~ April 30, 2004
UNITED STATES: The Rev. Thomas Doyle sounds like a nice guy. He's an advocate for victims of sex abuse by Catholic priests, providing legal help and speaking out publicly for them. He's also the winner of the Isaac Hecker award for social justice.
So why has the Catholic hierarchy got such a hard-on for him? Father Doyle was removed from his job in September- and the removal has only now become public. Abuse victims and advocacy groups say that the Church is retaliating against Doyle for his firm stand beside the victims of sex abuse.
They haven't burned Doyle at the stake yet, but they have removed him from a job he deeply loved - right before his retirement, too.
His dismissal stemmed from a memorandum he wrote for two superiors at Ramstein interpreting the archbishop's expectations for how Catholic base personnel should be ministered to. On several points, he appears to contradict the written guidelines of Archbishop O'Brien.
For example, the archbishop had said that base chaplains were expected to celebrate Mass daily and that Catholics at installations with assigned priests "have the right to attend Mass regularly."
Actually, Father Doyle wrote, Catholics do not have a right to daily Mass, according to church law. Daily Mass is a strong custom, but not "an essential element of the practice" of the faith. He also contradicted Archbishop O'Brien by saying the archbishop's permission was not needed to substitute a communion service on Sunday for a Mass if no Catholic priest was available ... [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 10:29 PM]
• Former pastor faces sex abuse charges [1997, Solorio, aka Arias]
Coloradoan, www.coloradoan.com/news/stories/20040430/news/326155.html , By COURTNEY LINGLE, CourtneyLingle@coloradoan.com , April 30 2004
COLORADO: A Loveland man who claims he was sexually abused as a child by a former Fort Collins pastor has come forward with the accusations.
Nearly eight years after the alleged incident, the now 21-year-old man says he finally feels safe knowing the pastor is behind bars.
Jaime Antonio Solorio, 49, of El Paso, Texas, also known as Jaime Arias, is in the Larimer County Detention Center on charges of sexual assault on a child -- an offense that could send him to prison for life. His bond is set at $50,000.
The accuser, a college student who asked that his name not be used, said he was 14 when Solorio, then 42, touched his genital area and forced him to perform oral sex.
Solorio was arrested in March in El Paso and extradited to Larimer County after the alleged victim gave authorities a tape recording of an April 29, 2003 telephone conversation he had with Solorio.
"He made statements that support the victim's allegations," said Deputy District Attorney Andy Taylor, who is prosecuting the case.
At the time of the alleged incident in 1996, Solorio, who is related to the accuser, was a pastor at Iglesia del Dios Vivo, a Fort Collins church that has since closed.
• Robinson Murder Case Goes to Grand Jury [1980, Robinson]
WTOL - News 11, www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=1831023 , Posted by AEB, mailto:abaker@wtol.com , 7:15pm, Friday, April 30, 2004
TOLEDO (OH): The case of Father Gerald Robinson went to the Lucas County Grand Jury on Friday. He's the one accused of murdering a nun in 1980. And now, his fate is in the hands of nine people.
The grand jury process is secret and its decision in Father Robinson's case is not public yet. But, prosecutors are expected to make an announcement Monday morning. Prosecuting Attorney Chris Anderson helped present evidence to the grand jury today. His presentation lasted about 2 1/2 hours.
If 7 out of the nine grand jurors believe there's enough evidence against Father Robinson, he'll be indicted on a murder charge and a judge will be assigned to the case. One week ago, the priest was arrested for the 1980 slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl who was strangled and then stabbed with letter opener about 30 times in a Mercy Hospital chapel.
Friday, one of Robinson's attorneys told News 11 that a property bond will be posted on Monday if there's an indictment. "There are some many people, who are parishioners of Father Robinson that have been willing to post their homes for a property bond that I think that says a lot about how he has touched the parishioners and how they feel about him," said Alan Konop, defense attorney. [with video]
• Former pastor accused of sexual assault [1996, Solorio] - ? RCC.
Rocky Mountain News, http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/state/article/0,1299,DRMN--21--2850186,00.html , By The Associated Press, April 30, 2004
FORT COLLINS (CO): A former Colorado pastor has been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a child in 1996.
Jaime Solorio, 49, of El Paso, Texas, was being held Thursday in the Larimer County Detention Center on $50,000 bond. He was arrested in Texas in March and sent to Colorado after the alleged victim gave authorities a tape recording of a 2003 telephone conversation he had with Solorio. "He made statements that support the victim's allegations," Deputy District Attorney Andy Taylor said.
The accuser, now 21, is a college student who spoke to the Coloradoan newspaper on condition his name not be used. He said he was 14 when Solorio, then 42, forced him to perform oral sex.
The accuser said Solorio later told him not to tell anyone.
"He said he was sorry ... that evil spirits caused him to do this thing," the alleged victim said. The two are related.
At the time, Solorio was a pastor at Iglesia del Dios Vivo, a Fort Collins church that has since closed.
The accuser's parents reported the incident to church headquarters in El Paso, according to the arrest affidavit and the accuser's father.
• Anglican settlement fund surpasses one-third of its target [up to 1970s]
Anglican Journal, "Settlement fund surpasses one-third of its target," www.anglicanjournal.com/130/05/canada06.html , STAFF, May 2004
CANADA: The Indian residential schools settlement fund is more than one-third of the way toward its target of $25 million. As of March 31, 2004, the fund had collected a total of $10.1 million from the church's 30 dioceses and the national office, according to treasurer Jim Cullen.
One year ago, the Anglican Church of Canada signed an agreement with the federal government, limiting the church's liability to $25 million in lawsuits concerning a now-defunct boarding school system for native children.
The fund is paying 30 per cent of settlements (with the federal government paying 70 per cent) awarded plaintiffs proving sexual or physical abuse in Anglican-run schools. As of March 31, $2.6 million had been paid in settlements to successful plaintiffs. Of the 80 Indian residential schools that existed for more than a century into the 1970s, the Anglican church operated 26.
General Synod has paid $3 million - its full share of the $25 million - into the fund. Dioceses agreed to contribute funds over five years in proportion to their regular annual gift to General Synod, the church's national office.
• Feeney sentenced to 15 years in prison; Former Freedom priest faced 60-year maximum sentence on abuse charges. [1978]
Post-Crescent, www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local--15912712.shtml , By Dan Wilson, Posted Apr. 30, 2004
APPLETON (WI): John Patrick Feeney, 77, a former Fox Valley Catholic priest who abused two brothers 26 years ago, was sentenced today to 15 years in prison.
"I want to structure a sentence that will bring us to the end of your life," said Outagamie County Circuit Judge Dennis Luebke, noting that Feeney would be under the old sentencing code that mandates release after two-thirds of the sentence. In this case, that would be 10 years.
Luebke pronounced the sentence after hearing emotional appeals from the victims and their mother.
Feeney, of Los Angeles, was sentenced on sexual assault charges stemming from Feeney's days as a priest at a Freedom church.
He faced a maximum of 60 years in prison after being convicted in February on three counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of attempted sexual assault of a child for incidents that happened 26 years ago when he was the parish priest at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Freedom.
• Notre Dame Copes With News [Miller 1979 on, Clark, Rashid]
WEEK, http://week.com/morenews/morenews-read.asp?id=4252 , Posted April 30, 2004
PEORIA (IL): The announcement Thursday concerning a priest who oversees operations at Peoria Notre Dame High School is just the latest in a string of moves rocking the school.
Monsignor Thomas Miller is on administrative leave from the Peoria Catholic Diocese for alleged sexual misconduct dating back to 1979.
Outside Notre Dame High School, students file into the building without a support rally for another missing administrator.
"It's a good school. I mean, I think people think real negatively about it right now and I think that's a shame," said Notre Dame parent Pat Wendel.
Notre Dame is at a loss. First with the termination of Coach Cindy Clark and then coach Jerry Rashid. Now, a respected priest is under scrutiny.
Monsignor Miller served as President of Notre Dame's Education Commission since 1999.
Terri Davis, another Notre Dame parent, said, "He deserves the benefit of the doubt, I think the Bishop acted well in putting him on administrative leave, but I hope he gets a chance to tell his side of the story."
• Cardinal George Says Church Not Reneging on Reform
CBS 2, http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local--story--121174739.html , 4:43 pm US/Central, Apr 30, 2004
CHICAGO (IL): Francis Cardinal George is reacting to allegations by the Chicagoan who heads the Church's National Review Board. Justice Anne Burke claims Catholic Bishops are breaking their promise to push for major reform following the church sex abuse crisis.
The bishops say they are not reneging on reform. But they've already blocked the start on a second nationwide audit of their programs to protect children. And some believe they want to do away with the National Review Board they themselves appointed.
Chicago's Francis Cardinal George has been among those trying to resolve the impasse between the bishops and the review board.
"The bishops remain committed to protecting children and to reaching out to victims and to being fair to accused priests," Cardinal George said.
The trouble started right after the board issued its February report on the history of sexual misconduct by priests. Bishops, including New York's Edward Cardinal Egan, sought to block this year's audit "until after the matter has been discussed by all of the bishops in November."
"The conclusion would be is it's an effort that maybe wasn't heartfelt. To be serious about this charter and protecting children," Burke said.
• Priest gets 15 years in prison for abusing brothers in 1978 [Feeney] - RCC. Boys.
Modesto Bee, www.modbee.com/24hour/nation/story/1333735p-8508458c.html , The Associated Press, Last Updated: 04:19:00 PM PDT, April 30, 2004
APPLETON, Wis. (AP) - A Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing two brothers at their home in 1978 was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison. The Rev. John Patrick Feeney was accused of caressing the boys, now in their late 30s, as they lay in their bedrooms. He was convicted in February of three counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of attempted sexual assault of a child.
Feeney, 77, had faced up to 60 years in prison, but special prosecutor Vince Biskupic said he was happy with the shorter sentence.
Defense attorney Gerald Boyle said he would appeal. "It's a very long sentence," Boyle said. "I think the judge anticipates he'll never be free."
At the time of the crimes, Feeney was the parish priest at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Freedom, about 90 miles north of Milwaukee.
Bishop David Zubik said the Green Bay Diocese will remove Feeney from the clergy. He has already been barred from public ministry.
• Lavigne To Lose Stipend From Springfield Diocese [Lavigne]
WWLP - 22 News, www.wwlp.com/news2004/story.html?artID=42624 , Updated 6:17 PM 04-29-2004
SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts (WWLP) - On Saturday, Defrocked Priest Richard Lavigne loses the $1,000 a month stipend he's been receiving from the Springfield diocese. But it looks like Lavigne isn't anxious to start paying his own way in life. Lavigne's about to lose that $1,030 check he's been receiving. But now he wants money from a special fund that's been established to benefit men like him who've been removed from the priesthood.
22News has learned that former priest Richard Lavigne has asked to receive continued financial support from the Springfield Diocese. That support would come from a special fund for defrocked priests created by private donor's late last year. 22News has also learned that Lavigne already telephoned new Bishop Timothy McDonnell to ask how he might begin to receive the financial benefits from the fund. McDonnell has said he hasn't made a decision on distribution of the money.
• Don't forget the victim [1980, Robinson. Diocese fired whistleblower]
Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040430/OPINION02/404300318/-1/OPINION , Friday, April 30, 2004
TOLEDO (OH): WHETHER the Rev. Gerald Robinson is guilty of the 1980 murder of a nun in a local Catholic hospital chapel's sacristy is for the criminal justice system to sort out. He's presumed innocent, and that doesn't change unless he's convicted in a court of law.
But those who are rallying to his defense should not get so caught up in their stout devotion to the man that they, and the community, lose sight of the fact that Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was brutally murdered 24 years ago in horrifying circumstances.
It's important to keep the victim in mind here. Sister Margaret Ann was a much loved figure in the church, working at what then was still Mercy Hospital. But she's been gone now for a generation, and memories fade.
Adding to the bizarre nature of this case is the church's delay in sharing what it knew with law enforcement.
The Toledo Catholic Diocese has no role in criminal investigation. Yet its own review board fired one of its members, Dr. Robert Cooley, who brought to law enforcement's attention other reports of wrongdoing alleged against Father Robinson.
This is on the heels of the church's pedophile priest problem, in which church officials looked into alleged criminal behavior and adjudicated its substance, without calling in legal authorities. Investigating alleged crimes and judging the evidence are not tasks the diocese can credibly do and shouldn't try. That's police work.
Diocesan officials have a civic obligation, indeed a moral duty, to bring allegations of crime to the police. Alleged clergy sex abuse victims should do the same, reporting them to church officials after the fact.
If nothing else, a police investigation, whatever its results, would liberate the diocese from the unavoidable conclusions that put it in such a bad public position now. Whatever the outcome, church officials would not be fomenting public mistrust.
• Archdiocese sues insurance companies to force coverage [Widera]
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/metro/apr04/225983.asp , By TOM HEINEN, theinen@journalsentinel.com , April 29, 2004
MILWAUKEE (WI): Faced with civil lawsuits from 19 alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse in California and Wisconsin that could cost millions of dollars, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is taking dozens of insurance companies to court.
A lawsuit filed this week in Milwaukee County Circuit Court indicates that none of the companies have been willing to accept responsibility for the costs of legal defense and future settlements or judgments.
It names about 50 American insurers, insurance underwriters and British insurance companies that issued policies to the archdiocese in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. Of those, 36 were issued through the Lloyd's of London insurance market.
The archdiocese is trying to get an acknowledgment of coverage before submitting claims for ongoing legal expenses, said David Muth, a Quarles & Brady lawyer who is representing the archdiocese.
No settlements have been made in any of the cases, and none has yet gone to trial, Muth said.
Nine alleged victims of deceased, former priest Siegfried Widera have filed lawsuits in California that name the Milwaukee Archdiocese as a defendant. The door was opened in January for such cases when the California Supreme Court ruled in one of them that the archdiocese could be sued for sending Widera to that state years ago without revealing his prior conviction for molesting a minor.
The archdiocese has appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, Muth said.
Katherine Freberg, of Freberg & Associates in Irving, Calif., who is representing some of the California plaintiffs, said in a previous interview that the Milwaukee Archdiocese's liability in the Widera cases "will be significant." She noted that she settled a suit involving a different priest for $5.2 million with the Diocese of Orange County and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in August 2001.
• Local Greek Orthodox priest removed from church over decades-old allegations [1980s, Barrow] - Greek Orthodox. Boys.
KHOU - 11 News (The Spirit of Texas), "Local priest removed from church over decades-old allegations," www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou040429--ds--Priest.174486db6.html ; By Vicente Arenas / 11 News, Friday, April 30, 2004
WEBSTER (TX): An area priest has been removed from a church in Webster following allegations of sexual abuse in Ohio. But the man is still working for the Houston Independent School District.
Saint John the Theologian Greek Orthodox Church sits in the middle of a quiet neighborhood in Webster. But there is a storm of allegations surrounding its former priest, 58-year-old Father Gabriel Barrow.
A group called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or S.N.A.P. says Barrow allegedly abused three boys while he was at another church in Toledo, Ohio, nearly 30 years ago.
National church officials confirm they're investigating. The alleged victims came forward in 1999, but criminal charges are not possible, because too much time has passed.
11 News spoke by phone to one of them who says he couldn't believe Barrow was still ministering. "Very frustrating, very angering," he says. "And when brought to the attention of the bishops they have taken no action until recently."
• Suit alleges sex abuse by priest in 1970s [1980s Thiel (Redemptorist )] - RCC.
Post-Dispatch, www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/St.+Louis+City+%2F+County/86BE0C8FDEC2FB7386256E8600152003?OpenDocument&Headline=Suit+alleges+sex+abuse+by+priest+in+1970s ; By Tim O'Neil, April/29/2004
ST. LOUIS (MO): A man filed a civil suit Thursday alleging he was sexually abused by a former Redemptorist priest more than 20 years ago at a Catholic parish in Pine Lawn.
The man, identified only as John Doe CS, filed his suit in St. Louis Circuit Court against the Rev. James Thiel, the Redemptorists' Denver Province and the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The suit alleges that Thiel sexually abused the man when he was a grade-school pupil at St. Paul the Apostle Parish, which closed in 1995.
A spokesman for the Redemptorists said Thiel left the order in 1997. The spokesman said he did not know Thiel's whereabouts or whether he is still a priest.
Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests held a news conference Thursday to discuss the suit. It was the third such event SNAP has held since April 20 to publicize lawsuits against current or former priests. "There is a lot of pain that needs to come out," said David Clohessy of Maplewood, SNAP's national director.
Patrick Noaker of St. Paul, Minn., John Doe's lawyer, said Thiel was assigned to St. Alphonsus "Rock" Church in Midtown from 1973 to 1978, and to St. Paul's in Pine Lawn from 1978 to 1983. The Redemptorists staff St. Alphonsus and sometimes are assigned to assist other parishes.
• Chaplain's demotion angers victims abused by priests - RCC. Rev. Thomas Doyle.
Omaha World-Herald, www.omaha.com/index.php?u--np=0&u--pg=54&u--sid=1082589 , The New York Times, Fri April 30 2004
UNITED STATES: Twenty years ago, the Rev. Thomas Doyle warned the nation's Roman Catholic bishops about the church's looming sexual abuse nightmare. Since then, he has become a hero to the victims, speaking out on their behalf and helping them in legal cases in recent years.
The Rev. Thomas Doyle was quietly removed from his job as an Air Force chaplain in a clash with his archbishop. In doing so, Doyle became a thorn in the side of the church hierarchy.
Doyle was quietly removed from his job as an Air Force chaplain in a clash with his archbishop over pastoral issues.
He lost his endorsement as a chaplain from the Archdiocese of Military Services in September, a decision that until now had not become public. The leader of the archdiocese, Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, said Doyle had flouted his guidelines about requiring daily Mass for Catholics on military bases and other pastoral issues.
But the demotion has outraged abuse victims and their advocates. They say they suspect he was reassigned in retaliation.
Speaking from Bamberg, Germany, O'Brien rejected suggestions that he was punishing Doyle. He pointed out that since he became archbishop seven years ago, he had tolerated the priest's sometimes "over the top" criticisms of the hierarchy.
"I would hope that it is not retribution, but I cannot say for sure," Doyle said Thursday. "I can say that I would never retract one bit of what I've done on behalf of sexual abuse victims over the past 19 years, and I won't stop doing it."
Doyle's supporters say he is now a victim.
"I think the hierarchy has been gunning after him for a long time," said Jason Berry, an author of "Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II," which includes a sympathetic portrait of Doyle. "He has probably done more damage to the Catholic hierarchy of any priest in America."
The priest's involvement in the abuse issue dates to the mid-1980s, when he was an aide to the Vatican representative in Washington and helped write a confidential report, often cited now, about the dimensions of sexual abuse by priests and dealing with the problem legally and pastorally. [...]
Doyle's supporters say he is now a victim. "I think the hierarchy has been gunning after him for a long time," said Jason Berry, an author of "Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II," which includes a sympathetic portrait of Doyle. "He has probably done more damage to the Catholic hierarchy of any priest in America." [sic]
The priest's involvement in the abuse issue dates to the mid-1980s, when he was an aide to the Vatican representative in Washington and helped write a confidential report, often cited now, about the dimensions of sexual abuse by priests and dealing with the problem legally and pastorally.
He urged U.S. bishops to take strong measures to prevent a crisis over child sexual abuse. The bishops shelved the report, and Doyle went into the military.
This report includes material from the Washington Post.
• Archbishop's plan to prevent abuse; Brunett calls for the creation of a community institute.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/171379--brunett30.html , By VANESSA HO, Friday, April 30, 2004
TACOMA (WA): Seattle Archbishop Alex Brunett called yesterday for the creation of a community institute to study and prevent child sexual abuse.
In a speech to the Rotary Club of Tacoma, Brunett said child abuse is a concern not only in the Roman Catholic Church but throughout society, and he asked service clubs and professional groups to support him in his efforts to help victims.
Brunett, whose archdiocese serves about 1 million Catholics in Western Washington, was vague on most details. He did not have a funding plan, location or general shape for the institute.
He said it was an idea he had, after looking for a local center solely dedicated to helping child-abuse victims and finding none. He said it might be located at a university and be up and running in a year or two.
"This problem is not just a priest problem," Brunett told his audience. "The sexual abuse of children is a scourge affecting every sector of society."
• Priest's colleague surprised by allegations of abuse [1979 Miller]
Pantagraph (Connecting Central Illinois on the Web), www.pantagraph.com/stories/043004/new--20040430035.shtml , By Steve Arney, sarney@pantagraph.com , Friday, April 30, 2004
BLOOMINGTON (IL): When Monsignor Steven Rohlfs was contacted a week ago about sexual abuse claims involving a respected colleague, the information floored him, said Rohlfs, a top aide to Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky.
A 36-year-old man claimed Monsignor Thomas Miller sexually abused him in 1979, Miller's first year in his first assignment as a priest, at Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
Up to then, said Rohlfs, the church leadership hadn't heard "even the slightest indication" of abuse by Miller in Miller's 25-year career.
"He was one of the most respected priests in the diocese," Rolfs said. But reputation didn't matter when it came to response, Rohlfs added.
• Area priest accused of abuse [1979, Miller]
Pantagraph, www.pantagraph.com/stories/043004/new--20040430031.shtml , By Steve Arney, sarney@pantagraph.com , Friday, April 30, 2004
BLOOMINGTON (IL): A 36-year-old man has accused a high-ranking area priest of abusing him while the priest was an assistant pastor in 1979 at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Bloomington.
Accused is Monsignor Thomas Miller, pastor at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Peoria and the top clergyman at Notre Dame High School and his parish's elementary school, both in Peoria.
On Thursday, Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky placed Miller on administrative leave and made the allegation public. Jenky said Miller "denied key elements of the allegations and admitted others." The bishop wasn't more specific.
Monsignor Steven Rohlfs, an aide to Jenky, told the Associated Press that Miller is staying with friends in northern Illinois. Miller could not be reached for comment.
On Tuesday, the diocese office notified Miller of the charge and convened its Diocesan Review Commission, which has eight lay members and four members of clergy.
• More accuse clergy of ritualistic abuse [1980 Robinson]
The Morning Journal, www.morningjournal.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1699&dept--id=46371&newsid=11416845&PAG=461&rfi=9 ; By JOHN SEEWER , Associated Press Writer April/30/2004
TOLEDO (OH): The arrest of a Roman Catholic priest in the "ritualistic" slaying of a nun has prompted more people to claim they were abused by clergy members.
Two of those claims, which have not been verified, included "graphic accounts" of ritualistic abuse, a spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said yesterday. In all 10 people have contacted the support group about alleged past abuse, said Claudia Vercelloti, a director of the Toledo office.
The claims, some made anonymously, have come in the days after the Rev. Gerald Robinson was charged with murder last week in the strangling and stabbing of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, over Easter weekend 1980.
Her body was discovered in a chapel at Mercy Hospital, covered by an altar cloth. The body was posed to look as though she had been sexually assaulted, but investigators have said they found no evidence of sexual activity.
"I think the victims are being very courageous," Vercelloti said. "Sometimes a groundswell of attention pushes them into hiding."
• Attorneys: Mahony ignored warnings from Mexican bishop [1980s, Rivera]
Herald Tribune, www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040430/APN/404300622 , The Associated Press, Last modified 5:02AM, April 30. 2004
LOS ANGELES (CA): A 1987 letter from a Mexican bishop telling Cardinal Roger Mahony about a visiting priest's "homosexual problems" went unheeded, allowing the priest to allegedly molest 26 boys in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, according to attorneys.
The attorneys, who represent alleged victims of sexual abuse, charge that Mahony assigned Father Nicolas Aguilar Rivera to work in Los Angeles parishes in 1987 despite at least one warning from Bishop Norberto Rivera of Tecuacan, Mexico.
A letter from the bishop to Mahony written a year later - and obtained by plaintiffs' attorney Raymond Boucher - mentions the contents of the 1987 letter. The Mexican bishop sent Mahony the letter two months after Rivera fled to Mexico to avoid arrest on charges of child molestation.
"In the letter of presentation, January 27, 1987, I included a photograph of identification, and in the confidential letter of March 23 of the same year, I completed a brief report on the homosexual problems of the priest," the bishop wrote Mahony on March 17, 1988.
Boucher, who obtained the 1988 letter from the district attorney's office through a Freedom of Information Act request, has not been able to locate the two older letters it mentions.
"There's absolutely no question that the letter from the bishop in Mexico was a clear warning that this priest is a danger to children," said Boucher. "It completely undermines Mahony's claim that, when he became bishop, he ... tried to ensure that there was a safe environment for children to be at the church." [...]
Rivera was charged with 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child, but he fled to Mexico and was never arrested. The case is still open.
Showing Mahony knowingly kept abusive priests working in the archdiocese could affect hundreds of civil lawsuits. The new evidence could form the basis of obstruction-of-justice or other criminal charges, the lawyers contend.
Four hundred suits against the Los Angeles Archdiocese alleging child molestation have been in closed-door mediation for 18 months. #
• Peoria priest, 53, faces sex allegations [1979, Miller]
Journal Star, www.pjstar.com/news/topnews/b2sm3uja040.html , By MICHAEL MILLER, April 30, 2004
PEORIA (IL): A Peoria priest who carried out the firing of a Notre Dame High School coach and dean last week has been accused of sexual misconduct occurring nearly 25 years ago.
Monsignor Thomas R. Miller, 53, the popular pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Peoria, is accused of having had sexual contact with a minor in Bloomington in 1979. The man making the accusations is now 36.
The accusations were brought to the Catholic Diocese of Peoria against Miller on April 23, Bishop Daniel Jenky said Thursday. Jenky said Miller had "denied key elements of the allegations and admitted others." The bishop wouldn't elaborate on the accusations.
The charges were investigated by the diocese, and Miller was told about them Tuesday, Jenky said.
The Diocesan Review Commission then looked at the evidence Tuesday and "advised me that on the basis of what they had heard that the allegations seemed credible," Jenky said.
• After 50 years, controversial priest would do it all again
Daily Southtown, www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/yrtwn/south/301syt2.htm , By Michelle Mullins, Correspondent, Friday, April 30, 2004
CHICAGO (IL): Andrew Greeley was a 7-year-old second-grader when Sister Helen asked her students who wanted to be a priest?
It was spring 1935, and Greeley's hand shot up. His commitment has not swayed since.
As a child he respected and admired the work of priests, and that led him to the seminary.
He said his first mass at Christ the King Church on the city's Southwest Side, but his life's work didn't stop with the priesthood.
Now 76, he celebrates his 50th year as a priest this year, and his sometimes-controversial career has included work as a sociologist, professor, author and journalist. ...
Greeley has released three books in the past two months: "Priests: A Calling in Crisis," "The Priestly Sins" and "The Catholic Revolution: New Wine, Old Wineskins and the Second Vatican Council."
"Priests: A Calling in Crisis" uses his sociology background to paint a picture of today's priests, while "The Priestly Sins" is a fictional work that takes on the issue of sexual abuse among priests and its cover-up.
Greeley, who said he's been warning church leaders for 20 years about the problems of reassigning abusive priests, uses "The Priestly Sins" to give a fictional account of a young priest who reports a fellow priest for abusing a child, and ends up in a mental hospital after the abuser is cleared of the charges.
The book's events are similar to actual events, he said, and is the result of "the discouraging pattern of the church's failure to deal with the problem."
Greeley said he doesn't intentionally strive to be controversial. His goal is get the Catholic Church to be more democratic, giving the lay people more power and responsibilities within their parishes.
"If it stirs up controversy, that's too bad," he said.
• 5 sue Iowa diocese, alleging sexual abuse [1969 or '70, McFadden] - RCC.
Journal Gazette, www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/8558180.htm , Associated Press, Fri, Apr. 30, 2004
SIOUX CITY, Iowa - Five more people have sued naming a Roman Catholic priest and the Diocese of Sioux City after, their lawyer said, they gave up waiting for the church to take action on its own for alleged sexual abuse that occurred when they were children.
The five allege in lawsuits filed Monday in Woodbury County District Court that the Rev. George McFadden "committed offensive and inappropriate sexual contact" with them.
One alleged that the contact occurred in 1969 or '70 while McFadden was the pastor at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Jefferson.
McFadden has been accused of sexually abusing boys and girls at other parishes in the diocese. The suits allege that the diocese knew of the allegations but covered up McFadden's actions.
Four similar lawsuits against McFadden and the diocese are pending and are scheduled for trial early next year in Sioux City.
McFadden is retired and living with relatives in Fort Wayne. Attempts Thursday to reach him were unsuccessful.
• Victims' Groups Decry Dismissal Of Military Priest
Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54528-2004Apr29.html , By Alan Cooperman, Washington Post Staff Writer, Page A02, Friday, April 30, 2004
UNITED STATES: Groups representing victims of clergy sexual abuse charged yesterday that the Roman Catholic Church is attempting to silence a priest who has provided expert legal advice to victims in dozens of lawsuits.
The Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, 59, was fired by his archbishop last fall, ending his 18-year career as an Air Force chaplain. The stated reason was a memo written by Doyle that said military chaplains did not have to lead Masses every day.
Susan Archibald, president of the Linkup, a Louisville-based victims' group with more than 3,200 members across the country, said Doyle "has not made many friends within the church by his willingness to testify" on behalf of victims. "This is obviously an act of retribution," she said.
Barbara Blaine, president of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, which has about 4,600 members, called Doyle "a hero" who has spent countless hours counseling victims and has helped many to regain their faith. "He spoke truth to power, and the powers have tried to squelch the messenger along with the truth," she said.
Doyle's dismissal was first reported yesterday by The New York Times. Since Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, head of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, withdrew the church's endorsement of his chaplaincy in September, Doyle has not been able to say Masses publicly or function as a chaplain. [COMMENT: Check other items about whether he can say Masses publicly. "Mass" is the RC Communion and Scripture service.]
• Catholics set $10.5M fund-raising goal
Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=12560 , By Eric Convey, Friday, April 30, 2004
BOSTON (MA): The Archdiocese of Boston launched its key annual fund-raising campaign yesterday amid what Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley said are signs of renewed giving to the church. The target for the Catholic Appeal is $10.5 million.
The figure is more than was raised last year, but far less than the peak of $17 million taken in during 1999. The economy was flying then, and the clergy molestation scandal had not yet struck.
Anecdotally, O'Malley said, pastors are reporting an uptick in parish collections. "I think people realize the wonderful work that's being done," he said.
• Archdiocese sets $10.5m as its annual fund-raising goal
Boston Globe, www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/121/metro/Archdiocese--sets--10--5m--as--its--annual--fund--raising--goal+.shtml ; By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff, April/30/2004
BOSTON (MA): The Archdiocese of Boston said yesterday that it will try to raise $10.5 million over the next year, up slightly from last year's fund-raising goal, but still down significantly since the start of the clergy sexual abuse crisis.
Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, who was installed as head of the Boston archdiocese last summer, has written a letter and taped a video for use in parishes throughout the archdiocese this weekend as the region's largest religious denomination launches its annual fund-raising campaign.
The church's fund-raising has faced extraordinary challenges over the last several years, hobbled by the abuse crisis, a down economy, and a simultaneous capital campaign. This year, the fund-raising campaign is being launched just after the archdiocese announced it was selling much of its headquarters property to Boston College for $107.4 million and just weeks before O'Malley plans to announce the closing of a significant number of parishes.
Church officials expressed confidence that with O'Malley's arrival, the settlement of abuse cases, an end to the capital campaign, and an improving economy, they will be able to begin to rebuild their major fund-raising drive. The annual appeal supports 80 ministries and agencies of the church, including the training of religious educators, services to immigrants and ethnic minorities, the education of seminarians, and campus ministry at the area's universities.
• Fr Tom Doyle, who aided abuse victims ousted; some see retribution
Boston Globe, "Priest who aided abuse victims ousted; some see retribution," www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/121/nation/Priest--who--aided--abuse--victims--ousted--some--see--retribution+.shtml ; By Richard N. Ostling, Associated Press, April/30/2004
NEW YORK -- The Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, the most ardent champion of clergy sex abuse victims among America's Roman Catholic clergy, has been fired by his archbishop and is currently forbidden to lead public Masses.
Doyle said yesterday that Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of the Archdiocese for the Military Services withdrew his endorsement of Doyle as a US Air Force chaplain last Sept. 17. Doyle remains a priest, but cannot celebrate sacraments until his career as an Air Force major ends this summer.
The stated reason was disagreement over providing daily Catholic Masses at military bases with few priests. But victim advocates see payback for Doyle's 18 years of activism and sharp criticism of the hierarchy's handling of molestation scandals.
Asked about this, Doyle said "I certainly would hope not, but I have no way of knowing for sure because I had no opportunity for dialogue."
The archdiocese's chancellor said only O'Brien could discuss the situation, and calls to his office were not returned.
This is Doyle's second career disruption. In 1986, the Vatican Embassy in Washington ended his employment after Doyle became immersed in the molestation issue and coauthored a then-confidential memo that went to all US bishops, warning that abuse was a problem of epidemic proportions. Doyle had been the staff canon lawyer who processed confidential data on US bishop candidates.
Doyle then joined the Air Force. He has provided many victims pastoral counsel, legal advice, and court testimony in suits against the church.
"O'Brien can deny it all he wants," said Jason Berry, a journalist who has covered Catholic abuse cases for two decades, and whose new book "Vows of Silence" depicts Doyle's career. "There's not a doubt in my mind that this is retribution for the stand [Doyle] has taken."
David Clohessy of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called retribution "the only reasonable conclusion." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:31 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Friday April 30, 2004
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