References cont. (80) — Clergy Child Molesters

• Bishop not Being Informed about More Sexual Abuse Allegations? [Russell; Roman Catholic Church]

   WWLP, www.wwlp.com/news2004/story.html?artID=46271 , May-07-2004
   SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS (WWLP) - This week we learned of another priest who'd worked in the Springfield diocese that has been accused of sexual abuse. But when exactly did the bishop learn of this accusation?
   The question comes up because almost a week after the review board decided there was a credible accusation against former priest John Russell, the bishop was still telling us he knew of no other accusations against priests that might be about to come out. And we wanted to know why he didn't know.
   According to the diocese, it was on April 22nd that the review board considered the complaint against the Reverend John Russell, decided it was credible and decided to inform Bishop McDonnell. So almost a week later, one might assume that bishop McDonnell would know of the allegation. But he apparently didn't when we asked him about it on his visit to Pittsfield on April 28th, six days later.
   So why, 6 days after the review board decided there was a new, credible allegation, and decided to inform the bishop, did the bishop still not know? Laura Faila Reilly, the victim advocate who works with the board, says there's an explanation.
   She says the church secretary was on vacation for a day, and then it was the weekend and the bishop probably only got a letter about the matter the day before our interview, and apparently hadn't gotten to it. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:07 PM] (This is the first of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse , for Sat May 08, 2004.)

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INTENTION: A challenge to RELIGIONS to PROTECT CHILDREN
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   INCOMPLETE LINKS: Refer back to "References 61" for methods of obtaining the URLs. • Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach to join sex abuse settlement [Maloney, Whipple; > $US 900,000]
   Sun-Sentinel, www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-0508palmcatholic, 0,4467221.story? coll=sfla-home- headlines ; The Associated Press, May 8 2004
   WEST PALM BEACH (FL): The Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach will pay part of a settlement to a teenager who accused a now-retired priest of sexual misconduct.
   Lawyers would not disclose the amounts to be paid by the diocese or the other defendants - St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Port St. Lucie, another retired priest, the Rev. Donald Whipple, and his religious order, the Holy Cross Fathers.
   The teen sued in March 2003, alleging Rev. Francis Maloney was naked in front of him, asked sex-related questions during counseling sessions and showed him pornographic letters and pictures. He also said he found Maloney in bed with another man.
   "It would not be appropriate for us to comment," said diocese attorney C. Brooks Ricca.
   The five-county diocese, based in Palm Beach Gardens, has acknowledged paying more than $900,000 to settle seven previous abuse or harassment claims.
   Maloney's home insurance company agreed to pay $150,000 of the settlement. Exact terms of the settlement weren't release, but it is more than $150,000 and less than $1 million, according to lawyers and court documents.
• Mahoney deposition in O'Grady case stayed [1970s O'Grady, 94 cases]
   Lodi News-Sentinel, http://lodinews.com/articles/2004/05/08/news/06_mahony_040508.txt , By Ross Farrow, May 8 2004
   CALIFORNIA: Orange County attorney John Manly had hoped to conduct a deposition of Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese regarding allegations against former Lodi priest Oliver O'Grady on April 22.
   But due to a stay issued by a Los Angeles judge, Mahony's deposition won't be held until late June or the first half of July, said two attorneys involved in clergy abuse cases.
   Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles McCoy ordered a "coordination" of numerous clergy abuse cases in Northern California so that attorneys in 94 civil cases against Mahony won't ask the same questions over and over again. The cases have been assigned to Alameda County Superior Court.
   O'Grady, who was a priest at Lodi's St. Anne's Catholic Church from 1971 to 1978, allegedly sexually assaulted several children -- Manly calls it "child rape" -- while at St. Anne's and other churches in the Stockton Diocese. The diocese is named in eight pending civil lawsuits involving O'Grady.
   O'Grady was deported to his native Ireland shortly after he was paroled from state prison in late 2000. He served seven years at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione after pleading guilty in 1993 to four counts of sexual abuse with children under 14, according to Calaveras County court records.
• Toledo priest denies murdering nun in 1980 [Robinson]
   Cincinnati Enquirer, www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/05/08/loc_ohpriestslay08.html , By John Seewer, The Associated Press, May 8 2004
   TOLEDO (OH): A priest accused of the ritualistic slaying of a nun 24 years ago pleaded innocent Friday to an aggravated murder charge.
   The Rev. Gerald Robinson stood during the five-minute arraignment in Lucas County Common Pleas Court, resting his hands on a chair in front of him. He is charged with strangling and stabbing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl over Easter weekend in 1980.
   Robinson spoke just once, to confirm that he would give up his right to appear at the pretrial hearing, which Judge Patrick Foley set for May 24. His sister-in-law was among those attending the hearing.
   "He's holding up well, but I don't want to talk about anything personal," Robinson's attorney, Alan Konop, said after the hearing.
   Robinson was released from jail last week after supporters put together four pieces of property to post a $400,000 property bond to cover his $200,000 bail.
• Robinson pleads not guilty [1980 nun dead]
   Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040508/NEWS02/405080347/-1/NEWS , By MARK REITER, May 8 2004
   TOLEDO (OH): The Rev. Gerald Robinson yesterday made his first appearance in Lucas County Common Pleas Court to face a charge accusing him of choking to death and stabbing a nun 24 years ago at Mercy Hospital.
   John Thebes, an attorney for Father Robinson, entered a plea of not guilty to the sole count of aggravated murder.
   Judge Patrick Foley continued the case to May 24 for a pretrial hearing.
   If convicted, the semi-retired Roman Catholic priest could face life in prison with eligibility for parole after 20 years.
   Father Robinson, 66, is accused of the April 5, 1980, murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in a chapel at the hospital.
   The 71-year-old nun was strangled and then stabbed up to 32 times in what investigators have called a ceremonial killing.
   Father Robinson, dressed all in black except for a white clerical collar, stood with his defense team - Mr. Thebes, Alan Konop, and John Callahan - for the five-minute hearing.
   The defendant and his attorneys entered the courtroom from an area adjoining the courtroom that is only accessible by the judge's staff and attorneys.
• Council president shows proof of his U.S. citizenship [Verse, Weeks]
   Tri-Valley Herald, www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10671~2133443,00.html , By Heather MacDonald
   OAKLAND (CA): Firing back at his critics, Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente released documents to ANG Newspapers this week proving that he is a naturalized citizen.
   Questions about his immigration status have dogged De La Fuente, who was born in Mexico City in 1949, since he entered Oakland politics more than a decade ago.
   "I chose to do this on Cinco de Mayo on purpose, to honor those Mexicans who fought and died to bring liberty and justice to all," De La Fuente said, referring to the holiday celebrating Mexican troops' defeat of the French Army on May 5, 1862. ...
   However, Burns revived the issue several weeks ago after De La Fuente campaigned to shut down St. Patrick's Abbey in his Fruitvale district after the Rev. Donald Weeks offered Cary Verse, a sexually violent predator, a place to live after being released from prison. Neither the abbey nor Weeks is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.
   While De La Fuente worked to shut down the abbey because of numerous code violations, Weeks was charged with 24 counts of orally copulating with a minor. The charges were later dismissed by the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, citing lack of evidence.
   "I was furious that these charges were brought without better evidence," Burns said. "I was ripping mad at the disregard for Weeks' rights, and wanted to give Ignacio a taste of his own medicine."
   Burns said he refused to let the matter drop because he was "intrigued" by De La Fuente's refusal to answer the questions and put the issue to rest.
• Priest faces additional accusations [1980 Miller]
   Pantagraph, www.pantagraph.com/stories/050804/new_20040508025.shtml , By Associated Press, May 8 2004
   PEORIA (IL): New allegations of sexual abuse have been leveled against a monsignor on leave from his job as head of a Peoria parish and two parochial schools, the Catholic Diocese of Peoria said.
   Diocese officials said they could not yet say how many more have accused Monsignor Thomas Miller of sexual misconduct, or release details about times and places.
   The new allegations have been leveled since last week, when news organizations reported Miller was accused of abusing a boy nearly 25 years ago, diocese Vice Chancellor Patricia Gibson said.
   Miller was placed on administrative leave and agreed to refrain from public ministry during an investigation into the allegations.
   Bishop Daniel Jenky held a meeting of the more than 220 priests in the diocese on Thursday to update them on various diocesan issues and to encourage them, said Monsignor Steven Rohlfs, vicar general of the diocese.
   "He just wants to assure the priests of his prayers and his concerns," Rohlfs said. "He knows it's difficult when these things happen. When these things happen, it demoralizes them."
• Allegations against priests
   The Morning Call, www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b2_5satb20508may08,0,3875756.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed
   ALLENTOWN (PA): The Catholic Diocese of Allentown will argue in Lehigh County Court Wednesday against adding three cases to the list of those claiming sexual abuse by a priest. The diocese is seeking a motion to dismiss based on the statue of limitations. Six molestation cases were filed in Lehigh County Court and two other cases were filed in Schuylkill County.
• Head of watchdog board steps down
   Tri-Valley Herald, www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10671~2135828,00.html , By Associated Press
   CHICAGO (IL): The head of the National Review Board, a lay Roman Catholic body that monitors bishops' implementation of sexual abuse reforms, will soon leave that post.
   Anne Burke, an Illinois Appellate Court judge, is among four of the board's 12 members who will depart in June, said William Burleigh, board spokesman and chairman of E.W. Scripps Co.
   He said the others are Washington lawyer Robert Bennett, who led the major board report issued in February, former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta and Burleigh himself.
   Burleigh said such turnover was to be expected. Board members have served nearly two years, devoting many hours to their unpaid positions.
   However, there have been signs of tension between the board and America's bishops. For instance, Burke has been the board's acting chair since last June, when former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating quit and criticized some bishops for noncooperation.
• Donation spurs ethics complaint
   Telegram & Gazette, http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040508/NEWS/405080326/1008/NEWS02 , by Kathleen A. Shaw, T&G STAFF, kshaw@telegram.com , May 8 2004
   WORCESTER (MA): Mary T. Jean of the Worcester Voice said she has filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission against District Attorney John J. Conte after he gave a $500 contribution from campaign funds to the Bishop's Fund of the Diocese of Worcester.
   Mrs. Jean, a Leominster resident who advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse in the Worcester Diocese and operates a Web site at www.worcestervoice.com, based her complaint on two issues. She said Mr. Conte has failed to properly investigate the Diocese of Worcester and its handling of clergy abuse complaints, and she said he has a pattern of giving money to the Catholic church and Catholic organizations but not to other religious denominations.
   Both Mrs. Jean and Mr. Conte are Catholic.
   A check of Mr. Conte's campaign finance expenditure records, which are open to public inspection, showed that he made a $500 donation to the Bishop's Fund on April 14. He gave the same amount each of the past two years, since the clergy abuse scandal became an issue in the Worcester Diocese.
   The records showed that in the past six months, he also gave money to secular charitable organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club of Worcester, the American Red Cross, the United Way of Central Massachusetts and the Joe DiMaggio Little League.
   Mr. Conte took strong exception to Mrs. Jean's complaint and said he has been giving to the Bishop's Fund for more than 35 years.
   "The goals of this charity are consistent with the mission of the district attorney's office to improve the quality of life for all of our citizens," he said.
   "Catholic Charities or the Bishop's Fund is a nonprofit organization that serves many constituents, the poor, the handicapped, the elderly and a host of other people in our community. My donation is not to the bishop but to the people served by this charitable fund," the district attorney said.
   "The prosecution record of the district attorney's office as regards to clergy sex abuse is second to none," he said. "Our office has been in contact with over 113 victims, and each and every case where prosecution was possible, we have prosecuted or are prosecuting."
   Mr. Conte also operates a Web site, at www.worcesterda.com, where, he said, people can get a copy of his clergy abuse report. He also lists pending court cases involving Protestant and Catholic clergy and gives updates on the status of those cases.
   Mrs. Jean based her complaint on a section of Massachusetts law - Chapter 268A, Section 23(3) - that states an elected official should not act in a way so a reasonable person might believe favoritism is being shown in [the] conduct of the official's duties.
   "Donations from the campaign funds are disproportionately distributed towards the Catholic Church and/or its organizations," she said. "We can find no instance of where he donated campaign funds to any other religious group or denomination."
   Mrs. Jean said Central Massachusetts has sizable numbers of Protestants, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists.
   In her letter to the state Ethics Commission, Mrs. Jean said the district attorney made a deal with Bishop Daniel P. Reilly regarding release of diocesan records that resulted in keeping the records secret; did not investigate criminal activities at the House of Affirmation in Whitinsville; and failed to question Auxiliary Bishop George E. Rueger and Monsignor Edmond T. Tinsley under oath regarding activities at the House of Affirmation.
   Mrs. Jean received support from Bryan Smith of Hubbardston, local leader of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, who said Mr. Conte is showing favoritism by giving money to a church he is supposed to be investigating.
   "I think he's way too comfortable with the diocese," he said. "It's too cushy."
• Group: Remove Tracy priest [Booth]
   Record, www.recordnet.com/articlelink/050704/news/articles/050704-gn-3.php , By Alex Gronke and Kate Fowlie, Friday, May 7, 2004
   TRACY (CA): A national organization for victims of sexual abuse by priests asked the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin on Thursday to remove a part-time Tracy priest accused of molesting girls when he was a Catholic priest more than 30 years ago.
   The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAP, wrote a letter to Bishop John Schofield in Fresno after learning the Rev. James T. Booth was working as an Episcopal priest in Tracy.
   "Kids can really be at risk. That's why we sent that letter," said Mary Grant, the regional director for SNAP in Long Beach.
   Booth, 82, who lives in Stockton and works at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Tracy, denied abusing anyone. He said Thursday that the accusations are distressing.
   "I am upset," Booth said. "When you are accused of something, it is very upsetting."
   The semiretired priest is named in a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego on behalf of a woman identified as Patty M., alleging that Booth sexually molested her from 1969 to 1970 when he was a priest at Mission San Diego del Alcala. The Beverly Hills law firm of Kiesel, Boucher and Larson filed the suit in February 2003.
   A person answering the phone Thursday at the San Joaquin Episcopal Diocese's headquarters in Fresno, who did not want to give his name, said the diocese had no comment, because Schofield was in Israel.
   Booth said Thursday that he has not seen or been served with the lawsuit. He said he doesn't know what the specific charges are or even who Patty M. is, though he assumed she must have been in high school in 1970.
   "I don't know what she is saying," Booth said Thursday at his modest home on a quiet north Stockton street.
• N.Y. priest convicted in Billerica boy's rape 20 years ago [1984 Ferraro]
   Lowell Sun, www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1413,105~4746~2135309,00.html , By PETER WARD, Sun Staff
   CAMBRIDGE (MA): Moments before the jury declared suspended priest Romano Ferraro guilty of raping a Billerica boy some 20 years ago, the judge asked the victim's relatives to refrain from showing emotion.
   They complied, though they dabbed their eyes and clasped hands.
   But after Ferraro was led out the courtroom to a Cambridge Jail cell, the six family members gathered in the hall where they hugged each other and wept tears of joy.
   Wearing thick-framed glasses and a light blue jacket, Ferraro showed no emotion and said nothing as six female and six male jurors announced Ferraro guilty of child rape and guilty on three counts of indecent assault and battery against a child under 14.
   They deliberated for four hours Thursday and 90 minutes yesterday.
   Judge Raymond Brassard denied the defense's request to waive bail until May 20, when he returns for sentencing. Ferraro could receive a maximum life sentence, officials have said.
• Jurors Deliberate Former Pastor's Sexual Assault Trial [1998 Tucker, Abundant Life Church, adult victim]
   Click 2 Houston, www.click2houston.com/news/3280030/detail.html , May 7, 2004
   HOUSTON (TX): Jurors began deliberations Friday afternoon in the sexual assault trial of a former pastor.
   Jim Tucker, 53, the former pastor of Abundant Life Church of North Houston, 713 E. Airtex, is accused of sexually assaulting the church's secretary in 1998. However, he was not officially charged with the assault until 2002.
   Friday morning, prosecutors urged jurors to find Tucker guilty. He was called a master manipulator who exploited the alleged victim's emotional dependency for sex.
   Prosecutor Paul Doyle said, "He puts on gold-rim glasses, his hair slicked back Jimmy Swaggart style. In order to manipulate you, you have to trust him, but you can't. He's nothing but a liar."
   Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin told jurors that Tucker and his alleged victim had a consensual relationship that was not criminal.
   He said, "You don't have to like Jim Tucker, but you don't have to convict him because the state has made him look like the devil."
   Prosecutor Kelly Siegler argued the case is about power and control, not sex. She quoted versus in the Bible for her closing statements.
   "The Bible talks about the shepherd leading the flock. Jim Tucker is not just the wolf attacking the sheep, he's attacking the lamb," she said.
• Pastor avoids jury decision, strikes deal [Tucker]
   KHOU, www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou040507_mh_pastor.19c404e20.html , From 11 News Staff Reports, 10:32 PM CDT on Friday, May 7, 2004
   HOUSTON (TX): Instead of facing a jury verdict and up to 20 years in prison if convicted, the trial of the former pastor of Abundant Life Church abruptly ended Friday night when prosecutors and the defense struck a deal.
   Jim Tucker pleaded no contest to a charge of illegal restraint in exchange for five years deferred adjudication, meaning if he stays out of trouble his record will be cleared. He also must do community service and pay a $500 fine.
   Tucker was accused of sexually assaulting a church member who went to him for marriage counseling a charge that's now been dropped. Jurors deliberated for more than seven hours when they went home Friday without a decision.
   James Tucker admitted he had sex with the woman but swore, under oath, that it was consensual.
• Former pastor's sexual assault trial suddenly ended with plea deal [1998 Tucker, Abundant Life, adult victim]
   ABC13 Eyewitness News, http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/050704_local_pastorjury.html , 5/07/04
A Friday evening plea deal sends the jury home after days of testimony.
   HOUSTON (TX): Jim Tucker was the pastor at the Abundant Life Church on Airtex. He's accused of sexually assaulting a female church member while he was counseling her for marital problems.
   Jurors heard closing arguments Friday in that sexual assault trial. Prosecutors called Tucker a rapist who was like a buzzard circling for prey, while the defense told the jury Tucker and his accuser had an affair.
   Friday evening, after the jury had already begun their deliberations, a plea agreement was struck. Tucker pled no contest to unlawful restraint and received five years deferred adjudication.
• Ex-pastor receives probation [1998 Tucker, Abundant Life Church, adult victim]
   Houston Chronicle, www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2557689 , By DALE LEZON and RHEA DAVIS
   HOUSTON (TX): A former pastor accused of sexually assaulting a female member of his church pleaded no contest to unlawful restraint Friday night and received five years' probation.
   James Tucker also was ordered to perform 160 hours of community service and pay a $500 fine.
   The plea agreement came after the jury was excused for the weekend. They had deliberated for about six hours Friday.
   Tucker, 53, was accused of assaulting a woman, 33, who sought marital counseling in 1998. He claimed the sex was consensual.
   "We arrived at a compromise," said Tucker's attorney Dick DeGuerin. "Jim Tucker is not a sexual offender. He was not convicted of being a sexual offender."
   A small group of supporters cheered as Tucker left the courtroom. "We're just glad this long nightmare is over," he said.
   Tucker's wife, Traci, embraced him as they left the courtroom.
• Seduced their children, Church votes to invite minister back [2002 Brown]
   Ledger-Enquirer, "Religion in the News," www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/8613188.htm , By JENNY BURNS, Associated Press
   SHARON, S.C. - Faced with a shattering scandal - the conviction of their pastor on sexual assault charges - the congregation at St. John Baptist had a difficult choice: Throw out the Rev. John T. Brown or allow him to return after he finishes serving a four-year prison sentence.
   The church voted recently to let Brown return, a move that some see as faithful to Jesus' message of forgiveness and redemption but which angered 10 of the roughly 100 congregants enough that they left.
   "We're just trying to be the church that God has come back looking for," said Debra Wade, who's been a member of St. John for 33 years. "He says, 'Don't judge and forgive others so that you won't be judged harshly.' "
   Brown pleaded guilty Feb. 10 to criminal sexual conduct with a minor and committing a lewd act on a minor.
   According to police, a 16-year-old girl said Brown sexually assaulted her in her home in 2002 while her mother was away. Also in 2002, a 13-year-old girl said Brown sexually touched her while in his home and in his car. The minister was arrested shortly after the girls told authorities about the abuse.
• Judge to oversee priest sex-abuse pretrial proceedings
   San Francisco Chronicle , www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/07/BAGOA6H88S1.DTL , by Bob Egelko, Friday, May 7, 2004
   CALIFORNIA: Pretrial proceedings in dozens of lawsuits against Roman Catholic dioceses in Northern California alleging molestation by priests will be heard by a judge in Alameda County, Chief Justice Ronald George announced Thursday.
   The order affects between 56 and 94 suits against the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the dioceses of Monterey, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Rosa and Stockton. The suits were filed last year, when a state law temporarily suspended the legal deadline for suing churches for sexual abuse by clergy.
   A judge in Los Angeles ruled last month that the Northern California cases should be assigned to a single judge, who would rule on pretrial legal issues and each side's access to the other's witnesses and evidence. Each case would then be returned to its county of origin for trial.
   The procedure, known as coordination, is being used in Los Angeles in about 400 Southern California cases. Church lawyers say coordination guarantees consistent rulings on issues that are common to all the cases, such as privacy, separation of church and state, and employers' responsibility to supervise employees.
• Attorneys: Diocese cases growing
   Kentucky Post, www.kypost.com/2004/05/07/abuse050704.html , By Paul A. Long, May 7 2004
   KENTUCKY: Attorneys suing the Roman Catholic Diocese in Covington say that despite a judge's order allowing seven additional people to opt out of the class-action lawsuit, their number of clients continues to grow.
   Robert Steinberg, a partner with Stan Chesley, said attorneys also have identified at least 62 priests and other diocesan employees who have had allegations of sexual abuse made against them.
   He said the number of accusers has gone past the 110 people named during a recent hearing. Although he had wanted the seven to remain in the lawsuit, he said, he accepts Special Judge John Potter's ruling.
   "Actually, we're pretty happy with the ruling, because it establishes the class and prohibits further-opt outs," he said.
   Earlier this week, Potter ruled that the seven people -- who Steinberg argued had sought to opt out of the case past a Jan. 31 deadline -- would be allowed to leave. Although Potter ruled that "the case law is clear -- a deadline is a deadline," he noted that Steinberg himself had said several times that the deadline was not "cast in stone."
• More step forward with allegations of misconduct
   Journal Star, www.pjstar.com/news/topnews/b2ur4vms049.html , By MICHAEL MILLER, May 7, 2004
   PEORIA (IL): More people have accused Monsignor Thomas Miller of sexual misconduct, Catholic Diocese of Peoria officials said Thursday.
   Vice Chancellor Patricia Gibson said the diocese could not yet say how many more have accused Miller or release details about times and places. She said the others came forward after the initial accusation was made known in the news media last week.
   Bishop Daniel Jenky held a meeting of the more than 220 priests in the diocese on Thursday at King's House Retreat Center near Henry to update them on various diocesan issues and to encourage them, said Monsignor Steven Rohlfs, vicar general of the diocese.
   "He just wants to assure the priests of his prayers and his concerns," Rohlfs said. "He knows it's difficult when these things happen. (He wants) to comfort the priests. When these things happen, it demoralizes them."
   Also, Rohlfs said, Jenky "wants to clarify any questions that they might have on the process."
• Former Springfield priest faces abuse allegations [1960s Russell]
   KRQE, www.krqe.com/crime/expanded.asp?RECORD_KEY%5BCrime%5D=ID&ID%5BCrime%5D=5171
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts is investigating a sexual misconduct allegation against a former priest dating to the late 1960s. The Reverend John R. Russell is now retired in living in Albuquerque.
   The diocese recently received a complaint that Russell was involved in some sort of sexual misconduct with a minor while assigned to Holy Cross Parish between 1966 and 1970.
   Russell -- who is now 62 -- left the Catholic church in early 1970s to join the Episcopal priesthood. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
   Information about the case has been forwarded to the district attorney and the Episcopal Diocese of Rio Grande in New Mexico.
   The Episcopal church in New Mexico said it received notice about the allegation against Russell on May 3 and will cooperate fully with any church or civil investigations.
• Not guilty plea in nun's slaying [1980 Robinson]
   CNN, www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/05/07/crime.priest.reut , Friday, May 7, 2004 Posted: 2:10 PM EDT (1810 GMT)
   TOLEDO (OH) (Reuters) -- A Roman Catholic priest in Ohio pleaded not guilty Friday to murdering an elderly nun 24 years ago in what police investigators have said may have been a ritualistic slaying.
   The Rev. Gerald Robinson, 66, stood quietly as his attorney entered a not guilty plea to the charge of aggravated murder in Lucas County Common Pleas Court in Toledo, Ohio, said Alan Konop, his lawyer.
   Robinson is charged in the murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, who was killed during Easter weekend 1980 in the chapel of a hospital where she and Robinson worked.
   Sister Margaret was strangled, then covered with an altar cloth and stabbed several times along the neck and torso, the Toledo Blade reported citing unnamed sources.
   Few details of the investigation that led to Robinson's arrest last month have been released.
   The Blade has reported that police re-opened the case after a woman now in her 40s told a church panel investigating sexual abuse by priests that Robinson had been involved in satanic rituals.
• Peoria Diocese Official Accused of More Sex Abuse [1980 Miller]
   WBBM, www.wbbm780.com/asp/ViewMoreDetails.asp?ID=38811 , 11:15 a.m., Friday, May 07, 2004,
   PEORIA, Ill. (AP) - More allegations of sexual misconduct have been made against an official of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria who previously was accused of abusing a boy nearly 25 years ago.
   Diocese officials say they could not yet say how many more have accused Monsignor Thomas Miller of sexual misconduct, or release details about times and places. However, diocese Vice Chancellor Patricia Bigson said the latest accusers came forward after news organizations reported the initial accusation.
   Miller, who heads a Peoria parish and two parochial schools, was placed on administrative leave and agreed to refrain from public ministry during an investigation into the allegations.
   Bishop Daniel Jenky held a meeting of the more than 220 priests in the diocese on Thursday to update them on various diocesan issues and to encourage them, said Monsignor Steven Rohlfs, vicar general of the diocese.
   "He just wants to assure the priests of his prayers and his concerns," Rohlfs said. "He knows it's difficult when these things happen. When these things happen, it demoralizes them."
   A man who is now 36 years old reportedly told diocesan officials on April 23 that an incident allegedly involving sexual misconduct with Miller occurred nearly 25 years ago in Bloomington. Miller was an assistant at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Bloomington then.
   Diocesan officials said it was coincidence that the man came forward shortly before it was to be announced that Miller would be transferred back to Holy Trinity.
• Tony Winners Dennehy and Plummer Are Catholic Priests in Showtime Sex Scandal Film "Our Fathers"
   Playbill, www.playbill.com/news/article/86057.html , By Ernio Hernandez, May 07 2004
   HOLLYWOOD (CA): Tony Award winners Brian Dennehy and Christopher Plummer are set to star a Showtime Networks' film adaptation of "Our Fathers," based on the David France book, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
   The drama that deals with the history of accusations of sexual abuse by priests that came to light in 2002, plaguing the Catholic Church. Dan Curtis is set to direct the film, with a screenplay penned by Thomas Michael Donnelly, slated to begin filming in June.
   "The film will depict the interwoven cross-section of priests, victims, lawyers and newspaper reporters who have been caught up in this story since it first broke two years ago," states a Showtime release.
   The trade paper said that Dennehy will play Boston priest Father Domenic Spagnolia, a well-known straight shooter who criticizes the archdiocese then finds himself wrapped up in turmoil when an ex-lover outs him. Plummer was previously announced as the controversial Boston Cardinal Law who was at the center of the scandal.
   Dennehy won a 2003 Tony Award for his performance in Long Day's Journey Into Night. His other Broadway appearances include Translations and another Tony-winning turn in Death of a Salesman. He also recently played the title role in Trumbo Off-Broadway.
• Further Allegations [Miller]
   Week, http://week.com/morenews/morenews-read.asp?id=4324 , Posted 12:47pm May 7, 2004
   PEORIA (IL) (AP): More allegations of sexual misconduct have been made against an official of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria, who previously was accused of abusing a boy nearly 25 years ago.
   Diocese officials say they couldn't yet say how many more people have accused Monsignor Thomas Miller of sexual misconduct or release any details. However, diocese Vice Chancellor Patricia Gibson says the latest accusers came forward after news reports on the initial accusation.
   Miller heads a Peoria parish and two parochial schools. He was placed on administrative leave last month and agreed to refrain from public ministry during an investigation into the allegations.
• Separate funds aid victims, ousted clergy
   The Dallas Morning News, www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/0508dnrellazarus.73138.html , By SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH, 06:17 PM CDT Friday, May 7, 2004
   TEXAS: Catholic priests in Dallas are raising money to help sexual abuse victims. In Amarillo, a retired bishop is soliciting funds for predatory priests removed from ministry.
   The Dallas priests are donating money to pay the counseling expenses of anyone sexually abused by a church official or employee. The newly created Lazarus Fund, named for the New Testament figure whom Jesus raised from the dead, collected nearly $2,000 in its first month.
   The Rev. Robert Williams, pastor of Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Garland, initiated the fund. He asked priests to donate $100 monthly, or whatever they could, on a continuing basis.
   "This is coming out of our own pockets, not any parish funds," he said. "It's showing that we're not just rallying around each other, but we're concerned about the victims."
   The donations by priests, which are anonymous, go directly to the diocese.
   "I don't know who's contributing," Father Williams said. "The diocese is going to let us know how many people receive services. The money goes to the counseling, not the individual victims."
   Father Williams was a whistleblower in the scandals involving Rudy Kos, a former priest now in prison for molesting altar boys in three parishes. Father Williams - who initially said he did not want his name used in this story - said the priests weren't seeking publicity for their fund.
• Priest convicted of raping boy in 1970s [1970s Ferraro]
   Newsday, www.nynewsday.com/news/local/crime/nyc-priest0508,0,2192650.story?coll=nyc-homepage-headlines ; BY STEPHANIE SAUL, 7:49 PM EDT, May 7, 2004
   NEW YORK: A Roman Catholic priest who once served in Queens and Brooklyn was convicted Friday of sexually abusing a young Massachusetts boy decades ago.
   The Rev. Romano Ferraro, 70, admitted during his trial that he was a pedophile who left a trail of pre-pubescent victims. But he swore he never molested the child in the criminal case, the son of a boyhood friend from Brooklyn.
   The jury in Cambridge believed the charges, however, finding Ferraro guilty of one count of rape and three counts of indecent assault and battery.
   Ferraro's victim, now 37 and a New Hampshire resident, testified that, as a child, he dreaded Ferraro's annual visits in the 1970s to the boy's home in Massachusetts. That was when the sexual abuse occurred, beginning when the boy was 7 and continuing until he was 13.
   The Diocese of Brooklyn ordained Ferraro in 1960 but has barred him from active ministry since the late 1980s. His suspension followed an unrelated sexual-abuse allegation. At the time of his arrest in 2002, he was living at Parsons Manor, a Jamaica residence for priests.
   "These are always painful stories for everyone involved," said diocesan spokesman Frank DeRosa, reacting to Friday's jury verdict. "We cooperated fully with the investigation. We accept the decision and respect the work of the jury. And, of course, we're concerned for the victim."
• Priest sued here is found guilty in Massachusetts [1970s, 1984 Ferraro]
   St. Louis Post-Dispatch, www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/St.+Louis+City+%2F+County/1E504FB25C716A8F86256E8E000FC1EF?OpenDocument&Headline=Priest+sued+here+is+found+guilty+in+Massachusetts ; By Tim O'Neil, 05/07/2004
   ST. LOUIS (MO): A suspended Catholic priest who has been accused of molesting a boy in St. Louis 20 years ago was convicted Friday in Cambridge, Mass., of sexual assault upon a boy in Massachusetts.
   A jury in Middlesex County Superior Court found the Rev. Romano Ferraro, 70, of New York, guilty of rape of a child and indecent assault upon a child. Ferraro had abused a boy during the 1970s at the victim's home in Billerica, northwest of Boston.
   Sentencing was set for May 20.
   In January, a man who is in his 30s filed suit in St. Louis Circuit Court, alleging that Ferraro sexually abused him in the early 1980s. The man, identified only as John Doe, said he was an altar boy at St. Joan of Arc parish in St. Louis when the offenses occurred.
   The man's lawyer said the case here is pending. In January, a spokesman for the St. Louis Archdiocese said Ferraro served during the early 1980s as a chaplain at the former Jewish Hospital of St. Louis and lived in the rectory at St. Joan of Arc.
• Diocese to join in settling youth case [Maloney, Whipple; $US 900,000 spent]
   Palm Beach Post, www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_04c9e4a2371d52140085.html ; By Mary McLachlin, Saturday, May 8, 2004
   WEST PALM BEACH (FL): The Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach has agreed to join in the settlement of a lawsuit filed by a Port St. Lucie youth alleging sexual misconduct by the Rev. Francis Maloney, a retired priest.
   The total settlement is more than $150,000 -- which Maloney's home insurance company agreed to pay -- and less than $1 million, according to attorneys and court documents.
   Lawyers would not disclose the amounts to be paid by the other defendants -- the diocese, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Port St. Lucie and another retired priest, the Rev. Donald Whipple, and his religious order, the Holy Cross Fathers.
   Maloney, 73, acknowledged having a long-term, "sporadic" sexual relationship with Whipple, who wrote sexually explicit letters suggesting ways to seduce the then-17-year-old high school student while he worked as a houseboy for Maloney.
   "It would not be appropriate for us to comment," said diocese attorney C. Brooks Ricca. The five-county diocese, based in Palm Beach Gardens, has acknowledged paying more than $900,000 to settle seven previous abuse or harassment claims in its 20-year history. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 01:07 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sat May 08, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont80.htm
• Sex abuser Fr Shanley and rapist Paquin are defrocked.
   The West Australian, "Sex abuse priest is defrocked," Los Angeles Times, p 30, Saturday, May 8, 2004
   BOSTON (Mass.): One of the most notorious figures in the Boston clerical sex-abuse scandal has been removed from the priesthood.
   The Catholic Archdiocese announced on Thursday that Paul Shanley had been stripped of his job as a priest and had lost his life-long benefits.
   The rare process of laicisation -- commonly known as defrocking -- is among the most extreme punishments the Vatican can invoke.
   "This letter serves as a formal communication of your dismissal from the clerical state by the Holy Father," wrote Boston Archbishop Sean Patrick O'Malley.
   The letter also informed Ronald Paquin, who is in prison for raping a 12-year-old boy, that he was no longer a priest.
   Mr Shanley, 73, was a popular motorcycle-riding "street priest" in Boston in the 1960s and 70s, known for his work with gay and troubled youth.
   He will stand trial in Boson on 10 counts of child rape and related criminal charges. He has entered a plea of not guilty. [May 8, 04]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Sun May 09, 2004 edition follows:-
• Accused priest to return [Carroll]
   Newsday, www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lipriest0509,0,5048844.story?coll=ny-top-headlines ; BY RITA CIOLLI
   LONG ISLAND (NY): After a diocesan tribunal and Catholic Church officials in Rome found insufficient evidence that the Rev. Michael Carroll had sexually abused minors, Bishop William Murphy is returning him to ministry. Carroll is the first local priest to get his collar back since the clerical sexual abuse scandal broke on Long Island two years ago.
   Carroll, 48, will be living at St. Christopher Church in Baldwin where he had previously resided, according to a brief announcement that recently appeared in the parish bulletin. He is assigned to Villa St. Joseph, a convent on the grounds of Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, where he says Mass for the sisters there.
   However, he will not be returning to the hospital where he was a chaplain before his suspension in the spring of 2002, said the Rev. James Vlaun, a spokesman for the diocese. Vlaun described Carroll's gradual return as a pastoral decision Murphy made "so that the priest can, once again, adjust to his life" and the diocese can "adjust to this priest ministering again."
   Carroll was allowed to get his clerical collar back earlier this year after a local review board, appointed by Murphy in the wake of the scandal, reviewed the allegations against him last year. The leader of the Diocese of Rockville Centre addressed the issue in a February "Letter to the Faithful," when he wrote: "The Review Board declared one priest to have insufficient evidence against him. I submitted his case to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which exonerated him after a review of the evidence and he has been returned to ministry."
   Vlaun said Carroll is the priest cited by Murphy in that letter mailed to all 414,000 Catholic households in Nassau and Suffolk.
   Carroll's case is cited in last year's Suffolk County grand jury report, which detailed individual abuse cases as well as the diocese's treatment of victims and problem priests. In four pages, the report describes Priest P -- who sources say is Carroll -- as someone who had left several parishes suddenly and had complaints against him of "inappropriate sexual conduct" with a teenage boy as well as young men over age 18. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 08:02 PM]
• Vicar jailed after indecent assaults [1997-2002, Goodman, Evangelical Church]
   Local London, www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/topstories/display.var.487635.0.vicar_jailed_after_indecent_assaults.php ; By Local London Reporter
   BRITAIN: A vicar has been jailed today after being found guilty of indecent assault and trying to pervert the course of justice.
   Pastor Douglas Goodman was sentenced to three and a half years at the Old Bailey for assaults between Feb 1997 and March 2002 against women at various locations including his office, car, hotels, a cinema and a flat.
   Camden Police initially received five separate allegations of indecent assault in April 2002.
   An investigation was launched which uncovered further allegations against Goodman.
   Goodman was arrested in June 2002 and charged with 1 count of rape and indecent assault against a 28-yr-old woman and further 10 counts of indecent assault against three other women in their late teens.
   He was also charged with perverting the course of justice after he attempted to get one of the women to withdraw her allegation by threatening her through a third party.
   Detective Sergeant Neil Williamson from Camden Community Safety Unit, who lead the investigation, said Pastor Goodman used his position at the Evangelical church in Kilburn to his own ends.
   "It has taken a great deal of courage for the victims to come forward and give evidence.
• Supporters of outspoken Ramstein priest question reasons for removal [Whistleblower and victims' backer]
   Stars and Stripes, www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=22094 , By Marni McEntee, European edition, Sunday, May 9, 2004
   KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany - Air Force Maj. Thomas Doyle's departure from Ramstein Air Base to a new assignment last August was a great loss to those he counseled in Germany, supporters said.
   But his dismissal a month later as a Catholic chaplain also took a member of a critically undermanned career field out of service.
   "He's a great, great chaplain. It's a tragic loss," Ramstein's 435th Air Base Wing Chaplain (Col.) Lee Thompson said Wednesday. "I tried to support him but unfortunately I was not successful."
   In September, Doyle, 59, was dismissed as a Catholic chaplain by his archbishop after a dispute over pastoral matters. A military chaplain since 1986, Doyle was less than a year from retiring. He had just moved to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.
   The Dominican priest was renowned around the world, though, for his work as an advocate for victims of clergy sexual abuse.
   Initial news reports of Doyle's dismissal focused on an Aug. 16 memo Doyle wrote to Thompson and another wing chaplain interpreting the basic expectations of the Archdiocese for the Military Services for the pastoral care of Catholics in the armed forces.
   Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, leader of the military archdiocese, took exception to parts of the memo.
   Because of Doyle's dismissal of his expectations, the archbishop wrote in a Sept. 17 letter to Doyle, "... I no longer have confidence in your ability to serve as a priest chaplain ... ." The dismissal was effective immediately, the letter said.
• Diocese under attack at conference
   Albany Times Union, www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=246408&category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=&newsdate=5/9/2004 ; By BRIAN NEARING, Sunday, May 9, 2004
   ALBANY (NY): Christine Oakes heard for herself Saturday from the man she said her church deacon has called "the evil one."
   She was so impressed by attorney John Aretakis and his fight against clergy sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany that she immediately paid $6 for a cassette tape of his Saturday talk at the Elks Lodge to share with friends.
   Oakes, a 51-year-old Catholic with strong views against abortion, was one of the 250 people who attended a daylong conference in Latham sponsored by the Coalition of Concerned Catholics of the Albany Diocese.
   The group, which last year demanded Bishop Howard Hubbard's resignation and says the diocese under his leadership has become too liberal in teaching human sexuality, also hosted two Midwestern activists who are working to force out Hubbard.
   "I'm not a member of the coalition," said Oakes, a Scotia resident who attends the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Glenville. "I just came to this for information. Have my eyes been opened. What you are seeing here today is the purification of the Catholic Church."
   Also speaking were two men who have worked with Aretakis -- Stephen Brady of Illinois, president of Roman Catholic Faithful, and Paul Likoudis of The Wanderer, a conservative Catholic newspaper based in Minnesota.
• Rally held against Bishop Hubbard
   Capital News 9, www.capitalnews9.com/content/your_news/capital_region/default.asp?ArID=73420 , By Chris Hamilton, Updated 9:04 PM: 5/8/2004
   ALBANY (NY): "You gotta point out the problems and the contradictions with this. And then and only then something will be done," Stephen Brady, President of the Roman Catholic Faithful said.
   Brady traveled to the Capital Region from Illinois to talk to some area Catholics about how to accomplish getting rid of Bishop Howard Hubbard.
   "We owe it to Father Minkler, that his death not be in vain. So we're going to dedicate a majority of our resources until the job's done -- until Hubbard's gone," Brady said.
   Brady was joined by Paul Likoudis, the Editor of the Minnesota Catholic newspaper The Wanderer. Likoudis also believes the Bishop should resign, or be forced out by the Vatican.
   "If Bishop Hubbard would realize that he has no credibility, then he would voluntarily submit his resignation to the Holy Father," Likoudis said.
   The two men were joined by attorney John Aretakis, who talked about the history of the alleged sexual abuse in the Albany Catholic Diocese, and the attempts to cover it up.
• Diocese investigating sex abuse claim [Miller]
   Journal Star, www.pjstar.com/news/topnews/b2v10pdp040.html , By MICHAEL MILLER, May 9, 2004
   PEORIA (IL): Five minutes after a 36-year-old man had called on April 23 with sexual-misconduct allegations against a popular Peoria priest, victims assistance coordinator Ann Slaughter was calling him back.
   Slaughter took down the information and called Monsignor Steven Rohlfs, vicar general of the diocese. Rohlfs then contacted Bishop Daniel Jenky, who was in Danville that day attending to confirmations and school activities.
   "He ordered the policy to be put into action," Rohlfs said.
   The "policy" is the Diocese of Peoria's "Policies and Procedures Relating to Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests or Deacons or by Lay Employees or Volunteers."
   And the accusations brought against Monsignor Thomas Miller of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Parish in Peoria were the first in the Diocese of Peoria since the policy was finalized in 2002.
• Ex-Altar Boy Sues Archdiocese, Alleges Abuse [1978-79 Cinesi]
   Tampa Tribune, http://news.tbo.com/news/MGAO5XXM0UD.html , The Associated Press, May 9, 2004
   MIAMI (FL): A former altar boy has sued the Archdiocese of Miami, saying he was repeatedly raped by a priest at a Catholic school 25 years ago. The victim, who was not identified, attempted suicide twice because of the abuse at Immaculate Conception School, according to the civil lawsuit filed Thursday.
   The lawsuit accuses the Rev. Joseph Cinesi of sexually assaulting him when he was 10, during the 1978-79 school year.
   Cinesi, 54, of Coconut Creek, previously denied having sexual contact with anyone while he was a priest.
   He left his parish in August 1999, saying he wanted to fight the false allegations against him.
   Five lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by Cinesi have been settled out of court, according to attorneys involved.
   Archdiocese spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta expressed sympathy for the former altar boy and said Thursday that Cinesi was placed on a leave of absence in December 1999 because of earlier accusations. He is still a priest.
   The lawsuit accuses Cinesi of putting his hand over the boy's mouth and assaulting him in a bathroom.
• Aretakis addresses Concerned Catholics
   Troy Record, www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11616479&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept_id=7021&rfi=6 , By Shawn Charniga , 05/09/2004
   COLONIE (NY): Before an audience of nearly 150 attending the 14th regional Education Forum of the Coaliton of Concerned Catholics in the Albany Diocese Saturday, attorney John Aretakis, outlined his efforts to bring to justice those in the Roman Catholic Church who he said have wronged parishioners.
   Aretakis is representing several clients who claim they were sexually abused by priests.
   He implied that he has possession of secret documents naming pedophilic priests and said a lawsuit based on federal racketeering charges was in the works.
   Aretakis was among several speakers appearing during the day-long event at the Colonie Elks Lodge, most of whom addressed the damage done by priests who have allegedly molested members of their congregation, including children.
   During the conference, signs calling for Hubbard's resignation and expressing woe for the situation were omnipresent. Members of the audience exchanged glances as Aretakis recalled his battles with the diocese.
   The attorney spoke at length about his years-long battle against the diocese before taking questions from those assembled. Standing at a podium marked "Fidelity" in the hall's meeting room, Aretakis urged the concerned Catholics present to continue their efforts to put public pressure on the church.
   These efforts included the dissemination of information about area priests, including the allegedly homosexual priest of a Rensselaer County parish who was installed to further Hubbard's efforts to turn the diocese presbyterate into a "gay fraternity." The Jan. 21 letter, signed only as "A Disgusted Catholic," contains 15 bulleted points attacking Hubbard and the priest, whose identity is being withheld by The Record.
• Diocese of Palm Beach to pay part of sex-abuse settlement [Maloney, Whipple]
   TCPalm.com ; www.tcpalm.com/tcp/local_news/article/0,1651,TCP_16736_2871837,00.html , The Associated Press, May 9, 2004
   WEST PALM BEACH (FL): The Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach will pay part of a settlement to a teenager who accused a now-retired priest of sexual misconduct.
   Lawyers would not disclose the amounts to be paid by the diocese or the other defendants - St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Port St. Lucie, another retired priest, the Rev. Donald Whipple, and his religious order, the Holy Cross Fathers.
   The teen sued in March 2003, alleging the Rev. Francis Maloney was naked in front of him, asked sex-related questions during counseling sessions and showed him pornographic letters and pictures. He also said he found Maloney in bed with another man.
   "It would not be appropriate for us to comment," said diocese attorney C. Brooks Ricca.
   The five-county diocese, based in Palm Beach Gardens, has acknowledged paying more than $900,000 to settle seven previous abuse or harassment claims.
   Maloney's home insurance company agreed to pay $150,000 of the settlement. Exact terms of the settlement weren't release, but it is more than $150,000 and less than $1 million, according to lawyers and court documents.
• Media glare intense for decades-old murder case [1980]
   Toledo Blade, www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040509/NEWS03/405090366/-1/NEWS , By ROBIN ERB, May 9 2004
TOLEDO (OH): The television crews have broken camp and the siege of phone calls to Lucas County and Toledo investigators has subsided.
   But it's clear that the national spotlight - focused here after April 23 when a local priest was arrested for the 24-year-old murder of a nun - has shifted only temporarily. Toledo-area residents linked to the case say they continue to field calls from representatives of national media outlets, ranging from prime-time news shows such as Dateline and 48 Hours to People and even Playboy magazines.
   There has been talk of movie and book deals. "Speaking in terms of the nonfiction genre they called true crime, [the case] involves the church, there's a murder, and there's this intimation of satanic worship," said Barret Neville, a New York-based author and publisher who is interested in publishing a book on the case.
   "It's consistent of what you hear about in these movies of the week," Mr. Neville said.
• Slain priest in Riney murder case had affair with red-haired woman
   Irish Independent, "Slain priest in Riney murder case had affair," www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1178256&issue_id=10847 , By JIM CUSACK
   IRELAND: Senior Catholic clergy approached the gardai investigating the disappearances of Imelda Riney, her four-year-old son, Liam, and Fr Joe Walsh in east Clare 10 years ago this week in the mistaken belief that the priest and the single mother had eloped together, it has emerged.
   The clergy's belief was based on information that the young priest was conducting an affair with a "red-haired" woman.
   It has been learned that Fr Walsh was indeed having an affair with a red-haired woman, but that it was not Imelda Riney, who also happened to have red hair. The woman whom Fr Walsh was seeing was later identified by gardai and she confirmed the affair.
   It has emerged that in the early stages of the investigation, gardai were approached by the Bishop of Clonfert, Dr John Kirby.
   It is believed Bishop Kirby was genuinely concerned that the priest and the missing mother and child had left east Clare of their own volition.
   However, within a week of the disappearances, their bodies were discovered hidden in Clegg Forest, outside Whitegate. Imelda Riney had been raped before being murdered.
   Last Thursday, the bishop declined to say what contact he had with gardai and said that the families of the victims had already suffered enough anguish. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:11 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Sun May 09, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont80.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Mon May 10, 2004 edition follows:-
• Abuse victims welcome apology by nuns
   One in Four, http://oneinfour.org/news/news2004/abusapolo , ? May 6 2004
   IRELAND: Representatives of people abused as children in institutions run by religious orders have reacted positively to a statement by the Sisters of Mercy yesterday. Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent reports in The Irish Times
   Sisters Breege O'Neill, Mary Reynolds, and Mary Conway, of the congregation's leadership team, accepted "unreservedly" that many who had spent their childhood in their institutions had been "hurt and damaged while in our care".
   They said that "we believe that you suffered physical and emotional trauma.
   "We have in the past publicly apologised to you. We know that you heard our apology then as conditional and less than complete.
   "Now, without reservation, we apologise unconditionally to each and every one of you for the suffering we have caused."
   Ms Christine Buckley, whose experiences at Dublin's Goldenbridge orphanage, run by Mercy nuns, featured in RTÉ's 1996 programme Dear Daughter, said last night the Sisters of Mercy "should be congratulated" on the apology and for accepting they had caused suffering to former residents.
   "Most importantly, they have believed us," she said. The response at the Aislinn victims' centre in Dublin yesterday had been "phenomenal", "very, very positive," she said, while the reaction from people phoning her home had been "fantastic". [...]
   Sisters of Mercy Congregation, Central Leadership Team, can be contacted in any of the following ways:
Free phone number 1800 321 123 from May 9th to June 9th - Mon/Tues/Wed from 5-8 p.m.
Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, 13/14 Moyle Park, Clondalkin, Dublin 22.
E-mail: mercy@csm.ie [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 10:13 PM]
• Hunger striker seeks justice from abuse received in two homes [1950s - 60s]
   One in Four, "From The Irish Examiner (Opinion)," http://oneinfour.org/news/news2004/endprotest
   IRELAND: It is shameful that a man who was put in care by the State and suffered abuse in two institutions in the 1950s and '60s should have to resort to a hunger strike of more than three weeks outside the Dáil to try to get justice.
   Tom Sweeney began his hunger strike outside our national parliament in protest at what he perceived as unfair treatment by the Residential Institutions Redress Board.
   Because of the institutional abuse he suffered, Mr Sweeney was paid €113,000 by the Board, which was subsequently reduced by €50,000 when he demanded a full hearing of his case. It was established to make awards to people who were abused in institutions subject to State regulation or inspection.
• Sweeney ends strike and heads to High Court
One in Four, http://oneinfour.org/news/news2004/sweeney , From RTE Online
   IRELAND: The man who has been on hunger strike outside Leinster House for 22 days has given up his protest and is taking his case back to the High Court.
   Tom Sweeney made his decision following a meeting with his lawyers in Buswells Hotel near Leinster House. He was protesting over his treatment by the Residential Institutions Redress Board in relation to abuse he suffered in two institutions.
   Mr Sweeney was earlier taken into Leinster House in a wheelchair by the Dublin South West Fianna Fáil TD Charlie O'Connor for talks.
   The proposals presented to Mr Sweeney arose from a meeting between the four Dublin South West TDs and the Minister for Education, Noel Dempsey, yesterday.
   Earlier today, Green Party TD Paul Gogarty was ordered to leave the Dáil after attempting to raise Mr Sweeney's case.
• Govt faces calls for redress review as man ends protest
   One in Four, http://oneinfour.org/news/news2004/endprotest , by Michael O'Farrell in The Irish Examiner
   IRELAND: The Goverment was under pressure last night to review the workings of the Residential Institutions Redress Board after a 22-day-long hunger striker called off his Dáil protest.
   Tom Sweeney, 57, had been on hunger strike outside Leinster House for more than three weeks, protesting that his original award of €113,000 by the Redress Board was reduced by €40,000 after he requested a full hearing.
   The marathon protest garnered support from many abuse victims who claimed to have had similar experiences with the Redress Board and accused it of punishing those who wished to tell their stories.
• Naming child abusers policy reversed [Christian Brothers]
   One in Four, http://oneinfour.org/news/news2004/policyreverse , From RTE Online
   IRELAND: The commission to inquire into child abuse has proposed that it will not name individual perpetrators unless they have already been convicted. Its new chairman, Mr Justice Sean Ryan, told a hearing in Dublin this morning that he hopes the commission will make a final decision on the controversial issue within about six weeks.
   The Christian Brothers are challenging an earlier decision by the commission under its previous chairperson, Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, to name and shame people who had not been convicted. Judge Ryan said he hopes to announce commission policy on the matter after consultation with all parties, but before the Supreme Court begins hearing the Brothers' appeal late next month.
• Allegations plague church
   The Advertiser, www.theadvertiser.com/news/html/32AC0B95-60F7-4500-9340-72C469B88F51.shtml
   NEW IBERIA (LA): A contretemps involving a priest accused of "tyrant-like behavior" that resulted in his ouster as pastor of St. Edward Church in New Iberia and the early retirement of the principal of St. Edward School has become a racial issue, according to the president of the Society of Divine Word, a group of missionary priests.
   The school's governing board also was dissolved by the Rev. Michael Jarrell, bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette, as a result of the controversy.
   The issue began after parents and faculty complained to the Diocese of Lafayette School Board about the Rev. Alfred Ayem, a missionary priest appointed to serve as pastor of the predominantly black 6,000-member St. Edward Church, a job that also requires serving as administrator of the school.
   Specific complaints about the pastor included belittlement of faculty and volunteers for minor infractions, such as misspelled words in memos, or criticism of the clothes they wore. The faculty felt the School Board was their only hope to end the "inappropriate" treatment, said school faculty spokeswoman Karen Bonin.
• Alleged Cathedral Sex Abuse Update [1985-86 Martinez]
   KTSM NewsChannel 9, www.ktsm.com/news/story.ssd?c=c04efe9695746aca , by Christina Montoya, Tuesday, January 13, 2004
   EL PASO (TX): We first told you last March about the El Paso man who accuses a former Cathedral High School Principal of sexual abuse. Now, a judge has ruled the man may ask questions of church officials which could be crucial to the case.
   The man is going by the name of "John Doe." He alleges Brother Sam Martinez abused him in 1985 and 1986 when he was a student at Cathedral. But he's also suing the diocese, the Bishop, and the Christian Brothers order for knowing about the abuse...and doing nothing about it.
   Doe's attorney says there were several other complaints against Martinez. But when the bishop and other members of the diocese were asked about them, their attorney told them not to answer.
   But now Judge Richard Roman has opened the door for some of the questions to be answered. Two men have already given sworn affidavits about their alleged abuse.
   One said "Brother Sam held onto my belt loop with one hand and fondled my genitals with the other. This lasted about 15 minutes and I left...I did not return to Cathedral."
• Priest accused of abuse, then reinstated, dies at 73 [Covas]
   The Press-Enterprise, www.pe.com/localnews/sanbernardino/stories/PE_News_Local_covas10.57ed3.html , Monday, May 10, 2004
   CALIFORNIA: Father Peter Covas, a longtime Inland priest removed from his church after allegations of sex abuse, then reinstated in retirement, died early Sunday morning at San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland, according to a written statement by the Diocese of San Bernardino. He was 73.
   Bishop Gerald R. Barnes was in Rome when he was told of Father Covas' death and expressed sorrow through the church statement.
   Funeral liturgies will be announced this week after Barnes returns from Rome.
   In April 2002, Barnes removed Father Covas as pastor at St. Peter and St. Paul Church in Rancho Cucamonga after allegations of decades-old abuse surfaced against the priest.
   The accusations by two men sparked a yearlong criminal investigation that ended in April 2003, when San Bernardino County prosecutors announced they would not file charges against Father Covas.
• Priest cleared of charges dies [Covas]
   San Bernardino Sun, www.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,208~12588~2138397,00.html , Staff Reports
   RANCHO CUCAMONGA (CA): A Catholic priest recently cleared of criminal child molestation charges has died, church officials said Sunday.
   The Rev. Peter Covas, 73, of Rancho Cucamonga died of natural causes at 1 a.m. Sunday at San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland, officials of the Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino said.
   Covas, who was placed on leave from his clerical duties last year when the child molestation accusations were made, had been critically ill since January. It was announced at that time that he needed a ventilator to breathe.
   Covas had suffered from a respiratory condition he acquired as a child, said the Rev. Howard Lincoln, spokesman for the diocese.
   Covas resigned from St. Peter and St. Paul Catholic Church in Rancho Cucamonga in April 2002.
   He was one of 20 priests whose names were given to investigators by the San Bernardino Diocese in connection with suspected child molestation, dating back decades.
   Prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to file criminal charges against Covas, who was suspected of molesting two boys nearly 30 years ago.
• Bishop McManus eager to get started [$US 13 million spent]
   Telegram & Gazette, http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040510/NEWS/405100316/1025 , by Kathleen A. Shaw, T&G STAFF, kshaw@telegram.com
   PROVIDENCE - Auxiliary Bishop Robert J. McManus walked out to the front of the chancery building on Friday and encountered a young woman who asked when he was leaving. "Today's my last day," he told her.
   The woman gave him a big hug and wished him luck on his new assignment. It had been a week of farewells; a final Mass in Providence brought tears to his eyes as he said goodbye to the people of Rhode Island.
   As the Catholics of one diocese bid him farewell, Catholics in Central Massachusetts are preparing to welcome him to replace retiring Bishop Daniel P. Reilly. ...
   "Bishop Reilly told me the two dioceses are similar," he said. The new bishop - like Bishop Reilly, a Providence native - admitted he has been to Worcester only twice, but he is eager to meet the people and get started. He said he has already received a warm welcome from Auxiliary Bishop George E. Rueger and the chancery staff.
   Bishop McManus said he has been busy winding up business in Providence and that Worcester officials have been very good about driving down Route 146 to meet with him.
   He planned to begin the move to the Worcester bishop's residence on High Ridge Road Saturday. Bishop Reilly and Monsignor Thomas Sullivan, diocesan chancellor, have moved to St. Paul's rectory.
   Bishop McManus, 52, will be installed as fifth Bishop of Worcester at 2 p.m. Friday at St. Paul's Cathedral. The event is by invitation only. Renovations to St. Paul's by Bishop Reilly reduced the seating.
   "There are a hundred people with tickets who will be standing," Bishop McManus said ruefully.
   The diocese plans a public reception for the new bishop from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday in the atrium of the Worcester Medical Center.
   The public will meet a man who decided early in life to be a priest and wants to emphasize religious education and recruitment of clergy.
   He will get down to business right away. Some Catholics have asked to discuss their concerns about the diocese with the new bishop, who said he will hold meetings once he settles in.
   Bishop McManus comes to Worcester during a deep crisis over the sexual abuse scandal that has gripped the Catholic church. He has had some experience handling sexual abuse cases and wants to look at pending civil suits over abuse allegations to see what can be done.
   "I know what it is to handle these allegations," he said. "You get a telephone call at quarter of 10 in the morning and you are busy for the next several hours."
   There were days he'd look forward to an evening Confirmation ceremony. "At least I'd be out there with people," he said. Spending a day listening to horrific stories of abuse affected him emotionally.
   Bishop McManus said if allegations of sexual abuse have been difficult for priests and lay people it is no different for the bishops. As auxiliary bishop, he had to travel to a parish where a priest had been removed after an allegation of sexual abuse was made.
   "The people would say things like, "He's innocent,' and "How can you do this?' I couldn't tell them everything," he said. "It was painful for me."
   A sea change in handling sexual abuse allegations in Providence happened after he and Bishop Robert E. Mulvee returned from the 2002 meeting of the American bishops in Dallas. There the bishops adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children.
   Providence had some suits still pending after 10 years, but Bishop Mulvee wanted the litigation to end; all but one suit was settled.
   Ann Hagen Webb, a native of Rhode Island who heads Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP] for New England, said that substantial changes are still needed in Providence. She said Providence settled those suits for about $13 million "to void a court order to open records."
• Clergyman accused of abuse did not fake his own death [Clonan]
   Irish Independent, www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1178581&issue_id=10848
   IRELAND: A Co. Meath priest sought by British police on child sex abuse allegations and who was thought to have faked his own death in Australia, died six years ago, detectives have decided.
   Fr Christopher Oliver Clonan, originally from Clonard, Co Meath, who was alleged to have sexually abused young boys in his former parish in Coventry, fled to Australia in 1992 to avoid arrest.
   Allegations had surfaced that he had molested youngsters in his care while he was attached to Christ the King church in Coundon, Coventry.
   West Midlands Police said last July that eight people, aged between eight and 17 at the time of the alleged offences, had made allegations against the priest.
   Amid reports of sightings of the priest, British police sent two detectives to Australia last month to investigate the matter.
   His family maintained he had died in Australia in October 1998 from a brain haemorrhage; his death certificate confirmed these details.
   However, while the police are satisfied he is dead, DNA tests will be carried out to ensure the accuracy of these reports. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:36 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Mon May 10, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont80.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Tue May 11, 2004 edition follows:-
• Minister gets 20 years in sex case [Stone, 70 years prison]
   The Sun Herald, www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/local/8636572.htm , By ROBIN FITZGERALD, Posted on Tue, May. 11, 2004
   GULFPORT (MS): A Saucier minister will serve 20 years in prison for having sexual contact with a teenage member of his congregation.
   The Rev. Larry "David" Stone, 54, of All By Grace church, wept Monday as relatives and church members described him to Circuit Court Judge Robert Walker as kind, generous, loving and an accomplished Bible teacher.
   He faced up to 360 years in prison if found guilty of eight counts each of sexual battery and unlawful touching. He pleaded guilty in March to two counts of each charge.
   The judge sentenced him Monday to 70 years, ordering the time for each charge to run concurrently. Stone will not be eligible for early release.
   "I am so sorry," Stone said. "I confessed fully because I am guilty. It makes me sick, and I hate it with all my heart. I'll never do this again."
   The teen and his family did not attend the hearing but waited in a private area of the District Attorney's Office. They were pleased with the sentence, said John Gargiulo, an assistant district attorney. [...]
   Stone said he did not force himself on the teen, who was 15 years old at the time. Deputies found the two engaged in sexual activity in a wooded area near the church.
   Gargiulo said Stone violated his position of trust and also confessed to sexual encounters with four other boys in other cities and to dozens of incidents of sexual contact.
   Stone ran a Head Start program in Kentucky before he became a minister in 1981. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 10:33 PM]
• Sex abuse panel says US bishops manipulated it
   New Zealand Herald, www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3565949&thesection=news&thesubsection=world ; May 12 2004
   CHICAGO (IL): A lay panel heading an investigation into sexual abuse in the US Roman Catholic Church has accused the country's bishops of manipulating it and backsliding on promises, according to a letter made public on Tuesday.
   The letter was one of several between the National Review Board and various bishops posted on the website of the National Catholic Reporter which said it had obtained and verified them.
   The review panel, headed by Anne Burke, a judge in Chicago, criticized the administrative committee of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops for deciding to delay action on some key issues until a meeting in November.
   The delays among other things would push back a second round of audits to see how well dioceses are complying with new measures designed to protect children from clerical abuse.
   The panel's letter complained that the bishops were considering the delay but hid it from the panel at the time of a high profile February 27 news conference so it would not become public.
   At that time it was disclosed in two reports that more than 10,600 children claimed to have been molested by priests since 1950 in an epidemic of child sexual abuse involving at least 4 per cent of US Roman Catholic clergy.
• Former National Review Board Chair Calls Bishops 'Manipulating'
   NBC 5, www.nbc5.com/news/3294036/detail.html , May 11, 2004
   CHICAGO (IL): A prominent figure in the Roman Catholic sex abuse investigation has decided to step down from her post, and a letter obtained by the National Catholic Reporter reveals she felt the lay board she led was manipulated.
   NBC5's Mary Ann Ahern reached Illinois Appellate Court Justice Anne Burke -- the former chairman of the National Review Board -- by phone Tuesday.
   "While I think that we made a lot of progress, we have a lot to go, and it's just a growing pain, I believe," Burke said.
   Those words come a year after the first chairman, Frank Keating, resigned after comparing the bishops to the mafia, as many of them initially refused to cooperate with the lay board.
   "We are members of the church, as are the bishops, so we all have to work together to make sure that Christ's calling for us all is being fulfilled," Burke said.
   Since Burke wrote that letter to the bishops, they have agreed to discuss a possible second audit at their June meeting. Some bishops have said they need a break from all of the scrutiny.
   "I think a lot of people would like to have this put behind them and go forward, and we do, too, but we still have work to do so we can proceed," Burke said. "We must know what happened in the past."
   The letter and the responses back to Burke provide an interesting behind-the-scenes look, Ahern said. She also called the bishops disingenuous and backsliding. In one letter back to her, the bishop of Denver said Burke's language contains threats and is inappropriate for anyone of her professional stature.
• Arraignment set for pastor's sexual abuse case [2002-03 Hollingsworth] - Baptist.
   The Hawk Eye, www.thehawkeye.com/daily/stories/ln10_0511.html , Tuesday, May 11, 2004
   IOWA: A felony sexual abuse case against a former Danville pastor arrested in March will move forward.
   Harry Frederick Hollingsworth Sr., 57, now of Hubbard, Texas, was charged with Class D sexual abuse by a counselor or therapist.
   He is accused of engaging in sexual conduct with an emotionally dependent client he was counseling between Sept. 1, 2002, and April 30, 2003, while the pastor of First Baptist Church in Danville. The client was an adult female parishioner whom Hollingsworth counseled for marriage and personal problems.
   The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Iowa Attorney General Virginia Barchman at the request of the victim who perceived a conflict of interest with the Des Moines County Sheriff's office.
   Court documents filed May 4 indicate that Barchman "made a full and careful investigation of the facts upon which this information is based and have determined ... that a criminal prosecution is warranted in this matter."
• Special Documents
   National Catholic Reporter, www.ncronline.org/mainpage/documents2.htm , up to Apr 11 2004
   UNITED STATES: NCR's mission statement reads, in part: "We attempt to contribute to the faith community by supporting a free, honest and open discussion of issues that face the church and the wider world."
   The documents posted here are intended not only as background readings for our articles but as contributions to open debate in general. If you know of a document or statement that you think should be posted here, please let us know. We may or may not choose to post any given document, but the information is always appreciated.
   All documents listed from the Vatican are the English translations. If you wish a different translation go to the Vatican site at: http://www.vatican.va . Then click on the language of your choice and then to the section also of your choice.
   Letters about the National Review Board exchanged among bishops and between bishops and Judge Anne Burke, the board's interim chairperson [re sex abuse] Posted May 11, 2004
   Interview with Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk Posted May 11, 2004
   Interview with Cardinal Theodore McCarrick Posted April 28, 2004
   Interview with Sr. Enrica Rosanna Posted April 26, 2004
   Homily for the Mass of Christian Burial for Bishop Ken Untener Posted April 3, 2004
   Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, speaks to NCR about the work of the Vox Clara committee. Posted March 16, 2004   . . .
• Murder, Abuse in New York Catholic Orphanage?
   Men's News Daily, http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/a-b/abbott/2004/abbott051204.htm , by Matt C. Abbott, May 10, 2004
   WATERVLIET (NY): St. Colman's Home for boys and girls was an orphanage founded in Watervliet, New York, by the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The orphanage housed children who suffered from mental and emotional problems.
   All was not well at St. Colman's, according to some of the (now-adult) orphans who lived there many years ago. Check out the St. Colman's Survivors website.
   There are posts such as this one, from Sue Sleasman of Albany, New York…
   "The damage that the Sisters of the Presentation caused me and the other young people who lived at the home will never be totally healed. Before I was sent there, at the age of 15, I was a victim of severe and prolonged physical, mental and sexual abuse; St Colman's only compounded the trauma I aleady [sic] had. The mental tourture [sic] was more than my young could handle and I ended up developing an angry and self destructive teenage alter [sic]. Besides placing me in head locks and threatening to 'lock me up' in the crazy house, many times I would stand between them and a young child. I could not stand violence and tried to protect the younger children, especially the autistic ones. Over the 19 months I was forced to live there I ran away on several occasions and would save up the drugs they gave me, so that I would die. I was already a damaged young teenager, but once I left there I turned to drugs and self-destructiion [sic] to deal with the pain…."
   Also on the site is this message…
   "Children have been enduring abuse at the hands of the nun's [sic] at St Colman's for way to [sic] long. Three children have died under suspicious circumstance's [sic] that we know of. How many [have died] that we don't know of? How many children have to suffer before the authorities do something about the severely abusive conduct by the nun's [sic]?
   There are several survivors that [sic] have testified to the fact that they endured extreme abuse at the hand's [sic] of the so called 'Gods [sic] servants' at St Colman's. 8yr old [sic] Gilbert Bonneau cried for help for close to 3 days! While his brain hemeraged [sic] in his skull. The only help the nuns would offer is to suffocate him to death. There is a witness!
   There are also witnesses to Gilberts [sic] brutal stick beating that landed him in the infirmary where he was later suffocated."
• Springfield Diocese puts deacon accused of abuse on leave [1991 Martone]
   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040511/APN/405110983 , By ADAM GORLICK, Associated Press Writer, Tuesday, May 11, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD, Mass.- A deacon in the Springfield Diocese is being investigated for allegedly molesting a child 13 years ago, church officials said Tuesday.
   James A. Martone, 62, a permanent deacon who ministered at St. Louis de France and Immaculate Conception parishes in West Springfield was put on a leave of absence, church officials said Tuesday. Martone is also on a paid leave from his job as business manager at Our Lady of Hope Parish in Springfield, according to Laura Failla Reilly, the diocese's victim advocate.
   The Diocesan Review Board, which reviews allegations of sexual abuse by clergy and church employees, referred the case to Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett.
   Church officials would not give many details of the allegations, but said they date back to 1991.
   "There is only one alleged victim, but there are multiple allegations that go beyond 1991," Reilly said.
   Martone's lawyer, Vincent Bongiorni, did not return a telephone call to The Associated Press.
   Martone was ordained a permanent deacon in 1983. Permanent deacons are men who are ordained to work in the church and assist in parish life. They volunteer for the ministerial positions and don't hear confessions.
• Archdiocese named in sex-abuse lawsuits [1980s]
   Philadelphia Inquirer, Headline sighted May 14, 04 "Abuse lawsuits allege new trauma," www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/8641390.htm?ERIGHTS=2664939441169614425philly::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM=1impqpknppohhhhhhhhhholjmp|Kathleen|Y ; By David O'Reilly, Posted on Tue, May. 11, 2004
   PENNSYLVANIA: Using a legal strategy untested in Pennsylvania, a Berks County law firm yesterday said it had filed six more lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and two against the Diocese of Allentown for allegedly allowing and concealing clergy sexual abuse.
   Although Pennsylvania law usually bars sex-abuse cases brought after a victim turns 30, an attorney for the eight plaintiffs said he would argue that his clients were traumatized anew by recent revelations that most Catholic dioceses had systematically concealed and reassigned abusive priests.
   "The victims suffered harm when they found out the dioceses had misrepresented their knowledge" of abuse patterns, Wyomissing lawyer Jay Abramowitch said in a telephone interview. "This created new injury that exacerbated the old injury."
   None of the six former priests and one former nun identified as perpetrators in the suits is still serving in ministry.
   Abramowitch's clients, most of whom allege they were abused as minors in the 1980s, are seeking monetary damages based on the new injuries, he said.
   "The approach isn't new, but the application is," said Abramowitch, a personal-injury attorney who has hitherto specialized in medical malpractice law.
• Man alleges abuse by priest in early 1980s [Ferraro]
   Boston Globe, www.boston.com/dailynews/132/region/Man_alleges_abuse_by_priest_in:.shtml , By Betsy Taylor, Associated Press, 5/11/2004
   ST. LOUIS (MO) (AP): A Christian minister filed a sexual-abuse lawsuit Tuesday against Rev. Romano Ferraro, a Roman Catholic priest convicted last week of molesting a boy in Massachusetts.
   Tim Bartin, 35, alleges he was abused by Ferraro in the early 1980s as an 11- or 12-year-old altar boy at St. Joan of Arc Parish. He filed his lawsuit in St. Louis Circuit Court against the priest, the Archdiocese of St. Louis and its Archbishop Raymond Burke.
   Bartin said he sued to support other victims. He said he knows how to forgive, but that he still believes the church needs to be held accountable for abuse against children.
   "I do not want to see any more victims, not even one more victim, of this abuse," he said. "And I would like to send a message to those that have remained silent. 'It is OK to come forward if these things have happened to you.' "
   Bartin declined to identify where he now lives in Missouri and the specific denomination of his ministry, saying only that it no longer is Roman Catholic.
   He filed the lawsuit as "John Doe" but said he felt compelled to speak out.
   In January, another St. Louis man in his 30s sued Ferraro and the St. Louis archdiocese, claiming he was raped by the cleric in the 1980s.
• Deaf Pupils Accuse Nuns of Abuse at Mass. School [1944-77]
   Reuters, www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5109653 , By Greg Frost, 05:21 PM ET, Tue May 11, 2004
   BOSTON (MA) (Reuters) - Roman Catholic nuns subjected students at a Boston-area school for the deaf to sexual, physical and mental abuse -- including rape -- according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.
   More than two years after a pedophile priest scandal erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston, attorney Mitchell Garabedian filed a lawsuit on behalf of nine former students of the Boston School for the Deaf, which closed in 1994.
   The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, charges that nuns at the school, along with a priest and other unidentified staff members, abused students between 1944 and 1977.
   Garabedian said some of the abuse may have been punishment for students who tried to use sign language to communicate.
   He said the Boston School for the Deaf neither taught nor tolerated the use of sign language, and instead encouraged pupils to use oral language.
   "They were supposed to receive an education. Instead they were sexually molested, physically abused and mentally tormented," Garabedian told a news conference where he was flanked by some two dozen former pupils.
   "If they were caught using American Sign Language, they would be punished. Some would have their hands tied behind their backs for a couple of hours," he said, adding more lawsuits may follow. "This is ugly."
• Statement Regarding Charges by National Review Board Head
   Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, http://snapnetwork.org/snap_statements/051104_anne_burke_charges.htm , Statement by David Cerulli of New York (917 757 1791 Cell), NEWS@ELCA.ORG , Snap National Board Member, May 11, 2004
   UNITED STATES: "If the National Review Board feels manipulated, imagine how we who have been abused feel now.
   "Among many, many depressing days, this is one of the most dark.
   "We in SNAP have seen widespread backsliding by America's bishops, and this news confirms our worst suspicions and fears.
   "Frank Keating must feel sad but vindicated, and many Catholics will be further disillusioned by this obvious and inexcusable backsliding.
   "Now more than ever, if children are to be safer, it is clear that civil authorities must work even harder on genuine reform and effective prevention." #
• Review board head charges bishops 'manipulated' sex abuse panel and withheld information
   National Catholic Reporter, http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn051104a.htm , By Joe Feuerherd
   WASHINGTON (DC): The high-profile lay committee investigating the clergy sex abuse scandals was "manipulated" by the bishops, who used the 13-member National Review Board for public relations cover while withholding key information from the panel.
   That charge was made in a March 30 letter from Anne Burke, the Illinois Court of Appeal Justice who serves as the Board's interim chair, to bishops' conference President Wilton Gregory.
   Copies of correspondence obtained by NCR indicate the board's relationship with dozens of members of the hierarchy is severely strained. While the language used by the NRB and the bishops falls short of the invective that led then-NRB chairman Frank Keating to resign in June 2003 (he compared the bishops to the mafia), it is far from collegial. Board members question the bishops' commitment to child protection, while some bishops charge the NRB has strayed beyond its mandate.
   Burke's letter paints a picture of hierarchical deception and public relations maneuvering. While the letter bears her signature, it was reviewed and approved by the Review Board, Burke told NCR.
   Even as NRB members were presenting their findings on the scope and causes of the crisis to a widely-covered Feb. 27 press conference, wrote Burke, its members were unaware that the bishops were considering shelving or delaying some of the board's key recommendations.
   Nearly a month later, as four NRB members formally presented the recommendations to the bishops' Administrative Committee, the Board had not been informed that key members of the hierarchy were seeking to defer or derail a second round of audits designed to measure diocesan compliance with child-protection policies established by the bishops at their June 2002 meeting in Dallas.
• Sex Abuse Panel Says U.S. Bishops Manipulated It
   Reuters, www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=5110460 , By Michael Conlon, 07:49 PM ET, Tue May 11, 2004
   CHICAGO (IL) (Reuters) - A lay panel heading an investigation into sexual abuse in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church has accused the country's bishops of manipulating it and backsliding on promises, according to a letter made public on Tuesday.
   The letter was one of several between the National Review Board and various bishops posted on the Web site of the National Catholic Reporter, which said it had obtained and verified them.
   The review panel, headed by Anne Burke, a judge in Chicago, criticized the administrative committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for deciding to delay action on some key issues until a meeting in November.
   The delays among other things would push back a second round of audits to see how well dioceses are complying with new measures designed to protect children from clerical abuse.
   The panel's letter complained that the bishops were considering the delay but hid it from the panel at the time of a high-profile Feb. 27 news conference so it would not become public.
   At that time it was disclosed in two reports that more than 10,600 children claimed to have been molested by priests since 1950 in an epidemic of child sexual abuse involving at least 4 percent of U.S. Roman Catholic clergy.
   The Review panel was formed by the bishops in 2002 after the abuse scandal had shaken the U.S. church to its foundations.
   "It is hard to reach any other conclusion than that the failure to tell the (panel) of these matters in a timely fashion was to make sure that they did not come up in any discussions with the national media on Feb. 27," the letter said.
   "In short we were manipulated ... we are very disheartened by this apparent decision to go back to 'business as usual'," the letter added. "To place everything on hold for eight months will undoubtedly have serious adverse repercussions both within and without the Church."
• Panel fears bishops will avert abuse measures
   New York Newsday, www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscath0512,0,1350112.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines ; BY CAROL EISENBERG, May 12, 2004
   NEW YORK: A leader of the high-profile lay committee investigating the clergy sex abuse scandals said Tuesday he was "not optimistic" the nation's Catholic bishops would continue acting aggressively to protect children from molesters because "there are some bishops who want to delay and to retrench."
   The comments by Washington lawyer Robert Bennett came the same day that The National Catholic Reporter, an independent weekly newspaper, quoted a letter from Illinois Justice Anne Burke, chairman of the lay panel, saying the group was "manipulated" by some bishops who used it for public relations cover.
   Burke wrote March 29 to Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., head of the U.S. bishops, that the panel had helped the bishops "dodge the bullet."
   Even as panel members were presenting findings on the sexual abuse scandal at a Feb. 27 news conference, Burke wrote, they were not informed that the bishops were considering shelving or delaying some measures, including a second round of audits to monitor their compliance with new child protection policies.
• Review board head charges bishops 'manipulated' sex abuse panel and withheld information
   National Catholic Reporter, http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn051104a.htm , By Joe Feuerherd, May 11 2004
   UNITED STATES: The high-profile lay committee investigating the clergy sex abuse scandals was "manipulated" by the bishops, who used the 13-member National Review Board for public relations cover while withholding key information from the panel.
   That charge was made in a March 30 letter from Anne Burke, the Illinois Court of Appeal Justice who serves as the Board's interim chair, to bishops' conference President Wilton Gregory.
   Copies of correspondence obtained by NCR indicate the board's relationship with dozens of members of the hierarchy is severely strained. [Posted by Dennis Coday, NCR staff writer at 01:59 PM]
• Lawsuit alleges widespread abuse by nuns at school for deaf [1944-77]
   Providence Journal, www.projo.com/ap/ne/1084286171.htm , By MARTIN FINUCANE, Associated Press Writer, 05.11.2004
   BOSTON (MA) (AP) - Nine former students of the Boston School for the Deaf filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging they were raped and beaten by nuns at the now-defunct school.
   The plaintiffs named at least 14 nuns in the lawsuit, along with a priest, the Rev. Charles J. Murphy, the school's athletic instructor, Gary Gedney, and a former top official in the Boston archdiocese, according to their attorney, Mitchell Garabedian.
   The alleged victims, three women and six men, were between the ages of 7 and 16 when they claim they were sexually and physically abused between 1944 and 1977. The Boston School for the Deaf, in Randolph, was run by an independent, nonprofit corporation until it closed more than a decade ago.
   "They are all speech impaired and hearing impaired," said Garabedian, who represents a total of 31 former students at the school and expects to file more lawsuits alleging abuse there. "Instead of receiving an education they received beatings and sexually abusive actions."
• Catholics hope new bishop confronts area's issues
   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040511/NEWS/405110366/1052/NEWS01 , by Kathleen A. Shaw, T&G STAFF, kshaw@telegram.com , May 11 2004
   WORCESTER (MA): The Diocese of Worcester faces many challenges in the early years of the 21st century, and area Catholics say that with a new bishop about to be installed, it is time to make some changes.
   In recent interviews, area lay people and clergy articulated what they believe is needed on a wide range of issues. Their concerns included the handling of the sexual abuse crisis, the role of women and laity, standing by or changing the traditional teachings of the church, dealing with homosexual priests, rising to new bioethics challenges with medical and scientific advances, deciding how to treat public officials who hold views contrary to official church teachings, and involving laity and priests more in diocesan issues.
   Bishop Robert J. McManus of Providence will be installed as the fifth bishop of Worcester at 2 p.m. Friday in St. Paul's Cathedral.
   Philip Lawler of Lancaster, who operates a subscription Web site, Catholic World News, said the key test of Bishop McManus' leadership "will center on his willingness to confront those challenges directly.
   "Business as usual will not work. It fact, it hasn't been working for years. Everyone knows that, and not many people admit it," he said. ...
   Mr. Dick, who works with victims of clergy sexual abuse in the diocese, said it is time "that all bishops and hierarchs stop hiding behind the barracuda lawyers and the insurance companies and settle all abuse cases fairly and equitably."
   Ann Hagan Webb, a native of Rhode Island who is a leader of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests for New England, worries that the installation of Bishop McManus "will be a changing of the guard with little or no change in policy." She said both Providence and Worcester have been "loath to open records." She hopes that the new bishop takes a different approach here than he did in Providence in dealing with sexual abuse issues.
   "If he thinks things are fine in Rhode Island, then we have a serious problem," Ms. Webb said.
   Mr. O'Brien said the new bishop should "take the advice of the National Review Board and work with a committee of lay leaders to review all priests files, assess the settlement of all abuse cases back through the 1980s, and make a public report assuring everyone that, as best as could be done, justice has been served, victims have been treated properly and priest abusers are not in a position to re-offend."
   Bishop McManus should meet with victims, victim advocates and others personally affected by the scandal "and do what he can to get speedy and fair canonical trials for the removed priests," Mr. O'Brien said.
   "Nothing will change in the diocese of Worcester," said Richard Blanchard of Athol, who is affiliated with a group of traditionalist Catholics called Defend the Faith. "There is such a housecleaning that is necessary that at this point I'm afraid the diocese would then have to be dissolved."
• Priest's motivation is a puzzle; Parishioners remain forgiving of theft [$US 254,834 Ouellette]
   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040511/COLUMN01/405110346/1006/NEWSLETTERS07 ; by Dianne Williamson, T&G Columnist, Tuesday, May 11, 2004
   WORCESTER (MA): One thing we can say about the Catholic Church - it has always taken seriously its mission to help the less fortunate.
   But what can we say about the Rev. Donald C. Ouellette?
   For starters, Rev. Ouellette must have been guzzling Communion wine if he expected the judge in his larceny case to believe that he stole $254,834 from his church to help out a Whitinsville man who needed it to "pay bills."
   And the Robin Hood syndrome certainly doesn't apply here, as Rev. Ouellette stole from the poor and gave to a gambler.
   Is this simply an inexplicable case of a good man doing a bad thing? Some of the priest's former parishioners seem to think so.
   "Father Ouellette had a heart that was bigger than his brain," said Normand J. Babineau, chairman of the finance committee at Immaculate Conception Church in Fitchburg. "He was a wonderful priest, and the parishioners loved him. It wouldn't surprise me if he gave away the money."
   But despite the best efforts of Judge Peter W. Agnes Jr., the parishioners of Immaculate Conception will never know the true heart of their beloved priest, who has perhaps become one of those "mysteries" that good Catholics are required to accept.
   Last Wednesday, the 49-year-old priest was sentenced to five years in jail after he pleaded guilty to 18 counts of larceny and admitted writing more than 200 checks to himself from three separate church accounts and cashing them at local banks.
   The thefts occurred from April 2001 to January 2003, while the quiet, friendly priest was pastor of the blue-collar parish. Some of the stolen funds came from money raised by elderly parishioners for an elevator at the church.
   To his credit, Judge Agnes had postponed sentencing until last week, telling Rev. Ouellette in February that he wanted a written narrative of what he did with the money.
   "I have not heard an explanation, let alone a satisfactory explanation, of what happened to the funds," Judge Agnes said, adding that parishioners and diocesan officials deserve to know the truth.
   But after being given three months to search his soul, Rev. Ouellette gave an explanation that was an insult to the court. Through his lawyer, Michael P. McEvilly, Rev. Ouellette claimed last week that he gave the stolen funds - all $254,834 - to an acquaintance from Whitinsville who needed the money for rent, medical bills, school loans and legal fees.
   Having not just fallen off the turnip truck, Judge Agnes scoffed at the explanation and said it "doesn't have the ring of truth." He went on to say that the priest had yet to offer a plausible reason for his conduct or "one that makes any sense at all to the court."
   In an interview yesterday, even Rev. Ouellette's lawyer acknowledged that his client's response didn't exactly clear the air.
   "I can understand that people would wonder and consider why someone would do that," Mr. McEvilly said. Asked if he believed his client's explanation, he said, "It doesn't really matter what I believe. I represented him to the best of my ability."
   It has also escaped no one's notice that the beneficiary of Rev. Ouellette's largesse, Daniel St. Francis, is a former altar boy of a church to which the priest was once assigned. Mr. St. Francis did not return phone calls last week, but he told investigators that the priest had given him only about $40,000 to $50,000, and that he spent it on "ordinary household expenses." Investigators also learned that Mr. St. Francis was "very involved with gambling," the priest's lawyer told the court.
   One thing is clear in the strange case of Rev. Ouellette: He certainly selects questionable recipients of his looting. Prosecutors said the priest had also given $2,000 to a Rhode Island man and convicted child rapist who is awaiting trial to determine if he is a sexually dangerous person.
   Golly, Father. What about the homeless? Or the Bishop's Fund, or maybe Catholic Charities?
   The child rapist, William Lamontagne, told the Fitchburg Sentinel last December that he had a romantic relationship with Rev. Ouellette. The priest's lawyer said yesterday that his client denies the relationship and said he met the inmate through a prison ministry. Mr. Lamontagne's claims should also be considered within the context of his current status - did he think he could help his case by making a deal with the DA?
   Rev. Ouellette is now incarcerated at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction. His lawyer said the priest is "truly sorry for what he's done," and his forgiving parishioners say they're not angry - just disappointed.
   "I think he's basically a good man, and I have no explanation for his behavior," Mr. Babineau said. "It's just a miserable situation."
   His wife, Suzanne, said parishioners have accepted the notion that their once-revered shepherd will forever be an enigma to the flock he betrayed.
• A Litany of Horrors
   Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16234-2004May10.html , Review by Paul Baumann, editor of Commonweal magazine, Page C02, Tuesday, May 11, 2004;
   OUR FATHERS, The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal, By David France, Broadway. 656 pp. $26.95
   UNITED STATES: This book will shake your faith. If you are a Catholic, it will shake your faith in the Church. If you are a journalist, author David France's habit of quoting conversations he was not privy to and describing people's private thoughts will make you wonder when the rules changed. If you are a book buyer, you may ask what happened to editors. John Hersey needed only 150 pages to impress the horror of Hiroshima indelibly on the reader's consciousness. Does France really need 600 pages to do the same for sexual abuse in the Catholic Church?
   Our Fathers is a grope-by-grope, ejaculation-by-ejaculation, lawsuit-by-lawsuit account of the scandal that has engulfed the American Catholic Church. With the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' recent release of an independent audit tallying the number of incidents of sexual abuse against children (10,667), the number of priests involved (4,392) and the cost (more than $500 million) since 1950, some hope the abuse crisis is now "history." Readers of "Our Fathers" will be more skeptical.
   As France himself admits, if you have been an assiduous reader of newspapers, especially the Boston Globe, you may not find much news in this chronicle. Many appalling incidents are revisited, often in excruciating detail. We follow John Geoghan, the pedophile and defrocked priest later murdered in prison, as he tiptoes from room to room abusing several boys in one family. Geoghan is vile but somehow pathetic; Joseph Birmingham is diabolical and remorseless. The story of his rampage of rape and sodomy in Massachusetts in the 1960s is numbing. France's re-creation of the dread and paralyzing fear felt by Birmingham's victims, whom the priest sometimes called out of class and assaulted in an adjacent closet, is terrifying and sickening.
• Milwaukee priest put on leave [Engel]
   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, www.jsonline.com/news/metro/may04/228458.asp , By TOM HEINEN, theinen@journalsentinel.com , Posted May 10, 2004
   MILWAUKEE (WI): Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan has placed a 53-year-old associate pastor on leave and has restricted him from all ministry because he is being investigated by law enforcement authorities over "use of computer pornography involving minors."
   However, Dolan told parishioners at Milwaukee's St. Veronica Church over the weekend that the priest, Father Ronald Engel, "has assured us that he has never had sexual contact with minors, and the investigation has not shown otherwise."
   Dolan presided at the southeast side church's 10:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday and told the congregation why Engel had been placed on leave nine days earlier. His explanation, in the form of a letter to parishioners, was read by Father Mark Payne, the pastor, at the parish's other weekend Masses.
   "Child pornography is a scourge on our society," Dolan's letter says. "It is a crime, a sin and a scandal. The church has rigorously fought against it. The upcoming weeks and months will be a difficult time for all of us, especially for you and the entire St. Veronica Parish community."
   Kathleen Hohl, archdiocesan spokeswoman, said that collecting child pornography has been interpreted as a form of sexual abuse under the charter and norms adopted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
• Evangelical Lutheran Church files suit against insurance companies in Texas case
   Church Executive, "ELCA files suit against insurance companies in Texas case," www.churchexecutive.com/News.asp?Article=1750 , May 10, 2004
   CHICAGO (IL): The churchwide organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) filed suit May 7 in a Marshall, TX, district court against three of its liability insurance carriers. The suit asks for the court's help to determine the proper amount of a settlement each should bear in the recent settlement of a civil court case that resulted from the criminal sexual misconduct of a former ELCA pastor.
   "We anticipated we would have to seek the court's assistance in working on payments by our insurance carriers," said John R. Brooks, ELCA spokesman. "This is a routine matter. The lawsuit does not jeopardize the churchwide organization's $8 million settlement of the case."
   The former pastor, Gerald P. Thomas Jr., was found guilty of sexual assault against children in a criminal trial last year and was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in state prison.
   Fourteen plaintiffs affected by Thomas' criminal behavior sued the ELCA churchwide organization and several other church organizations and leaders. The churchwide organization settled with the plaintiffs and their attorneys on March 27 for $8 million. The Marshall court formalized the settlement April 12.
   Meanwhile, all three insurance carriers have paid in full the churchwide organization's $8 million settlement, Brooks said. The settlement checks were sent to the trust fund established for the benefit of the boys who were sexually molested by Thomas, he said.
   "We are thankful to have this matter finally resolved in a way beneficial to the young victims," Brooks said. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:56 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Tue May 11, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont80.htm
• Two Marists in court about sex with minor.
   Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Tuesday May 11 2004
   TASMANIA, Australia: Two members of the RC Marist Order have been charged in court with allegedly carrying on a sexual relationship with juveniles about 30 years ago in Burnie, Tasmania, ABC News Radio reported today.
[SEARCH NOTE: For previous news on the allegations, see parts of a November 5, 2003 newsitem, and Nov 7 2003. SEARCH NOTE ENDS.]
• Marist priests front court over alleged sexual offences [1960s-70s Ferguson, Bellemore]
   Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), www.abc.net.au/tasmania/news/200405/s1105746.htm , Tuesday, May 11 2004
   Two Marist priests have appeared in the Magistrate's Court in Burnie.
   Gregory Lawrence Ferguson, 60, and Roger Michael Bellemore, 68, are charged with maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person in Burnie more than 30 years ago.
   Both of the priests now live in Sydney, but the charges relate to their time at Burnie's Catholic Marist College when they are alleged to have committed the offences in the late 60s and early 70s.
   Their Sydney lawyer Greg Walsh told magistrate Don Jones that he only received a copy of the witness statements late last month and a copy of the summons only last week.
   Mr Walsh said Father Ferguson has been unwell in recent weeks and considering the allegations go back up to 37 years,; his clients will need considerable time to recall the events.
   The matter has been adjourned until July for plea.
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Wed May 12, 2004 edition follows:-
• Keating on review board-bishop spat; 'Openly subversive' universities; CUA law students seek recognition of gay group.
   National Catholic Reporter, www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/washington/wnb051204.htm , "Washington Notebook" column, By Joe Feuerherd, jfeuerherd@natcath.org , May 12 2004
   WASHINGTON (DC): Last June, facing criticism over his comments comparing the U.S. Catholic hierarchy to the Mafia, former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating stepped down as chairman of the National Review Board charged with investigating the clergy sex abuse crisis.
   Earlier this week, through its release of correspondence between the bishops and the board, NCR revealed that dozens of bishops want to defer or derail a second round of audits designed to measure diocesan compliance with child protection programs called for in the June 2002 Charter of the Protection of Children and Young People.
   The relationship between the board, now chaired by Illinois Justice Anne Burke, and the bishops is, it appears, at a comparable point to that of a year ago.
   Keating, speaking from the Washington office of the American Council of Life Insurers where he serves as president, is not surprised.
   "These acts of sedition and resistance occurred around this time last year," he recalled. "I know that some were offended by my aggressive rhetoric, but I felt it was necessary because I could see the backsliding early."
   "I think that some within the hierarchy have been irked that lay people would be so forward as to suggest to them how to clean up their own Aegean stable," said Keating.
   "The annual audits were a statement to the Catholic lay people that we will send in CPAs and law enforcement to make sure that you'll do what you said you'll do. For [a bishop] to look down his thin nose and say 'I don't really need to be told what to do' is a terrible blunder because they do need to be told that this is unacceptable and that they need to clean it up themselves with lay guidance and advice."
   He continued, "This is not changing the role of the bishop. It's not saying that lay people will determine theology and issues of faith and morals. We have a crime committed here and lay people know how to help clean up criminal conduct. [The bishops] need to appreciate the fact that we are, together, laborers charged with cleaning this up." [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:21 PM]
• Church Leaders Accused of Impeding Reform
   The Guardian, Britain, www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4083719,00.html , By RICHARD N. OSTLING, AP Religion Writer, Wednesday May 12, 2004
   MORRIS PLAINS, N.J. (AP) - A key panel of lay Roman Catholics is angrily accusing American bishops of backsliding on a central plank of their reform program aimed at stopping clergy sexual abuse.
   But some church leaders are fighting back, saying that the National Review Board is overstepping its authority.
   "There can be no more foot-dragging by the hierarchy," Anne Burke, interim chair of the review board, said Tuesday night at an appearance in northern New Jersey. The first leader of the board, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, quit last year after he also accused some bishops of being obstructionists.
   This is a "defining moment" for the church, said Burke, an Illinois Appellate justice, speaking to members of Voice of the Faithful, a lay reform lobby group.
   The flash point in the dispute between the board and certain bishops is a section of the prelates' 2002 sex abuse policy, which - as part of its monitoring provisions - calls for audits of each diocese to ensure they are complying with the policy. [...]
   On the Net:
   Bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection: http://www.usccb.org/ocyp/index.htm
   National Catholic Reporter texts: http://www.ncronline.org/mainpage/http://www.ncronline.org/mainpage/specialdocuments/burke-bishops.htm
• Bishop dissolves fund for accused priests, removes Scahill from board [1991 Martone]
   Daily Hampshire Gazette, www.dailyhampshiregazette.com/cspstory.cfm?id_no=5120054 , for Wednesday, May 12, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA) (AP) - The new head of the Springfield Catholic diocese has dissolved a fund established by his predecessor for the support of priests accused of sexual misconduct and removed an outspoken critic from a diocesan advisory board.
   The moves Tuesday by Bishop Timothy McDonnell came on the same day that church officials announced a deacon was being investigated for allegedly molesting a child 13 years ago.
   McDonnell said in a statement that the $100,000 fund was established "with the best of intentions ... to alleviate the responsibility this diocese has under Church law to provide sustenance to priests who are not allowed to function."
   However, he said, it "has been so misunderstood it has had to be dissolved."
   McDonnell said he had spoken to donors and they had agreed that the money should be used to provide scholarships for students in Catholic schools.
   The fund was established last fall by Bishop Thomas Dupre, who abruptly announced his retirement as head of the diocese in February amid allegations that he had molested two altar boys while a parish priest in the 1970s. Dupre and his lawyer have declined to comment on the allegations which are now being investigated by a grand jury.
   The fund paid the living expenses of priests who were accused of sexual misconduct and removed from their ministerial duties.
   One of the sharpest critics of the fund was the Rev. James Scahill. His East Longmeadow parish has been withholding a portion of its weekly collections to protest continued diocesan support for Richard Lavigne, a defrocked priest who was convicted in 1992 of molesting two altar boys. [...]
   Also on Tuesday, James A. Martone, 62, a permanent deacon who ministered at St. Louis de France and Immaculate Conception parishes in West Springfield was placed on leave pending the investigation, said Laura Failla Reilly, the diocese's victim advocate. He was also placed on paid leave from his job as business manager at Our Lady of Hope Parish in Springfield, she said.
   Church officials declined to reveal details of the allegations against Martone, but said they date back to 1991.
   "There is only one alleged victim, but there are multiple allegations that go beyond 1991," Reilly said. [Emphasis added]
• Arraignment set for former Baptist pastor charged with abusing woman. [Hollingsworth]
   WQAD News Channel 8, "Arraignment set for former pastor charged with sexual abuse," www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=1861726&nav=1sW7N3kn , 05/12/04
   BURLINGTON, IOWA (AP) -- A former Baptist pastor charged with sexually abusing a woman he counseled is scheduled to be in court next week in Burlington.
   Fifty-seven-year-old Frederick Hollingsworth Senior of Danville was arrested in March. He's accused of engaging in sexual conduct with an emotionally dependent client who came to him for marriage counseling and personal problems.
   His arraignment is set for Monday in Des Moines County District Court.
• Cincinnati archbishop urges caution in denying communion
   National Catholic Reporter, http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn051104.htm , By John L. Allen Jr., in ROME, Posted Tuesday, May 11, 2004
   ROME: An American archbishop from a key "battleground state" has entered the flap over John Kerry and communion, saying that for now he would "give him the benefit of the doubt" and not deny the pro-choice Democratic presidential candidate the Eucharist.
   Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati made the comment in a May 7 interview with NCR in Rome, where he was taking part in his every-five-year ad limina visit to the pope. ...
Sex abuse Norms
   On the sex abuse norms, Pilarczyk said the bishops had picked up some concern from Vatican officials.
   They asked, "Is it right that somebody who offended 30 years ago one time should no longer be in ministry?" Pilarczyk said.
   Nevertheless, Pilarczyk said he supports the zero tolerance stance contained in the norms adopted in November 2002.
   "They were appropriate then, and are appropriate now," he said.
   Pilarczyk rejected suggestions that the sex abuse crisis will remain unresolved until more bishops resign.
   "To say, 'lay it all at the door of the bishops,' may be an understandable psychological stratagem," he said. "When you've got somebody to blame, you just feel better. ... Well, it's not that simple. We've got the psychological community, we've got the role of lawyers, we've got the role of the media.
   "I think we have to be careful not to generalize."
• Our Fathers' Figure: Author David France
   Windy City Times, www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=4970 , by Gregg Shapiro, May 12 2004
   UNITED STATES: Journalist David France, whose work first appeared in Gay Community News and later in the New York Native, the Advocate and Out, covered the crisis in the Catholic Church as a senior editor at Newsweek. In his book Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal (Broadway Book, New York, NY, 2004, 656pp, $26.95) he expands on his writing on the subject to create an exposé is as gripping as a first-rate page turner.
   Gregg Shapiro: Were you aware that the timing of more allegations would coincide with the publication of your book?
   David France: When the bishops first realized, back in 2002, that they had to do something affirmative to try to regain the initiative over all of this, they held a conference in Dallas and adopted several measures. One of them was this study, commissioned through an outside research facility (the John Jay College of Criminal Justice), so I knew that it was going to happen. The book was supposed to come out in December (of 2003), so the timing now is great. It's the only favor the bishops have given me, so far. Interestingly, the study covers the Catholic Church in America from 1950 to the present, and so does my book. The exact same ground, the exact same series of events. In my book, I conclude that the numbers are much higher than they are now talking about.
• Judge Dismisses Priest's Defamation Suit [Alzugaray]
   NBC 4, www.nbc4.tv/news/3296017/detail.html , May 12, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA): A judge Wednesday dismissed a libel lawsuit brought by a priest against a sex-abuse victims advocacy group that supports a woman who accused him of rape.
   Monsignor Joseph F. Alzugaray alleged in his Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that Erin Brady and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, defamed him by accusing him of child molestation.
   Alzugaray said the allegations have exposed him to "hatred, humiliation, contempt, ridicule and obloquy," according to the suit.
   SNAP sought to have the case against it thrown out, claiming Alzugaray is "attempting to intimidate into silence the voices of his accuser and her supporters," and that the group was only reporting that Alzugaray was accused of sexual misconduct.
   Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jon M. Mayeda agreed, telling Alzugaray attorney Neil Papiano "it's not whether or not your client committed the act, it's whether he's accused."
   Mayeda said SNAP's statements about Alzugaray "relate to (him) having been accused, not that he committed the acts or has been convicted."
• Four men who say they were victims of sex abuse sue Detroit archdiocese
   Detroit Free Press, www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm19773_20040512.htm , BY DAVID N. GOODMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Wednesday, May 12, 2004
   DETROIT (MI): Four men who say they were sexually abused decades ago by area priests filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit.
   The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status for the lawsuit that was filed in Wayne County Circuit Court.
   Lead plaintiff Timothy Hassett, 41, of Kalamazoo, said a priest molested him while Hassett was an altar boy at St. Mary's of Redford in Detroit. He says the abuses began when he was in the third grade at St. Mary's School. He says the priest took him out of class and molested him in the church rectory.
   "We are here today because of the courageous stand that several people have taken to protect the children of the Archdiocese of Detroit," Barbara Blaine, founder of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP], a national group that is backing the lawsuit, said at a news conference in Detroit.
• Four alleged sex abused men suing Detroit archdiocese
   WOOD, www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1862359&nav=0RceN49J , 2:45 p.m., May 12, 2004
   DETROIT (MI) AP: Four men who say they were sexually abused by Catholic priests are suing the Detroit archdiocese.
   The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status for their lawsuit filed in Wayne County.
   Timothy Hassett of Kalamazoo says a priest molested him while he was an altar boy at St. Mary's of Redford in Detroit. He says the abuses began when he was in the third grade.
   The Detroit archdiocese had no immediate comment.
• Bishops Beware Of Lay Clericalism
   Catholic League, www.catholicleague.org/04press_releases/quarter2/040512_nrboard.htm , May 12 2004
   UNITED STATES: Several leading newspapers ran a story today on a dispute that has emerged between Anne Burke, interim chairman of the National Review Board, and some bishops over the authority and longevity of the panel. Burke, who said she will resign from the panel at the end of June, maintains that the bishops have "manipulated" the group by seeking to block further implementation of another round of diocesan audits. But some bishops have alleged that the panel is inappropriately expanding its autonomy; others object to imputations of ill motive.
   Catholic League president William Donohue commented as follows:
   "The National Review Board's audit of the dioceses, and the John Jay Report that was issued on priestly sexual abuse, were done in compliance with the 'Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People' that was authorized by the bishops in 2002. Most fair-minded Catholics agree that both entities did a commendable job. The question now, however, is whether there is an end line to this process, or whether the National Review Board will be instituted in perpetuity. ..."
• Former seminarians want alma mater investigated [1979 O'Connell]
   National Catholic Reporter, http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/051404/051404h.htm , By DENNIS CODAY, for May 14 2004
   HANNIBAL (MO): Five former students of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Hannibal, Mo., who allege that as minors they were sexually abused by seminary faculty 25 years ago, have kicked off a campaign to find more victims among the school's alumni.
   The men, now in their 40s, are writing letters to former students of the now-closed residential high school seminary asking them to come forward with stories of their own abuse or eyewitness accounts of abuse of others.
   The letter begins:
   "We were sexually abused by Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell as devout, impressionable and vulnerable young boys just beginning our studies for the priesthood at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Hannibal, Mo. (STAS).
   "Sadly, we know we are not alone. We suspect there may be dozens of us still suffering in secrecy, silence, shame and self-blame."
   The letter is signed by Michael Wegs, Matthew Crosby, Chris Dixon and two men known as John Doe I and John Doe IV. All five have lawsuits pending against O'Connell and other former seminary faculty as well as the dioceses of Missouri and current and past bishops of Missouri.
   O'Connell, 66, served as teacher, rector and spiritual director at the seminary from 1964 to 1988 when he was named the first bishop of Knoxville, Tenn. In 2000, he became bishop of Palm Beach, Fla., but resigned in March 2002 after he admitted to inappropriate behavior with Dixon.
• Priest Charged with Child Pornography [2004 Yarrosh]
   WNEP, www.wnep.com/Global/story.asp?S=1862473&nav=5ka4N4F1 , By Bob Reynolds , Wednesday May 12 2004
   ALLENTOWN (PA): A priest with the Allentown Diocese was arrested Wednesday, charged with having what police called, "an enormous amount of child pornography".
   Father Ronald Yarrosh, former assistant pastor of Saint Ambrose Catholic Church in Schuylkill Haven, was arraigned on charges of sexual assault Wednesday afternoon.
   Officers said they first searched his office and private rooms for an embezzlement investigation. That's when they found hundreds of pictures of naked boys and girls. Police received a second search warrant to look for more evidence of sexual abuse and confiscated more pictures and Reverend Yarrosh's computer.
   A rented storage unit was also searched and officers found even more pornography.
• Monitor of clergy sex abuse fears progress thwarted
   Star-Ledger, www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1084343486299370.xml , BY JEFF DIAMANT, Wednesday, May 12, 2004
   UNITED STATES: The woman appointed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to help monitor their handling of the clergy sex abuse scandal said yesterday that she's concerned some prelates are threatening progress made by the church in the last two years.
   Anne Burke, chairwoman of the conference's National Review Board, said she is disappointed a committee has delayed a decision on whether to conduct a second annual review of how the bishops are managing the scandal.
   "This is ... a defining moment for the church," Burke said during a meeting of the lay church reform group Voice of the Faithful at St. Virgil's Roman Catholic Church in Morris Plains. "If church leadership does not pay attention, then (progress since 2002) has been for naught. I cannot stress strongly enough how important it is for the bishops to move ahead."
   The bishops' "enthusiasm" in handling sex abuse cases more openly appears to be diminishing, said Burke, an Illinois appellate justice.
   "I think some members of the (church) hierarchy feel they are out of the woods ... In all honesty, it leaves me unsettled," she said.
   In an audit for 2003, released in January, the National Review Board said 90 percent of the Catholic dioceses in the United States were complying with the Dallas Charter that bishops adopted in 2002 while besieged with reports of clergy sex abuse. Many board members and victims expected that the audit would become an annual process.
   Burke's comments came hours after the National Catholic Reporter magazine posted several letters on its Web site from bishops who wanted to delay until November a decision on whether to conduct another audit. One of the letters, written on Feb. 12, was signed by a group of New Jersey bishops and diocese leaders.
• Victims group, diocese clash over lawsuits
   The Express-Times, www.pennlive.com/news/expresstimes/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1084268248270830.xml , By JOHN ZUKOWSKI, Tuesday, May 11, 2004
   ALLENTOWN (PA): A victims' rights group has urged the Allentown Catholic Diocese to let lawsuits filed by five alleged abuse victims move forward. The suits will be heard Wednesday at Lehigh County Courthouse.
   In a letter to Allentown Diocese Bishop Edward P. Cullen, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP] called on the diocese not to use statute of limitations arguments to dismiss the suits.
   "There are other dioceses that haven't used hardball legal tactics and I would encourage the diocese to take the moral high ground and do what's best for the victims," said David Cerulli, a former Allentown resident and a SNAP member in New York. In 1991, Cerulli reached a $40,000 settlement with the Allentown Diocese after he filed an abuse suit.
   Joseph Leeson, the attorney representing the Allentown Diocese in the lawsuit, said Monday he would argue the lawsuits should be dismissed because they were not filed by the 20th birthdays of the alleged victims.
   However, the attorney representing the five alleged victims said he would argue that the statute of limitations argument doesn't apply to the lawsuits.
   "We feel the statute of limitations has no application because of the evidence of fraud and a cover-up," said Reading-area attorney Jay N. Abramowitch. "They put pedophile priests in positions without warning any one."
• Lay panel alleges deceit by bishops
   Newsday, www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscath123798447may12,0,5767315.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines ; BY CAROL EISENBERG, May 12, 2004
   NEW YORK: A leader of the high-profile lay committee investigating the clergy sex abuse scandals said yesterday he was "not optimistic" the nation's Catholic bishops would continue acting aggressively to protect children from molesters because "there are some bishops who want to delay and to retrench."
   The comments by Washington lawyer Robert Bennett came the same day that The National Catholic Reporter, an independent weekly newspaper, quoted a letter from Illinois Justice Anne Burke, chairwoman of the lay panel, saying the group was "manipulated" by some bishops who used it for public relations cover.
   Burke wrote March 29 to Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Ill., head of the U.S. bishops, that the panel had helped the bishops "dodge the bullet."
   Inescapable conclusion
   Even as panel members were presenting findings on the sexual abuse scandal at a Feb. 27 news conference, Burke wrote, they were not informed that the bishops were considering shelving or delaying some measures, including a second round of audits to monitor their compliance with new child protection policies.
   "It is hard to reach any other conclusion than that the failure to tell the National Review Board of these matters in a timely fashion was to make sure that they did not come up in any discussions with the national media on February 27th," Burke wrote. "In short, we were manipulated."
• 9 Students at School for Deaf Allege Abuse and Sue Nuns [1944-77 Sisters of St Joseph]
   The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2004/05/12/education/12students.html , By KATIE ZEZIMA, Published: May 12, 2004
   BOSTON (MA), May 11 - Nine former students of a now-closed Massachusetts school for the deaf filed a lawsuit on Tuesday saying they had been sexually, physically and emotionally abused by the Roman Catholic nuns who operated the institution.
   The plaintiffs, all of whom are deaf and mute, said they were raped, fondled, beaten, stuffed into lockers and had their heads submerged in toilets by nuns. The plaintiffs were ages 4 to 18 at the time, specified in the lawsuit as 1944 to 1977, while they were students at the Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph, a suburb of Boston. The school, which was operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, closed in 1994.
   The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk County Superior Court here, names 14 nuns, one priest, a staff member and Bishop Thomas V. Daily, the retired bishop of Brooklyn who had served in the Archdiocese of Boston, as defendants. It seeks unspecified monetary compensation.
• Priest's return worries parents [1994 Robinson, Pell, Hart]
   The Age (Melbourne), www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/12/1084289749587.html , By Farrah Tomazin, Education Reporter, May 13, 2004
   MELBOURNE, Victoria, AUSTRALIA: A Catholic priest who admitted having sex with a teenage boy 10 years ago has returned to work at a Williamstown church that adjoins a primary school.
   Father Barry Robinson's return to St Mary Immaculate Conception comes after public pressure forced him to leave the parish, where he had been assistant priest for seven years before his past was revealed in January.
   Former Melbourne archbishop George Pell appointed Father Robinson to Williamstown with the approval of the church's Independent Commissioner Against Sexual Abuse.
   The priest is widely supported by the Melbourne Archdiocese and many parishioners. But some parents have raised concerns about his re-emergence at the church, which is next to St Mary's Primary School.
   One parishioner told The Age he was shocked to see Father Robinson taking Mass last Sunday, describing his return as "reintegration by stealth" on the part of the church.
   The father of another child attending the school said: "There are definitely parents who have concerns that he's back. Why can't the archdiocese just cut their losses and move him to a different job entirely?" [...]
   When reports of his past surfaced in the media, the Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, issued a statement saying Father Robinson had been appointed to the parish after "intensive and successful treatment".
   But a month later Archbishop Hart sent a letter to families notifying them that Father Robinson had asked to leave.
   Father Robinson said he had withdrawn "because of the pressure of cowards". ...
• Attorney: 1 in 4 nuns abused deaf kids [violence, and sexual]
   The Enterprise, http://enterprise.southofboston.com/articles/2004/05/12/news/news/news03.txt , By David Connolly, May 12 2004
   BOSTON (MA): William Ross says he was 9 years old when a nun at the now-closed Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph force-fed him soup, causing him to vomit. And when he was 12, the same nun locked him in a dark closet for long periods of time, according to a lawsuit filed in Boston Tuesday.
   Ross, now of Taunton, also charges that when he was 16 and attending the school, another nun fondled his genitals, put his hand to her breasts and had sexual intercourse with him.
   Violet Guertin, now of Rockland, says that when she was a 9-year-old student at the school a nun put her head in a toilet bowl until she passed out, the same lawsuit alleges. Guertin says the same nun also raped her with a finger and locked her in a closet at the school for extended time periods.
   Ross and Guertin are among nine former students who allege that Catholic nuns at the school fondled and abused deaf children there over 33 years, according to the 100-page complaint filed Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court.
   "As children, they were sexually molested, physically abused and otherwise mentally tormented," attorney Mitchell Garabedian, representing the plaintiffs, said at a news conference Tuesday.
• Clergy abuse survivors decry audit delay tactic [2004]
   Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=27544 , By Eric Convey, Wednesday, May 12, 2004
   BOSTON (MA): Advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse responded with furor yesterday after the publication of letters revealing that members of a national lay board that studied the issue feel they were used by bishops to deflect negative publicity.
   "We were manipulated," Judge Ann Burke of Illinois, the board's chairwoman, wrote in a scathing letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
   The letter was obtained by the weekly National Catholic Reporter and published alongside others by bishops arguing for delaying an audit, set for this year, to determine whether their dioceses comply with anti-abuse policies.
   "This confirms our worst suspicions and fears," said David Cerulli, a New Yorker and board member of the group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
   "Among many, many depressing days, this is one of the most dark," he said.
   Steve Krueger, executive director of the Newton-based lay group Voice of the Faithful, said the letters "give the appearance of fraternal collusion as opposed to fraternal correction."
   Fraternal correction is the principle embraced by many bishops that calls for informal monitoring of each other. Church law places bishops under the direct authority of the pope, a situation that resulted in a patchwork of abuse-prevention policies across the country and inconsistent enforcement of those rules.
• St. Joseph nuns sued in abuse claim [1944-77]
   Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/05/12/st_joseph_nuns_sued_in_abuse_claim , By Ralph Ranalli, May 12, 2004
   BOSTON (MA): Nine former students at the now-defunct Boston School for the Deaf filed a lawsuit yesterday claiming they were the victims of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse decades ago by the staff of the school, including at least 14 nuns.
   Along with the nuns from the Sisters of St. Joseph, the plaintiffs are suing two priests, an athletic instructor, and a former top official in the Archdiocese of Boston, according to their lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian.
   Garabedian's clients, three women and six men, were between the ages of 7 and 16 when they were allegedly abused between 1944 and 1977. The plaintiffs, who are now between 41 and 67 years old, are all hearing- or speech-impaired. They say they were subjected to harsh physical abuse and corporal punishment, as well as alleged fondling and more serious sexual contact.
   "As children at the Boston School for the Deaf, as alleged in the complaint, they were sexually molested and physically abused and otherwise mentally tormented," Garabedian said at a news conference. "The people responsible for these acts were the Sisters of St. Joseph."
   The Brighton-based religious order issued a statement yesterday in response to the allegations, pledging to "begin an immediate investigation that will be fair and sensitive to all involved."
   "We want to remind all that the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston approaches reports of possible abuse with compassion, pastoral care, and attention to the protection of each person involved," the statement said. "From 1899-1994 our sisters staffed The Boston School for the Deaf, reaching out to the hearing impaired. We were able to positively influence thousands of lives."
   Sister Mary Carl Boland, a former principal of the school who is accused in the suit of physically abusing children, declined to comment when reached by the Associated Press yesterday at a Framingham retirement home for nuns. "I don't know what he's talking about," she said as she passed the phone to another woman. The other woman said, "We are not responding to reporters here."
   William H. Shaevel, a Boston lawyer representing the Sisters of St. Joseph order, did not return telephone calls yesterday. A lawyer for one of the accused priests, however, adamantly denied that his client did anything wrong, and voiced skepticism about the complaints in general.
• Bishops Accused Of Backsliding in Sex Abuse Scandal [4,392 abusers]
   Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18828-2004May11.html , By Alan Cooperman, Page A03, Wednesday, May 12, 2004
   UNITED STATES: A panel of prominent lay Catholics has accused the nation's Roman Catholic bishops of backsliding on their promises and seeking to return to "business as usual" since media attention to the clergy sex abuse scandal began to fade this year.
   In a heated exchange of letters made public yesterday, some bishops in turn accused the 13-member National Review Board of using offensive language and assuming "the worst motives on the part of the bishops."
   The letters reveal that the relationship between the bishops and their handpicked advisory board has become severely strained for the second time in a year. Last June, the board's original chairman, former Oklahoma governor Frank R. Keating (R), resigned after comparing some bishops to the mafia in their devotion to secrecy.
   Keating was replaced by Anne M. Burke, a justice of the Illinois Appellate Court. Under her direction, the board oversaw sexual abuse "audits" of all U.S. dioceses last year. On Feb. 27, it released a pair of landmark studies that found that 4,392 U.S. priests had been accused of child molestation since 1950 and placed much of the blame on bishops and seminaries.
   The heated correspondence, posted by the weekly National Catholic Reporter on its Web site yesterday, began a few weeks later. In a March 29 letter to Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Burke complained that the board had not been told until after its Feb. 27 news conference that key bishops were determined to prevent or postpone until November a second round of audits, which are designed to check their compliance with the church's child protection policies.
• Chaput rebukes inquiry panel [Chaput]
   Denver Post, www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2142218,00.html , By Eric Gorski, Wednesday, May 12, 2004
   DENVER (CO): Denver Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput has rebuked a board of prominent Catholic lay people investigating the clergy abuse scandal, suggesting the group has overstepped its bounds and issued "implicit threats."
   In a private letter made public Tuesday by the newspaper National Catholic Reporter, Chaput and his assistant, Bishop Jose Gomez, castigated Anne Burke, interim chairwoman of the National Review Board for the Protection of Young People.
   Chaput and Gomez addressed Burke's claim that bishops held back information and manipulated the board for public relations reasons.
   The dispute centers on whether to move ahead with a second annual analysis of whether U.S. dioceses are meeting requirements established by bishops two years ago in Dallas in response to the mushrooming priest sex abuse scandal.
• Bishops, lay panel at odds
   Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0405120273may12,1,3755970.story?coll=chi-news-hed ; By Geneive Abdo, Tribune religion reporter, Published May 12, 2004
   CHICAGO (IL): The head of a Roman Catholic lay review board has accused U.S. Catholic bishops of returning to "business as usual" in protecting the church from the fallout of the national priest sex abuse scandal.
   In a scathing letter, Illinois Appellate Judge Anne Burke charged the bishops with trying to block the 12-member review panel from conducting a second round of audits to determine if the nation's Catholic dioceses are protecting children from further sex abuse by priests.
   The letter is the strongest signal to date of tension between Catholic bishops and the lay review board appointed two years ago to help clean up sex abuse in the church.
   "We are very disheartened by this apparent decision to go back to 'business as usual,'" Burke wrote in a March letter to Belleville, Ill., Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
   "Those who said the bishops were never serious about breaking free from the sins, crimes and bad judgment of the past will be vindicated," Burke wrote.
   She also accused some bishops of hiding their moves to block the audits. "In short, we were manipulated," Burke wrote.
   The dispute centers on whether each of the 195 dioceses should be audited each year. Review board members believe the audits show whether reforms are effectively protecting children from possible sex abuse by priests. But some Catholic bishops oppose frequent audits for two reasons: Some believe the dioceses do not need to undergo frequent scrutiny if they are in compliance with new church regulations; and others believe the bishops, not the review board, should have the authority to make the decision over when the audits will occur.
   Audit delayed
   Burke said Tuesday that she wrote the letter because it appeared the bishops were making it impossible to complete an audit this year. In March, review board members learned that the bishops conference did not plan to vote until November on whether to permit a second round of audits. The review board had planned for work on the second audits to begin this summer.
• Church leaders accused of impeding reform
   The Times-Picayune, www.nola.com/newsflash/national/index.ssf?/base/national-23/108436764449770.xml , The Associated Press, 5/12/2004
   CHICAGO (IL) (AP) - The head of the review board set up to monitor Roman Catholic bishops' response to the clergy sex abuse crisis has accused the church leaders of returning to "business as usual" to impede reform efforts.
   Some bishops are trying to block the National Review Board from conducting an audit this year to determine whether all 195 U.S. dioceses are following reforms aimed at ridding the priesthood of abusers, Illinois Appellate Court Judge Anne Burke wrote in a letter published Tuesday.
   "Those who said the bishops were never serious about breaking free from the sins, crimes and bad judgments of the past will be vindicated," Burke wrote in a March 29 letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
   Burke confirmed to The Associated Press the authenticity of the text, posted on the Web site of National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper.
   The 12-member board of lay Catholics, appointed by U.S. bishops in 2002 to oversee the church's reform efforts, is required to release an annual audit, Burke said.
• Deacon Gets put on Leave after Sexual Abuse Allegations Surface [1991 Martone]
   WWLP, www.wwlp.com/news2004/story.html?artID=47494 , Updated: 4:34 PM, 05-11-2004
   SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS (WWLP) - Bishop Timothy McDonnell has placed Deacon James Martone on a leave of absence. A complaint alleging sexual misconduct with a minor which dates back to 1991 has been filed against Martone. The matter has been turned over to the Hampden County District Attorney's office. Martone has been recently serving in parishes in West Springfield and as business manager at Our Lady of Hope Parish in Springfield.
• Diocese Dissolves Special Fund for Priests
   WWLP, www.wwlp.com/news2004/story.html?artID=47563 , Updated: 4:42 PM , 05-11-2004
   SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS (WWLP) - The Diocese of Springfield has issued a statement regarding a special fund to provide sustenance to priests who are not allowed to function. The diocese says the fund that arose from these truly charitable impulses has been so misunderstood that it has to be dissolved. The donations made up from that fund will be used to help children by providing tuition and scholarships for low-income students in catholic schools.
• Rebel priest, bishop clash [Scahill, McDonnell, Martone]
   Republican, www.masslive.com/news/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1084353427156741.xml , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Wednesday, May 12, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): A maverick East Longmeadow priest who publicly battled the former Catholic bishop over clergy sexual abuse issues was kicked off a prestigious diocesan council yesterday by the new bishop after a heated exchange.
   The ouster of the Rev. James J. Scahill came on the same day that the most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell announced that a fund set up by his predecessor for abusive priests will be dissolved and money redirected to tuition aid and scholarships for children.
   The diocese also announced that James A. Martone, a 62-year-old Agawam deacon who served in Springfield and West Springfield parishes, was placed on leave after he was accused of sexually abusing a minor beginning in 1991.
   Scahill was removed from the 18-priest Presbyteral Council after he and the bishop argued over Scahill's recent criticism that the new bishop was taking too much time to decide whether the diocese should financially support Richard Lavigne, a defrocked priest and convicted sex offender. Scahill said the bishop told him he caused as much damage to the diocese as Lavigne.
   Asked to comment about Scahill's removal from the panel and the comment comparing Scahill and Lavigne, McDonnell issued a one-paragraph statement.
   "The Presbyteral Council is meant to be an advisory group to the bishop, not an adversarial one. Unfortunately, recent statements by Fr. James Scahill, made publicly last week, were not arguments on the merits of his position but personal attacks. While we can disagree on the arguments, there is no way that an attack by a priest on his Bishop does not have consequences," McDonnell's statement read.
   According to Scahill, McDonnell expressed his displeasure with the criticism about 20 minutes into the Presbyteral Council meeting.
   "He said, 'You attacked me personally. You basically called me a coward and said I was a lackey of the Vatican.' I said: I didn't use the word lackey," Scahill said.
   The two exchanged words for several minutes as Scahill left the room.
   During the exchange, Scahill said he was reminded by McDonnell that he took a vow of obedience to his bishop.
• Diocese augments its sex-abuse policy
   Press & Sun-Bulletin, www.pressconnects.com/today/news/stories/ne051204s88538.shtml , BY NANCY DOOLING, May 12 2004
   SYRACUSE (NY): A new Syracuse Diocese policy designed to detect and report potential child sex abuse includes notifying law enforcement.
   Previously, offending priests rarely faced criminal charges for their alleged sexual misconduct because law enforcement was not told of the incidents.
   Trainees are now told that they should call the diocese to report suspected child sex abuse.
   The diocese has pledged to notify civil authorities of any abuse allegations involving a child, a diocese spokeswoman said.
   "That's a part that was missing before," Broome County District Attorney Gerald F. Mollen said.
   Employees and volunteers also have been told that they must notify law enforcement of potential child abuse, said Danielle Cummings, spokeswoman for the Syracuse diocese.
• Sex-Abuse Panel Assails U.S. Bishops
   Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bishops12may12,1,2129669.story?coll=la-headlines-nation , By Larry B. Stammer, May 12, 2004
   UNITED STATES: New tensions within the U.S. Roman Catholic leadership surfaced Tuesday with the release of previously confidential letters in which an independent national review board on sexual abuse warned bishops that they risked "backsliding" in their commitment to protecting children from pedophile priests.
   In a scathing late March letter to the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Review Board's interim chair, Anne M. Burke, scolded bishops for taking a "business-as-usual" approach as the clerical sexual-abuse scandal faded from headlines. Burke, an Illinois Appellate Court justice, said bishops had "manipulated" the board and denied it information on future monitoring. At the same time, bishops argued about whether to delay a second audit by the review board on how well dioceses were complying with tough new policies meant to stop the sexual abuse of minors.
   In a Feb. 2 letter, Cardinal Edward Egan of New York urged a delay in talks about the new audit until a November bishops' meeting. Egan was criticized in the 2003 audit for failing - in his former post as bishop of Bridgeport, Conn. - to remove a priest who faced accusations.
   Burke said Egan's letter to Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the bishops' conference, drew a sharp response from Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles, who opposed waiting until November.
• Archdiocese named in clergy sex suit [1957-81 various, Rhoads]
   Philadelphia Daily News, www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/8645610.htm?1c , By GLORIA CAMPISI, campisg@phillynews.com , Wed, May. 12, 2004
   PHILADELPHIA (PA): Francis Meehan was just 10 years old when he was seduced by lay teacher Eileen Rhoads, a former nun, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in Philadelphia.
   Rhoads taught Meehan, a sixth grade student, at Holy Cross parochial school, in Springfield, Delaware County, and during class actually had the boy climb under her desk in front of the whole class and masturbate her, according to the lawsuit.
   The suit was filed by attorney Jay Abramowitch and another lawyer who have brought similar civil suits in a series of clergy sex-abuse cases, including several in Philadelphia.
   Yesterday, they sued the Philadelphia archdiocese and Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, now retired, on behalf of six more alleged clergy sex-abuse victims, and the diocese of Allentown on behalf of two. The Philadelphia-area cases all allegedly occurred between 1957 and 1981.
   Abramowitch said the victims had been advised not to comment publicly.
• Burke: Lay board 'manipulated'
   Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/output/religion/cst-nws-priest12.html , BY CATHLEEN FALSANI, Religion Reporter, May 12, 2004
   CHICAGO (Il): Correspondence made public Tuesday between leading U.S. bishops in the Roman Catholic Church and Justice Anne Burke, head of a 12-member board of prominent lay Catholics charged with watchdogging the implementation of a zero-tolerance policy toward clergy sex abuse of children, reveals a tremendously acrimonious relationship.
   "In short, we were manipulated," Burke, the Illinois Appellate Court justice who has served as interim chairwoman of the lay National Review Board for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, president of the bishops conference.
   Burke's March 29 letter and a half-dozen others written by various bishops were reported and posted Tuesday on the National Catholic Reporter's Web site, www.natcath.com, an independent Catholic newsweekly.
   "We believe that the work we have accomplished these past 22 months is perceived by the bishops as having successfully deflected extensive national criticism," Burke wrote in her March letter. "In effect, they have 'dodged a bullet.' "
   Burke wrote to Gregory after she learned several cardinals and bishops had been exchanging correspondence in an effort to delay until November a vote by the bishops conference allowing the National Review Board to continue auditing the compliance of every U.S. diocese with a 2002 church law that says a priest with even a single legitimate complaint of sexual abuse of children against him must be removed permanently from ministry.
• Two file suit claiming local diocese hid abuse
   The Express-Times, http://pennlive.com/news/expresstimes/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1084354486296690.xml , By BETH BRAVERMAN, Wednesday, May 12, 2004
   ALLENTOWN (PA): The number of lawsuits filed against the Diocese of Allentown by alleged victims of sexual abuse reached 10 Tuesday with the filing of two additional cases in Lehigh County Court.
   The suits claim the diocese and its top clergymen concealed ongoing sexual abuse of children by priests, some of whom worked in Northampton County.
   Bishops Edward P. Cullen and Thomas J. Welsh are accused of protecting the Rev. Gabriel M. Patil of the Barnabite Fathers and the Rev. Richard Giuliani, who left the priesthood 27 years ago. The suits do not call for a specific amount of compensation from the diocese.
   "Our main goal is to have the jury assess the damages and come to a fair decision," said Jay Abramowitch, a Wyomissing, Pa., attorney representing the plaintiffs.
   Abramowitch and Altoona attorney Richard M. Serbin will file several more cases soon, Abramowitch said.
   When the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York released a study this year that documented nearly 11,000 reports of abuse in the church between 1950 and 2002, Abramowitch said his clients went through psychological and mental pain all over again.
• Funds solicited for beleaguered priests
   The Amarillo Globe-News, www.amarillonet.com/stories/051204/new_fundspriest.shtml , By BRANDI DEAN, brandi.dean@amarillo.com , May 12 04
   AMARILLO (TX): A letter sent out to raise funds to help three of the former priests accused of sexual abuse in Amarillo has some people in the diocese upset.
   Retired Bishop Leroy Matthiesen said the zero-tolerance policy adopted by the Catholic church in 2002 has left some former diocese priests accused of sexual misconduct struggling to make ends meet, which prompted him to send a letter to a small group of people requesting donations on their behalf.
   The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People requires dioceses to permanently remove from the ministry a priest accused of any act of sexual abuse. This, Matthiesen said, leaves those priests, many of whom he said are getting up in years, in a situation similar to that of being laid off with no chance of being rehired.
   "Because that charter was retroactive 50 years, they were required to be removed no matter how well they had been doing," Matthiesen said. "They didn't ask me to do this. They did tell me that they didn't know what they were going to do. We're trained to do ministry and not much beyond that."
   Matthiesen said he sent the letter as a friend of the priests, not as a former bishop, but for some the distinction didn't make the letter any less troubling.
• Deaf plaintiffs speak loudly: Nuns raped us, tortured us [12 complainants]
   Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=27552 , By Franci Richardson, Wednesday, May 12, 2004
   BOSTON (MA): By the age of 9, Violet Guertin had already been raped, allegedly by a nun at the Boston School for the Deaf, and was onto another form of torture where a nun would force her head underwater in a toilet bowl until she passed out.
   Her brother, James Guertin, was the same age when he claims another nun made him walk through the public corridors of the school after removing his pants and underwear. It was an alternative to the usual punishment of being placed in a cafeteria trash barrel, the Quincy man said.
   James Sullivan was about 12 when a nun "under the guise of punishment" slammed his head against a window that broke and later forced his head in and out of a toilet bowl full of his own vomit.
   "I'm still not a happy person because all of that happened," an upset Sullivan, 55, of Dorchester said yesterday with the aide of a sign-language interpreter. "I still don't know who I am to this day."
   The three former Boston School for the Deaf students are among nine - ages 41 to 67 - who filed a civil complaint at Suffolk Superior Court yesterday, charging 12 nuns, school counselor the Rev. Charles J. Murphy, and former Boston auxiliary bishop Thomas V. Daily with the unthinkable. The now-defunct Randolph school, which was operated by an independent, nonprofit corporation, closed a decade ago.
• Lay review board leader says some bishops stalling on abuse [2004 some bishops]
   Boston Globe, www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/133/nation/Lay_review_board_leader_says_some_bishops_stalling_on_abuse+.shtml ; By Kevin Eckstrom, Religion News Service, 5/12/2004
   WASHINGTON (DC): Attempts by some Catholic bishops to delay a second round of oversight audits on sexual abuse runs the risk of returning the church to a dangerous era of "business as usual," the head of a lay review board said.
   Justice Anne M. Burke, chairwoman of the church's appointed National Review Board, warned that parishioners would find it reprehensible if the bishops stalled on a second round of national surveys to measure compliance with sex abuse reforms.
   "Those who said that the bishops were never serious about breaking free from the sins, crimes, and bad judgments of the past will be vindicated," Burke wrote in a March 30 letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
   Burke's letter, along with a flurry of correspondence from more than 30 bishops urging Gregory to delay, was posted online yesterday by the National Catholic Reporter.
   "A decision to backslide . . . will delay the necessary healing and reopen the wounds of deception, manipulation, and control -- all the false ideals that produced this scandal," she warned.
   Just days after the church released a nationwide audit in January showing that 90 percent of dioceses had implemented policies adopted in 2002, bishops in at least five states began an organized campaign to put the brakes on future audits.
   The bishops, including Cardinals Edward Egan of New York and Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, urged Gregory to postpone any decision on audits until a closed-door meeting of bishops in November. Burke and a church spokesman said yesterday the discussion will now occur at a private retreat next month in Denver.
   Egan and Rigali were joined by the bishops of New York, Nebraska, the 23 bishops of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the bishops of Connecticut.
• Diocese facing 2 more lawsuits [1976 Patil, Guiliani, Jones]
   The Morning Call, www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_5diocese-4rmay12,0,7938009.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed ; By Kathleen Parrish, May 12, 2004
   ALLENTOWN (PA): Two more lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Diocese of Allentown were filed Tuesday, too late for inclusion in today's Lehigh County Court hearing to consider the church's request to dismiss six other cases involving similar claims.
   The new suits involve additional claims of molestation against the Rev. Gabriel Patil, a member of the Barnabite religious order, who is now pastor at St. James Church in Ontario, Canada, and the Rev. Richard Guiliani, who was principal of Cardinal Brennan High School in Schuylkill County when the alleged abuse occurred in 1976.
   Today's hearing, to decide whether the six sexual abuse cases against the Diocese of Allentown, Bishop Edward P. Cullen and retired Bishop Thomas J. Welsh can go forward, is being held before a panel of judges instead of just one.
   Such a hearing is unusual, but in this case it's practical. Although the cases were filed separately and assigned to different Lehigh judges, the issue of whether the statute of limitations has expired is the same in each.
   In its petition for dismissal, the diocese is arguing the two-year deadline to file a civil case seeking money for alleged injuries has elapsed, considering the alleged abuses took place between 1965 and 1982.
   The diocese is also asking Schuylkill County Court to dismiss two cases of alleged sexual abuse by priests on similar grounds, but a hearing date hasn't been set.
   In one of the lawsuits filed in Schuylkill County, Pottsville businessman Scott Greis alleges he was molested between 1978 and 1980 by Monsignor William E. Jones, then pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church, Minersville.
   On Monday, Jones died in Lehigh Valley Hospital, Salisbury Township. He was 70.
• Victims to ignore installation, take their message to airwaves
   Telegram & Gazette, www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040512/NEWS/405120394/1004/NEWSLETTERS04 ; by Kathleen A. Shaw, T&G STAFF, kshaw@telegram.com , May 12 2004
   WORCESTER (MA): Area victims of clergy sexual abuse have decided not to demonstrate at the installation of Bishop Robert J. McManus Friday, but they will air a series of informational spots beginning today on WCTR-TV, Channel 3.
   Area victims decided they did not want to be "baited to stand out front of the cathedral with our signs and crosses. The best way to recognize the installation of this new bishop is to ignore him," said David L. Lewcon, who helped produce the spots.
   "Our attempt is to put a face on the victims of clergy sexual abuse," Mr. Lewcon said. The spots will continue through next week, he said. They are being shown during Worcester News Tonight.
   Susan Renehan of Southbridge, who has been active with the Coalition of Catholics and Survivors, also played a leading role in the venture.
   The 30-second spots contain statements from clergy abuse victims, including Mr. Lewcon.
   "Ten years ago, we were the heretics. Today, people are beginning to listen to us," Mr. Lewcon says in the ad.
   The female victims include Ann Hagan Webb, who is a New England leader of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Mr. Lewcon said they want to get across to the public that many of the victims of clergy sexual abuse are female.
   Money for the venture, which costs about $1,000, came from the Coalition of Catholics and Survivors and Voice of the Faithful.
   The footage for the spots was shot in March at a rally held in Boston by Bishop Accountability. The victims also are looking for other sources of money and intend to do their own fund-raising to keep the ads on the air, Mr. Lewcon said.
   "We really are grateful for the money that we got from these groups. It really is appreciated," he said.
   Mr. Lewcon said victims of sexual abuse stood outside of cathedrals for the installation of bishops in Portland, Maine, and Springfield and believe they were generally ignored and further traumatized. Putting their effort into buying air time to get their message across is more empowering to the victims and allows them to bypass the church, he said. Mr. Lewcon said victims also are concerned about what they see as a lack of coverage of their issues in local news media.
   "If we buy time, we get our message out there," he said.
   "It's the beginning of a series of messages that we are going to come forward with. This spot will be edited and made available to other advocacy groups throughout the country," Mr. Lewcon said. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:29 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Wed May 12, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont80.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Thu May 13, 2004 edition follows:-
• Most bishops support lay review board, Cardinal Mahony says
   National Catholic Reporter, http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/bn051304.htm , By John L. Allen Jr. from Rome, May 13 2004
   ROME: Amid tensions between the lay-led body created to investigate the sexual abuse crisis and some U.S. bishops, an American cardinal has said any attempt to eliminate the National Review Board would be "short-sighted," and represents only a minority view among the bishops.
   In the same interview with NCR in Rome May 13, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles also said he would not withhold Communion from pro-choice Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The full text of the interview can be found in the Special Documents section at NCRonline.org: Mahony Interivew.
   The 68-year-old cardinal, generally seen as on the church's moderate-to-progressive wing, said some bishops were never comfortable with the National Review Board and the Office of Child and Youth Protection.
   "In Dallas, [some bishops] voted for this reluctantly, and never did like this involvement of any review board or a national office or anything else," Mahony said. "They feel, we got a report out of them, we got John Jay, now let's get rid of the whole thing."
   "I personally think that's a very short-sighted approach," Mahony said. Reflecting on his experience with a lay review board in Los Angeles, he said, "The involvement of our wonderful lay leaders has been a real grace."
   On Kerry, Mahony said he was not comfortable with talk from some of his fellow bishops about denying Communion.
   "I'm puzzled by people rattling sanctions at the moment. That has not been our tradition over the years," Mahony said. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 05:00 PM]
• Former Gallup Diocese Priest Faces Sex Abuse Charges In Arizona [1983-84 Burns]
   ABQJournal, www.abqjournal.com/news/state/apgallup05-13-04.htm , The Associated Press, May 13 2004
   WINSLOW, Ariz. -- A former priest in New Mexico's Diocese of Gallup has been accused of sexually abusing a Winslow boy two decades ago.
   James Matthew Burns, 70, of Wickenburg, Ariz., appeared this week before Judge John Lamb on three counts of molestation of a child and one of sexual contact with a minor. Lamb set a preliminary hearing for May 27.
   In the hallway outside court Tuesday, Burns told a reporter for The Independent in Gallup: "I feel terrible about it. It has ruined my life and his life."
   A criminal complaint alleges that between Jan. 1, 1983 and Dec. 31, 1984, Burns molested and engaged in sexual contact with the boy, then under age 15, near a Winslow park and in the church rectory.
   At the time, Burns was a Gallup Diocese priest assigned to St. Joseph's parish. Before then, he had been assigned to parishes across northern Arizona. After Winslow, Burns moved to a parish in Blanco, N.M.
• Bishop dissolves priests fund; removes priest from council [2004 McDonnell]
   iobserve ; www.iobserve.org/rn0513.html , By Father Bill Pomerleau, Observer staff, May 13 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): Springfield Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell announced May 11 that he had dissolved a fund established to support priests accused of misconduct and on the same day dismissed an outspoken priest from a diocesan advisory board.
   Father James Scahill, pastor of St. Michael Parish in East Longmeadow, was removed from the diocese's presbyteral council following recent televised comments the priest made on a fund that might have been used by former priest Richard Lavigne and clergy removed from active ministry because of sexual misconduct.
   Lavigne is scheduled to lose his diocesan support at the end of this month, and had contacted Bishop McDonnell to request assistance from a fund established by independent donors.
   Father James Scahill, pastor of St. Michael Parish in East Longmeadow, criticized Bishop McDonnell for taking a phone call from Lavigne, and for not immediately deciding to abolish the fund.
   "The very thought that he is even thinking about it indicates he lacks the courage to do the right thing. He's looking for some marching orders from Rome, perhaps," said Father Scahill in a televised interview.
• New bishop criticized for comparing critic to convicted pedophile [2004 McDonnell]
   Providence Journal, www.projo.com/ap/ne/1084480641.htm , The Associated Press, 05.13.2004
   SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - The new bishop of the Springfield Diocese apologized Thursday for hurting the feelings of alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse by comparing an outspoken priest and critic of church policies to a convicted pedophile.
   During a heated exchange Tuesday that ended with the priest's dismissal from an advisory board, Bishop Timothy McDonnell said the Rev. James Scahill had done as much damage to the diocese as Richard Lavigne, a defrocked priest who was convicted in 1992 of molesting two altar boys, according to Scahill and others present.
   In a written statement issued Thursday, McDonnell didn't deny making the statement, and said he "would never intentionally cause more hurt to those who have already suffered so much pain. I apologize to all those who have had wounds reopened."
   Scahill's East Longmeadow parish has been withholding a portion of its weekly collections for the past two years to protest continued diocesan support for Lavigne. Scahill recently publicly questioned why McDonnell was taking so long in deciding to dissolve a fund created by private donors to support indigent priests that Lavigne could have been eligible for.
   Scahill dubbed the donations a "felon's fund."
• SJC forces release of accused priest's files [Talbot; 2004 Jesuit Order]
   Providence Journal, www.projo.com/ap/ma/1084480998.htm , By KEN MAGUIRE, Associated press Writer, 05.13.2004
   BOSTON (MA) (AP) - The state's highest court on Thursday ordered the Roman Catholic Jesuit order to turn over the personnel files of a priest charged with molesting two of his students at Boston College High School in the 1970s.
   The Rev. James F. Talbot and the Society of Jesus of New England, known as Jesuits, sought constitutional protection under religious freedom to withhold more than 15 documents demanded by prosecutors, but a 4-3 majority of the Supreme Judicial Court disagreed.
   Dissenting justices wrote that the decision may dissuade church institutions from doing their own investigations of alleged sexual assaults by clergy, and one argued that the court was undermining religious freedom in its ruling.
   Talbot, 66, has pleaded innocent to one count of rape and one count of assault with attempt to rape.
   Talbot was the first New England Jesuit to be prosecuted since the clergy abuse crisis started in Boston more than two years ago.
• Drunken Mexican priest shoots mayor dead [2004 Cuellar]
   New Zealand Herald, www.nzherald.co.nz/latestnewsstory.cfm?storyID=3566194&thesection=news&thesubsection=world ; May.13.2004
   MEXICO CITY - A Catholic priest shot to death the mayor of a town in western Mexico early on Wednesday after the pair got drunk and began punching each other during a religious festival, state officials said.
   After exchanging blows, the priest whipped out a 9mm pistol and fired four bullets into Lorenzo Ruiz, mayor of Chalpatlahuac, an indigenous town nestled in mountains 220km west of the Guerrero state capital of Chilpancingo, authorities said.
   "It seems they were arguing, these two men. They were at a get-together, they had words and the priest shot the mayor. They were apparently both in a state of drunkenness," said Guerrero state spokesman Jesus Nava.
   Local newspapers said the priest, whom they identified as Lorenzo Cuellar, was arrested after he also shot the mayor's son, injuring him.
   The priest was in Chalpatlahuac to celebrate a local religious festival which started on Tuesday evening and lasted into Wednesday morning.
• N.Y. pol blasts Vatican 'hypocricy' for Iraq abuse protest
   New York Daily News, www.nydailynews.com/front/breaking_news/story/193007p-166794c.html , THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 13, 2004
   WASHINGTON (DC): Catholic lawmaker Peter King ripped Church leaders as hypocrites Thursday for the Vatican's foreign minister claim that the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal is worse for America than the Sept. 11 attacks.
   "If there's anyone in the world who has no right to speak on sexual abuse, it's the Vatican," said Rep. King, an anti-abortion Republican. "This is the height of hypocrisy."
   In an interview published Wednesday in the Rome daily La Repubblica, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo described the abuses as "a tragic episode in the relationship with Islam" and said the scandal would fuel hatred for the West and for Christianity.
   "The torture? A more serious blow to the United States than Sept. 11. Except that the blow was not inflicted by terrorists but by Americans against themselves," Lajolo was quoted as saying.
   Disturbing photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused and sexually humiliated by American military at the Abu Ghraib prison have stunned the world, and prompted some Democrats to call for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to resign or be fired.
   King said the Catholic Church should be the last group to claim moral high ground on issues of sexual abuse, given the past several years of revelations about priests abusing children for years while church officials failed to stop such behavior.
   "Whatever the United States has done to prisoners in Iraq is nothing compared to what priests and nuns did to Catholic kids for decades while the Catholic hierarchy covered it up," King said.
• Priest hit with abuse charges [2004 Yarrosh]
   The Express-Times, www.nj.com/news/expresstimes/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1084439075253980.xml , By BETH BRAVERMAN, Thursday, May 13, 2004
   PENNSYLVANIA: A former Easton priest faces more than 100 charges of sexual abuse of children, after police say they found hundreds of child pornography images in his rectory and in his home.
   Police found the pornography while investigating the embezzlement of funds from St. Ambrose Church in Schuylkill Haven, Pa., where the Rev. Ronald Yarrosh worked.
   Yarrosh, 56, was transferred last June to St. Ambrose after a two-year stint at St. Bernard's Church in Easton.
   "I went to the (Allentown) Diocese several weeks ago, because I was concerned about theft and pornography," said the Rev. Michael Stone of St. Ambrose Church.
   On April 22, the diocese and Stone contacted state police at Schuylkill Haven, who conducted a search of Yarrosh's office, bedroom and library the following day. The search yielded an "enormous amount" of child pornography including pictures of naked boys and girls engaging in erotic poses or performing sexual acts, police said.
   On April 26, police searched the rectory again as well as Yarrosh's storage unit at U-Rent-It storage facility in Hazle Township, Luzerne County, police said. The search turned up more pornographic material, police said. Police also found 256 pornographic images on Yarrosh's parish computer.
• Bishop's remark outrages victims [2004 McDonnell]
   Republican, http://masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1084434605324100.xml?nncic , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Thursday, May 13, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): Alleged clergy sexual abuse victims, their families and supporters expressed outrage yesterday after hearing that the bishop compared an outspoken priest who has been an advocate for victims with a notorious pedophile priest.
   "To equate someone who the victims see as their hero with a perpetrator leaves victims feeling betrayed, insulted," said Greenfield lawyer John J. Stobierski, who said he received calls from about 10 angry people by noon yesterday.
   The Rev. James J. Scahill said Tuesday that the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, said Scahill has done as much damage to the diocese as Richard R. Lavigne. A defrocked priest and convicted sex offender, Lavigne also is the only identified suspect in the 1972 unsolved murder of 13-year-old altar boy Daniel Croteau.
   Scahill said that the bishop made the comparison during a meeting of the Presbyteral Council and removed him from the board. The bishop has refused to discuss the matter.
   Monsignor Richard S. Sniezyk, the diocese vicar general, was present when the comparison was made as McDonnell removed Scahill from the council. Sniezyk said the action brought some relief to other members of the 18-priest panel.
   Scahill's presence on the panel created a tension that was not conducive to accomplishing work, Sniezyk said.
   "It's not that other priests disagreed with his message, but it is the method and the way he delivered it that made priests uncomfortable," Sniezyk said.
• Abuse audit splits board, bishops
   Philadelphia Inquirer, www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/8654366.htm?ERIGHTS=6530310564106194519philly::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM=1impqpknppohhhhhhhhhholjmp|Kathleen|Y ; By David O'Reilly, Thu, May. 13, 2004
   UNITED STATES: The lay board investigating clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church has accused the national bishops' conference of hiding the fact that some bishops - including Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia - are seeking to put off an audit this year of their handling of sex-abuse issues.
   The squabble reveals a struggle between Catholic lay leaders and the bishops over continuing oversight of the child sex-abuse problem in the American church.
   "I think some of them want to retrench," Robert Bennett, a prominent member of the National Review Board (NRB), said of the bishops.
   The controversy came to light Tuesday when the National Catholic Reporter magazine posted on its Web site a March 29 letter from the NRB chairwoman, Illinois judge Anne Burke, to the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
   Burke complained to Bishop Wilton Gregory that the conference leadership had "manipulated" and deceived the NRB by concealing that many bishops were resisting a 2004 audit.
   Burke said she was incensed that the leadership had said nothing of the bishops' lobbying effort when board members met with them a week earlier, or at a major joint news conference with the NRB in late February.
   "It is hard to reach any other conclusion than that the failure to tell the NRB of these matters in a timely fashion was to make sure that they did not come up in any discussions with the national media on Feb. 27," Burke wrote Gregory.
   "In short, we were manipulated. We are very disheartened by this decision to go back to business as usual," she wrote. "Those who said that the bishops were never serious about breaking free from the sins, crimes and bad judgments of the past will be vindicated" if the bishops jettison annual audits.
• Priest's Libel Suit Is Dismissed [2004 Alzugaray]
   Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com/news/local/state/la-me-priest13may13,1,3197680.story?coll=la-news-state ; By Jean Guccione, May 13, 2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA): A judge on Wednesday dismissed a libel suit filed by a Roman Catholic priest against a victims' rights group that supported the woman who had accused him of molesting her.
   In February, Msgr. Joseph F. Alzugaray, a former Los Angeles priest, sued the Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests as well as his accuser and her lawyer. Alzugaray alleged they defamed him in leaflets that SNAP members distributed outside churches and on web- sites.
   But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Jon M. Mayeda threw out the case against SNAP after finding "there is insufficient evidence to refute the truthfulness of the defendant's statements."
   "The statements of defendant SNAP were in connection with a judicial proceeding, and the information was disseminated in a public forum on a public issue pursuant to defendant SNAP's 1st Amendment rights," Mayeda ruled.
   Mary Grant, the Southern California regional director of SNAP, said in a prepared statement that the judge's ruling vindicated the Chicago-based support group.
   "We urge victims of abuse to not be deterred or intimidated by church leaders' harsh legal maneuvers and public relations stunts that are designed to keep victims of abuse trapped in their trauma and keep vulnerable people at risk of abuse in the church," Grant said.
• Archbishop Is `Troubled' By Sex-Abuse Surveys [2004 Mansell]
   Hartford Courant, www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-bishopletter0513.artmay13,1,5325954.story?coll=hc-headlines-local ; By FRANCES GRANDY TAYLOR, May 13, 2004
   HARTFORD (CT): In a February letter to the president of the U.S. Catholic bishops, Hartford Archbishop Henry J. Mansell said he was "troubled" that two national review boards examining allegations of priest sexual abuse were overstepping their authority and acting too independently.
   Mansell's letter was among a group of letters made public this week from archbishops and bishops across the country, written shortly before a survey commissioned by the church's Office of Child and Youth Protection was issued.
   The National Catholic Reporter, an independent weekly newspaper, posted the letters Tuesday on its website.
   Victims' groups said Wednesday they were outraged that the bishops seemed to be backing away from the needed reform process.
   "The board should be independent. We've always said that the bishops should not be able to police themselves," said Landa Mauriello-Vernon, president of the Connecticut chapter of Survivors of Those Abused by Priests. "The archbishop seems concerned that the two entities are behaving independently and not under the bishops' control."
   In Mansell's letter, dated Feb. 12, he complained that the National Review Board and the Office of Child and Youth Protection appeared to be "expanding their competence, responsibilities, activities, and studies in a dynamic of autonomy."
• Judges to rule if diocese suits can continue
   The Morning Call, www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a7_5diocesemay13,0,815254.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed , By Debbie Garlicki, May 13, 2004
   ALLENTOWN (PA): Three Lehigh County judges who will decide whether alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests can proceed with lawsuits asked lawyers numerous questions Wednesday that provoked thought but didn't indicate how they will rule.
   Joseph Leeson, the Allentown Catholic Diocese's attorney, asked Judges Carol K. McGinley, Alan M. Black and J. Brian Johnson to dismiss six suits because the statute of limitations for filing them expired. He said the plaintiffs are trying to circumvent deadlines for filing suits by using theories that have no basis in the law.
   Jay Abramowitch, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, argued that the cases should be allowed to continue because the plaintiffs didn't know until relatively recently that the diocese had engaged in misrepresentations, fraud and concealment.
   The three judges took the issue under advisement and will issue a decision later.
   Abramowitch and lawyer Richard Serbin have filed eight suits in Lehigh County - the last two on Tuesday - and about 100 across the state.
   The plaintiffs have not sued individual priests who allegedly abused them but have filed suits against the Allentown Diocese, Bishop Edward P. Cullen and retired Bishop Thomas J. Welsh.
   Leeson contends that the suits should be dismissed because they contain admissions by the plaintiffs that they knew a long time ago that abuse occurred, when, by whom and where. The alleged victims, he said, want the court to create a new "judicially unrecognized" cause of action against the diocese because of a national scandal that has nothing to do with the individual cases.
• Letters reveal bishops' infighting
   Wichita Eagle, www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/living/religion/8654525.htm , BY LARRY B. STAMMER, The Los Angeles Times, Thu, May. 13, 2004
   UNITED STATES: New tensions within the U.S. Roman Catholic leadership have surfaced with the release of previously confidential letters in which an independent national review board on sexual abuse warned bishops that they risked "backsliding" in their commitment to protecting children from pedophile priests.
   In a scathing late March letter to the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, released Tuesday, the National Review Board's interim chairwoman, Anne Burke, scolded bishops for taking a "business-as-usual" approach as the clerical sexual-abuse scandal has faded from headlines. Burke, an Illinois Appellate Court justice, said the bishops had "manipulated" the board and denied it information on future monitoring.
   At the same time, bishops were arguing over whether to delay a second audit by the review board on how well dioceses were complying with tough new policies meant to stop the sexual abuse of minors.
   In a Feb. 2 letter, Cardinal Edward Egan of New York urged a delay in talks about the new audit until a November bishops' meeting. Egan was criticized in the 2003 audit for failing -- in his former post as bishop of Bridgeport, Conn. --to remove a priest who faced accusations.
   Egan's letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the bishops' conference, drew a sharp response from Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, who opposed waiting until November, according to Burke.
   Mahony warned that he and other California bishops would not attend a national meeting in June unless bishops took up the issue at that time, Burke said. Mahony was in Rome on Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
• Convicted priest returns to ministry [2003 Larger]
   The Cincinnati Enquirer, www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/05/13/loc_larger13.html , By Dan Horn, May 13 2004
   CINCINNATI (OH): A Cincinnati priest convicted of soliciting sex from an undercover police officer will return to active ministry Monday.
   The Rev. Raymond Larger, former pastor of Our Lady of Visitation in Green Township, was suspended last August after a male officer arrested him for soliciting sex in a Dayton, Ohio, park. He pleaded no contest and was convicted of two misdemeanor charges of public indecency.
   "I am deeply sorry for my wrongdoing," Larger said in a statement. "I apologize to those I have hurt and who were offended by my behavior, especially my former parishioners, my family and my friends."
   More than a dozen archdiocese priests have been suspended during the past two years for misconduct, mostly for sexually abusing children.
   While most of those priests remain banned from ministry, church officials said they viewed Larger's case differently because it did not involve children.
   They also noted that Larger's psychologist believes "it would be appropriate for Father Larger to return to active ministry." He will live at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral in downtown Cincinnati and will help out at parishes as needed.
• Police discover ‘enormous’ amounts of pornographic material at suspect’s church [2004 Yarrosh]
   The News Item, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11641770&BRD=2311&PAG=461&dept_id=482260&rfi=6 , By Frank Andruscavage, Times-Shamrock Writer, 05/13/2004
   SCHUYLHILL HAVEN (PA): Police investigating an alleged embezzlement of funds at a church here made a much more disturbing discovery.
   While examining the rectory at St. Ambrose Roman Catholic Church, state troopers found enormous amounts of pornographic material and many photos of boys and girls in varying states of undress, engaging in sexual acts and posing erotically.
   The disturbing find led to the arrest Wednesday of an assistant pastor at the church, who was charged with 110 counts of felony sexual abuse of children.
   Ronald J. Yarrosh, 56, who lists a home address of 151 Woodbine Road, Downingtown, was also charged with one count of criminal use of a communication facility, also a felony.
   Yarrosh surrendered at about 1 p.m. at the Port Carbon office of District Justice David A. Plachko who, after a brief arraignment, released the priest on $50,000 unsecured bail.
   State police Trooper Daniel T. Conville of the Schuylkill Haven station, the arresting officer, said police had no objection to the bail since Yarrosh is involved in a treatment program at a psychiatric hospital in the Philadelphia area and has guaranteed to show for all court proceedings.
   Conville said troopers investigating a possible theft of funds from the church accidentally came across the mounds of pornographic material collected by the priest.
• Former priest, C. Brennan principal accused of sexually assaulting student [1976 Giuliani]
   The News Item, www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11641746&BRD=2311&PAG=461&dept_id=482260&rfi=6 , By Peter Bortner , Times-Shamrock Writer, 05/13/2004
   ALLENTOWN (PA): Alleged sexual abuse by a former principal of Cardinal Brennan High School against a student has led to another lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Allentown.
   In the suit, filed Tuesday in Lehigh County Court, Janet Wychulis, 43, claimed the Rev. Richard Giuliani abused her in December 1976 while they were riding in a car.
   Wychulis’ lawyer, Jay N. Ambramowitch, Wyomissing, who also represents other plaintiffs in lawsuits alleging abuse, put his client’s whereabouts as Schuylkill County.
   Giuliani allegedly "squeezed and fondled" Wychulis while they were returning to the Fountain Springs school from a shopping trip, the lawsuit claims.
   The 40-page suit, one of two filed Tuesday against the diocese, its bishop, the Most Rev. Edward P. Cullen, and its former bishop, the Most Rev. Thomas J. Welsh, is the latest in a series of claims filed against the diocese for alleged incidents of abuse by priests against children.
   However, it is unusual because of the victim, according to Abramowitch. "This lawsuit is kind of atypical of priest abuse cases because the victim is a woman," said Abramowitch, who represents numerous other plaintiffs in lawsuits involving alleged abuse cases.
   The diocese, Cullen and Welsh knew Giuliani and other priests abused children but conspired to keep the incidents secret, worrying about the priests’ reputations more than the welfare of its children, the suit alleges. Priests were transferred or counseled, endangering even more children, but never discharged or turned over to legal authorities, the lawsuit claims.
• Judges asked to allow lawsuits in old abuse cases
   The Express-Times, www.nj.com/news/expresstimes/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1084439159253980.xml , By BETH BRAVERMAN, Thursday, May 13, 2004
   ALLENTOWN (PA): Three Lehigh County judges heard arguments Wednesday on whether five people waited too long to file lawsuits alleging decades-old abuses against the Diocese of Allentown.
   In Pennsylvania the statute of limitations for children claiming abuse expires at age 20.
   Jay Abramowitch, the attorney representing the alleged victims, argued this time limit is inapplicable because his clients were unaware of the extent of the diocese's cover-up until recently, when media outlets investigated the Catholic church's sexual abuse scandal, he said.
   "When the diocese makes the admission that it did these wrongs, new injury occurs," he said.
   Arguing that the deadline has passed was Joseph Leeson, an attorney representing the diocese and Bishop Edward P. Cullen and Bishop Thomas J. Welsh, both of whom are named as co-defendants in the suit.
   "They (the alleged victims) have admitted to knowing what happened, who did it, where it happened and when it happened," said Leeson.
   The plaintiffs should have filed their lawsuits within the required timeframe because they always knew their alleged abusers were Catholic priests who worked for the diocese, Leeson said.
   In January, Abramowitch initiated the five lawsuits, each of which seeks more than $750,000 in damages.
• Almodovar reveals film's bad memories
   BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3710127.stm , By Ian Youngs, BBC News Online in Cannes, Thursday, 13 May, 2004
   FRANCE: This year's Cannes Film Festival has been opened by the new film by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, who won an Oscar in 2003 for his last offering, Talk To Her.
   Mr Almodovar has revealed that La Mala Educacion (Bad Education), dealing with the dark subject of abuse by priests in a Catholic school in the 1960s, was partly based on experiences at his own school.
   The film, which has had a rapturous reception from critics, centres on the consequences of a priest falling in love with and trying to abuse one of his pupils.
   "Yes, I knew priests who acted like that and yes, I knew children who suffered abuse," Mr Almodovar said.
   The film-maker said he too received a "bad education" from Catholic priests that was "based on fear of punishment and the feeling of guilt".
   But he stressed the story did not relate directly to his own past.
   "Naturally, I've witnessed and seen events taking place in the settings in which the film is set," he said.
• Schuylkill priest faces 110 counts of child sex abuse [2004 Yarrosh]
   The Morning Call, www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1-1priestsex1may13,0,1375258.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed ; By Chris Parker, May 13, 2004
   SCHUYKILL HAVEN (PA): A Schuylkill County Catholic priest was charged with 110 counts of sexual abuse of children Wednesday after police found hundreds of child pornography photos, books, magazines, videotapes and DVDs while investigating whether he embezzled church funds.
   The Rev. Ronald J. Yarrosh, 56, an assistant pastor at St. Ambrose Church in Schuylkill Haven who was also on the advisory board of the parish grade school, is the third priest who had served St. Ambrose to be publicly accused of sexual impropriety.
   The Catholic Diocese of Allentown pulled Yarrosh from his assignment when police first became involved, said diocese spokesman Matt Kerr.
   Police searching Yarrosh's bedroom, library/sitting room and office at the rectory April 23 "encountered a voluminous amount of pornography" that included books and magazines with pictures of prepubescent children in various stages of dress, performing sex acts and in erotic poses, an affidavit says.
   Police also searched Yarrosh's parish computer for financial data in the embezzlement investigation.
   With a second search warrant, police seized 20 nudist colony magazines, 17 Asian/foreign pornographic magazines, more than 20 pornographic DVDs, 10 hard-cover books and six soft-cover books with images of nude children and an accordion folder containing pictures of prepubescent boys and girls engaged in sex acts or erotic poses that had been printed from a computer.
• Deaf students want abuse stories heard; Lawsuit reveals dark tales about life at Randolph school [1944-77 Sisters of St Joseph]
   The Patriot Ledger, http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2004/05/13/news/news02.txt , By DENNIS TATZ, May 13 2004
   BOSTON (MA): Violet Guertin remembers she was about 9 when a nun at the Boston School for the Deaf in Randolph forced her head into a toilet bowl and held it there until she passed out.
   Guertin, 41, who lives in Rockland, is one of nine former students who say they were sexually assaulted or beaten by nuns at the non-profit school that closed a decade ago.
   A 100-page lawsuit filed yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court details alleged abuse at the school between 1944 and 1977.
   Guertin and other former students told reporters through a sign language interpreter yesterday that the time had come for them to fight back and tell their story.
   "We want you all to know we have been victims," said Guertin, whose brother, who lives in Quincy, is also a plaintiff.
   Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian represents 31 people who say they were abused at the school, which was run by the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston. More lawsuits are expected.
• Ex-priest's repulsive words surpassed only by his atrocious acts [1984 Ferraro]
   Lowell Sun, www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1413,105%257E4772%257E2139232,00.html?search=filter , By Dan Phelps, dphelps@lowellsun.com , Monday, May 10, 2004
   LOWELL (MA): In a minute or two, you will read the most despicable words that have been published in this newspaper in some time.
   These words are so vile that it is little consolation that the man who spoke them may soon be spending the rest of his pathetic life behind bars.
   They are the words of one Romano Ferraro, a former so-called priest, in his own defense against charges that he raped a Billerica boy on several occasions 20 years ago.
   I say Ferraro was a so-called priest because though he may have done everything one must do to become a priest, he was one in name only, not in the qualities that make a priest a priest.
   He is the lowest form of human being, one who took the trust of children and their families and shattered it by admittedly molesting and raping dozens of those children. [...]
   How do they feel about the man who spoke these words on the stand of a Cambridge courtroom for all to hear?
   "I did it to please the children."
   What a guy, huh?
   He acted out his sexual perversions on innocent children who held him in high regard and he did it all for them.
   We can only hope that on May 20, when Ferraro returns to the courtroom to hear his sentence, the judge tells him, "This sentence is designed to please the children, too: life in jail." # [Emphasis added]
• Priest faces child porn charges [2004 Yarrosh]
   PennLive.com ; www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-16/1084400665255240.xml , The Associated Press, 6:19 p.m. ET, 5/12/2004,
   SCHUYLKILL HAVEN, Pa. (AP) - A Schuylkill County priest was arraigned Wednesday on child porn charges that developed from an investigation into missing church funds.
   The charges against the Rev. Ronald Yarrosh came after the the Rev. Michael Stone, the head pastor at St. Ambrose Church in Schuylkill Haven, met with state police to discuss missing money. A warrant from that investigation led to police finding a large amount of pornography in Yarrosh's office, bedroom and library featuring people under the age of 18.
   Yarrosh was arraigned Wednesday and released on $50,000 unsecured bail. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on May 21.
   Matt Kerr, a spokesman for the Diocese of Allentown, said Yarrosh has been withdrawn from his assignment at St. Ambrose and that since the matter is still under investigation, the diocese would not comment further.
• Catholic abuse review in turmoil [2004 RC bishops]
   The Journal News, www.nyjournalnews.com/newsroom/051304/a0113churchabuse.html , By GARY STERN, May 13, 2004
   UNITED STATES: Stinging criticism of the nation's Catholic bishops by a top lay official monitoring the church's handling of sex abuse has victims groups demanding that the church openly reaffirm its commitment to protecting children from abuse.
   In a March 30 letter to the president of the U.S. Bishops Conference, the interim chair of an independent review board on sex abuse scolded the bishops for returning to "business as usual" once the sex-abuse scandal faded from headlines.
   "People of good faith were willing to give the bishops the benefit of the doubt over the handling of the crisis because it looked as though they had turned a corner and were serious about making changes," wrote Anne Burke, an Illinois appellate court judge. "It would be shameful if we were now to discover that we were wrong about that commitment of our bishops."
   Burke's letter, and several strongly worded responses from bishops, were posted Tuesday on the Web site of the National Catholic Reporter, an independent, liberal Catholic newspaper.
   The crux of the exchange of letters was a decision by the bishops to delay a second, annual audit of how all 195 dioceses are complying with a 2002 policy to curtail abuse. Several bishops, including Cardinal Edward Egan of New York, asked Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the bishops conference, to hold things up until bishops could meet in November.
• Detroit Archdiocese Responds to Clergy Abuse Lawsuit
   Yahoo! News, http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040512/nyw217_1.html , PRNewswire, 8:59 pm ET, Wednesday May 12 2004
   DETROIT (MI): The following is a statement from Ned McGrath, Director of Communications, Archdiocese of Detroit, issued today:
   "Although apparently shared with the news media at an event staged Wednesday afternoon when filed, the Archdiocese of Detroit has not yet seen the lawsuit in which it is named. The approach utilized in the filing of this case does appear to be consistent with what SNAP and the attorneys working for them have employed elsewhere around the country- a class action lawsuit heightens the profile of the advocacy group and at the same time identifies potential clients.
   "As it relates to the handling of cases involving the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, the Detroit archdiocese signed a voluntary agreement with the prosecutors in southeast Michigan two years ago; according to civil authorities, that reporting process has worked and has worked well. Earlier this year, the Detroit archdiocese was further commended by the National Review Board subsequent to an extensive audit of its policies and procedures. There is no time limit or restriction on bringing forward a complaint to the Detroit archdiocese. Pastoral care is extended and, when and where indicated, professional counseling is provided."
• Four men who say priests molested them sue Detroit archdiocese
   MLive.com ; www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?g9444_BC_MI--ChurchAbuse-Lawsu&&news&newsflash-michigan ; By DAVID N. GOODMAN, The Associated Press, 5:30 PM, 5/12/04
   DETROIT (MI) (AP) -- Four men backed by a national victims rights group sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit on Wednesday, saying the church conspired to cover up their sexual abuse by priests as children decades ago.
   The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status for the lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court.
   "We are here today because of the courageous stand that several people have taken to protect the children of the Archdiocese of Detroit," Barbara Blaine, founder of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [SNAP], said at a news conference outside the courthouse.
   "For decades, the Archdiocese of Detroit has transferred known child molesters from one parish to another," endangering hundreds of thousands of children, Blaine said. "Today, we say, 'No more silence."'
   Archdiocese spokesman Ned McGrath said it had not yet seen a copy of the suit. He defended the church's handling of complaints of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy.
• Priest Possible Focus Of Child-Porn Investigation [2004 Holtey]
   TheSanDiegoChannel.com ; www.thesandiegochannel.com/news/3298317/detail.html , May 12, 2004
   SAN DIEGO (CA): A Loma Portal-area Catholic school is the focus of an investigation involving possible Internet-based child-pornography crimes, 10News reported.
   San Diego police and federal agents served a search warrant last Thursday at St. Charles Borromeo Academy on Cadiz Street, said San Diego Police Department Sgt. David Jones, who serves on a multi-agency task force targeting Internet crimes against minors.
   According to 10News, a computer, software and other items belonging to the Rev. Gary Holtey were confiscated. Jones said no arrests have taken place.
   SDPD detectives aided personnel with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department in Thursday afternoon's search, during which agents seized computer equipment and other potential evidence, Jones said.
   Jim, a parishioner of St. Charles Borromeo Church, saw Hol-Tee after the raid.
   "When I talked to him, I asked him and said, 'I hope everything is OK.' He said, 'I've done nothing wrong and the diocese backs me up,'" Jim told 10News.
   Jim added that the priest is very popular. "He's very loving, kind and gentle. He's a very kind, gentle priest -- soft-spoken," Jim said.
• Detroit archdiocese sued over abuse
   Detroit Free Press, www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm19778_20040512.htm , BY DAVID CRUMM, CECIL ANGEL AND CLEVE R. WOOTSON JR., May 12 2004
   DETROIT (MI): The Archdiocese of Detroit, which has scrambled for two years to remove priests accused of sexually abusing minors, is the target of a lawsuit filed Wednesday on behalf of people who claim to have been abused as children.
   "There's been a long-standing pattern of concealment in Detroit," attorney Jeffrey Anderson of St. Paul, Minn., said after he helped file the case in Wayne County Circuit Court. He is seeking class-action status.
   The legal strategy is an attempt to get around statutes of limitation on such abuse that have stalled other legal actions, Anderson said. "We've used this kind of lawsuit very sparingly. One is pending in southern California against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and a lawsuit has been certified as a class action in Covington, Ky., against the Diocese of Covington."
   This the first such lawsuit to be filed against Catholic leaders in Michigan. For the lawsuit to proceed as a class action, the plaintiffs' lawyers must convince the judge that there are many others who were similarly abused by area priests.
• Davenport diocese faces another suit [1953-56, 1958-59 Janssen]
   Quad-City Times, www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1028161&t=Local+News&c=2,1028161 , By Todd Ruger, Wednesday, May 12th, 2004
   DAVENPORT (IA): Another man has filed a lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Davenport and the Rev. James Janssen, alleging sexual abuse by the priest about 44 years ago.
   John G. Schildgen seeks damages for accusations that Janssen improperly touched him as a boy in 1960, years after the diocese knew of similar complaints against the priest, according to the lawsuit.
   The diocese now faces 15 civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of boys by priests 20 to 50 years ago.
   The plaintiffs, 10 of whom have been identified only as "John Doe" or "Jack Doe," claim church leaders failed to take action against the priests even though they were aware of inappropriate sexual contact having taken place. Schildgen's lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Scott County District Court, alleges that the diocese knew about Janssen's sexual misconduct in Newton from 1953 to 1956, his required psychotherapy for his sexual problems and his 1958 confession to having improper sexual contact with a minor.
   It also alleges Janssen was suspended from the priesthood from October 1958 to January 1958 for sexual misconduct with a boy, and the diocese received complaints of Janssen improperly touching a 10-year-old boy in December 1959, even after psychotherapy and suspension.
   Schildgen declined an interview through his attorney, Craig Levien of Davenport.
• L.A. judge throws out priest's libel suit
   PennLive.com ; http://pennlive.com/newsflash/lateststories/index.ssf?/base/national-23/1084412044319460.xml ; By ROBERT JABLON, The Associated Press, 12:03 a.m. ET, 5/13/2004
   LOS ANGELES (CA) (AP) - A judge on Wednesday threw out a libel suit filed by a Roman Catholic priest who alleged a national victims rights group defamed him by publicizing claims he molested a woman three decades ago.
   Monsignor Joseph F. Alzugaray alleged that the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests [SNAP] mentioned him in leaflets distributed at his church after a woman sued last year, claiming he molested her from 1968 to 1972.
   Lawyers for the group argued it never accused the priest of molestation, but only reported the fact that he had been accused. No criminal charges have been filed against Alzugaray, and he was cleared by two church investigations.
   "They have leaflets that have been circulated, they've gone to the newspapers, they've had demonstrations in front of churches," said Alzugaray's lawyer, Neil Papiano. "He's been irreparably harmed. How's he ever going to try to get that kind of reputation back?"
   On Wednesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jon M. Mayeda ruled in favor of the victims rights group, but left intact libel claims against the priest's accuser and a law firm representing her. Papiano said he planned to appeal. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 12:09 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Thu May 13, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont80.htm
• Priest's return to parish worries Melbourne parents. [Robinson, Pell apppointee]
   CathNews (Catholic News), Australia, http://www.cathnews.com/news/405/68.php , May 13 2004
   MELBOURNE, Victoria, AUSTRALIA:
   A priest who admitted having sex with a teenage boy in the US 10 years ago has returned to work at a Williamstown church that adjoins a primary school.
   Fr Barry Robinson's return to St Mary Immaculate Conception comes after public pressure forced him to leave the parish, where he had been assistant priest for seven years before his past was revealed in January.
   Former Melbourne archbishop Cardinal George Pell appointed Father Robinson to Williamstown with the approval of the church's Independent Commissioner Against Sexual Abuse.
   The priest is widely supported by the Melbourne Archdiocese and many parishioners. But some parents have raised concerns about his re-emergence at the church, which is next to St Mary's Primary School.
   Fr Robinson told The Age: "People have got a right to be concerned about things, but if it's continuously trying to tear the guts out of somebody or some issue, obviously you've got no good intentions."
   He had been at St Mary's for several years before it was revealed in January that he had sex with a 16-year-old boy while serving as a priest in Boston in 1994. He had admitted the incident to his therapist, but left Boston in April that year without being questioned or charged by US authorities.
   Melbourne Archdiocesan Vicar-General Monsignor Les Tomlinson said Father Robinson was helping out at St Mary's, but did not live there.
   "I don't think his presence at the church on a Sunday poses any risk to the children," Monsignor Tomlinson said.
   SOURCE: Priest's return worries parents (The Age 13/5/04)
   LINKS: Archdiocese of Melbourne | St Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Williamstown
   Sex priest serves in local parish(The Age 16/1/04) [May 13 04]
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont80.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker, www.ncrnews.org/abuse, Fri May 14, 2004 edition follows:-
• Worcester Bishop Robert McManus welcomes only well wishers, but fails to acknowledge clergy abuse victims only feet away.
   Worcester Voice, http://worcestervoice.com/Current%20news.htm , May 14, 2004
   WORCESTER (MA): Under beautiful skies and warm sunshine bishop Robert J. McManus the fifth bishop of Worcester was installed.
   Mr. Richard Chesiner, clergy abuse parental survivor who's son while an altar boy at Our Lady of Czestochowa alleges to have been sexually abused by the Rev. John Szanty was forced to use his vocal cords as means of communication after receiving a citation from the Worcester police Department for using his bullhorn to express his dismay with the actions from with in the Worcester dioceses towards their handing of clergy abusive priest.
   Mr. Chesiner's voice clearly projecting the pain and anguish felt by those victimized, and again re-victimized by a judicial system that failed to act and bishops who as of yet have failed to find the courage to end the nightmare.
   Upon arrival to St Paul's cathedral. Bishop designate McManus, haven been driven to the front of cathedral came joyfully over to to the only people to show up and publicly welcome his arrival.
   One Clergy abuse victim, Skip Shea who held a sign "will you listen" was not greeted by bishop McManus thought he stood only feet away from the young child who had been holding a sign stating 'welcoming Bishop McManus" to the dioceses.
   The "cross of shame" list all those who have been known to abuse children from within the Worcester dioceses. Additionally, District Attorney John Cone who having been in elected office for twenty-four years tops the cross for allowing and denying clergy sexual abuse for years judicially. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 11:03 PM]
• Vicar general to hear complaints from victims of former priest [? 1980s Ferraro]
   St. Louis Review, www.stlouisreview.com/article.php?id=6315 , May 14, 2004
   ST. LOUIS (MO): The St. Louis Archdiocese is urging anyone who might have been harmed by Father Romano Ferraro, a suspended priest of the Brooklyn, N.Y., Diocese who once lived in St. Louis, to call Msgr. Richard F. Stika, vicar general, or the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office.
   Ferraro was in residence at St. Joan of Arc Parish in South St. Louis from 1981 to 1983 but not assigned to parish ministry during that time. He was removed from active ministry by the Brooklyn Diocese in 1988.
   A wrongful sexual conduct lawsuit filed May 11 in St. Louis Circuit Court against Ferraro lists the St. Louis Archdiocese as a co-defendant, archdiocesan officials said. It was the second one filed against him this year by someone alleging misconduct during Ferraro’s years here.
   "Because the matter involves civil litigation, we would have no further comment at this time," the archdiocese said in a prepared statement.
• Former Pastor's Misconduct Leads to Review of Lutheran Policies [Thomas]
   Worldwide Faith News, "Former Pastor's Misconduct Leads to Review of ELCA Policies," www.wfn.org/2004/05/msg00130.html , news@elca.org Fri, 14 May 2004
   CHICAGO (IL) (ELCA): The criminal sexual misconduct of a former pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has led the church to take a closer look at the process it uses to screen candidates for its lay and ordained ministries. The candidacy process involves the ELCA Division for Ministry, the church's eight seminaries, its 65 synods and synod committees.
   "The church has a zero tolerance policy toward sexual misconduct. We do think we have a very strong system. Our continuing goal is to make a good system better," said the Rev. Stanley N. Olson, executive director, ELCA Division for Ministry.
   Olson said the candidacy process for pastors and rostered lay leaders is constantly being reviewed. Rostered lay ministers of the ELCA are associates in ministry, deaconesses and diaconal ministers.
   "The tragic case of misconduct in Texas leads us to pay particular attention to things we are doing to try to avoid any misconduct," Olson said. "We will be examining that situation to see if there is anything specific that it suggests needs our attention. At present I don't see anything that requires a change in policy or procedure, but we'll be looking in detail. We'll also look at whether or not policies are being followed consistently," he said.
   The ELCA has about 19,000 lay and ordained ministers, and "the number of misconduct cases that we've had over the years involves a very, very small portion," Olson said. "The vast majority of our rostered leaders conduct themselves appropriately."
   "We have a couple thousand people in candidacy, too. The number of incidences of misconduct that occur during that candidacy process would also be very, very small," Olson said.
   The former pastor, Gerald P. Thomas Jr., was found guilty of sexual assault against children in a criminal trial last year in Texas and was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in state prison.
   "This case is witness to the brokenness of the human person and of the systems designed by humans to assist and build up. The system failed; it deserves attention," the Rev. Mark R. Ramseth, president, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, wrote in a May 7 memo to ELCA bishops and seminary presidents.
   The seminary's "administration has committed itself to a review of seminary and churchwide policies and procedures regarding sexual misconduct," a seminary news release said.
• Catholics urged to take "decisive action" against church leaders
   The Tribune, www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/politics/8670186.htm , By RACHEL KONRAD, Associated Press, Fri, May. 14, 2004
   SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Roman Catholics should stop donating money to parishes and begin demanding elections of their bishops and even the pope, outspoken priests and psychologists urged Friday in a conference about the church's sexual abuse scandals.
   "The only solution I can see is for the faithful to remove the current church hierarchy from power," said John Gonsiorek, psychologist at the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology and editor of "The Breach of Trust," a book about sexual exploitation.
   "The faithful need to take decisive action - otherwise, they're complicit," Gonsiorek said, pausing for rounds of applause and cheers from some of the 200 people who attended a daylong conference at Santa Clara University. "At a minimum, there needs to be direct election of bishops by the laity. ... Do not fund the church until it shapes up."
   About two dozen experts - theologians, psychologists, abuse victims and ministers - convened inside the Jesuit university's Spanish-style 18-century mission for a morning prayer, followed by panel discussions aimed at restoring faith of Catholics worldwide.
   A study earlier this year by John Jay College of Criminal Justice confirmed that 4,392 priests in the United States abused 10,667 people, mostly young boys, between 1950 and 2002. The total number of victims is probably at least six times greater, the report estimated.
   Keynote speaker Leon Panetta, former chief of staff to President Clinton, said bishops have surrounded themselves with attorneys and spent hundreds of millions of dollars to compensate victims, but they "forgot that they are involved in issues of faith and morality." He said follow-up investigations could uncover problems ranging from embezzlement to sexual harassment of women parishioners.
   "This is for all intents and purposes a feudal system, and these are fiefdoms that bishops operate pretty much on their own," said Panetta, now on the U.S. Conference of Bishops Committee on Child Sexual Abuse. "They don't want to be accountable to anyone but the pope, and what he doesn't know is just as well."
   The Rev. Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer, said elections, not papal appointments, would force church leaders to be more accountable to congregations around the world. He urged bishops to personally apologize to victims and relatives, instead of hiding behind nearly $500 million in payoffs and engaging in "ecclesiastical double-talk" that obfuscates the magnitude of the problem.
   The John Jay report found that 4 percent of U.S. priests have had allegations of sexual abuse made against them. The report found even greater incidence of substance abuse, with 19 percent of perpetrators admitting that they had drug or alcohol problems. About 9 percent of perpetrators said they were not sober during at the time of abuse.
   The Rev. Thomas Rausch, priest and theology professor at Loyola Marymount University, said major changes in how church leaders, including the pope, ascend the hierarchy could happen within a generation.
   "I think there's room for considerable change," Rausch said. "There are ways in which you can get input from the bottom ... where the laity and clergy and bishops are solicited for suggestions and for an analysis of what kind of bishop is needed when a position becomes vacant. The way it's being done now is ... a bad system because it allows almost no impact from local churches or even from the hierarchies in the United States."
   Nannette deFuentes, a victim of clergy abuse, said would-be seminarians should undergo rigorous psychiatric exams and counseling to prepare them for the celibate and often lonely priesthood. Now a psychologist in Glendale, and member of review boards for seminaries, deFuentes was hopeful the scandals would usher broad reform - including investigations into sex abuse by clergy in Latin America and Africa, and an elevation in the subordinate role of women in the church.
   "If women took more power, there'd be a lot of changes," deFuentes said. # [Emphasis added]
• McManus installed as Worcester's new bishop [17 charged]
   Boston Globe, www.boston.com/dailynews/135/region/McManus_installed_as_Worcester:.shtml , By Associated Press, 5/14/2004
   WORCESTER, Mass. (AP): Bishop Robert McManus, installed Friday as the new head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester, pledged to restore the confidence of Catholics, who have endured two years of the clergy sex abuse scandal.
   "I am painfully aware that more than a few Catholics feel alienated from the church today because of a betrayal of trust by some of its clergy or religious leaders," McManus told 1,000 people in attendance at St. Paul's Cathedral.
   "I hope that I ... can help to heal the hurt that has kept some Catholics from feeling at home in the church of their youth," he continued. "This effort at healing and reconciliation must be an essential part of the new evangelization in the Diocese of Worcester."
   A report release in January by Worcester District Attorney John Conte found 17 clerics in the Worcester diocese have been charged with criminal sexual abuse since 1985. The diocese is facing 20 pending civil lawsuits alleging abuse by clergy.
   McManus, 52, a former auxiliary bishop in Providence, R.I., is the fifth bishop of Worcester. He was named in March by the Vatican to succeed Bishop Daniel Patrick Reilly, who retired at age 75.
• Mass. court allows look at church files [not breaching First Amendment]
   Big News Network, http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=ba820a12d5d44474 , Saturday 15th May, 2004
   MASSACHUSETTS: The highest court in Massachusetts ruled the First Amendment does not allow religions to keep possibly incriminating files from investigators.
   In a 4-3 ruling stemming from the numerous allegations of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy, the Supreme Judicial Court handed down a decision Thursday stating the Commonwealth's interest in preventing sexual abuse of student and does not intrude on freedom of religion.
   The court's dissenters said the decision allows for too much access to the workings of religious orders, the Boston Globe reported.
   Justices were ruling on a case brought by Suffolk County prosecutors and the New England chapter of the Society of Jesus. A Jesuit priest had been indicted for alleged sexual abuse of two students and investigators wanted to see letters the suspect had written to his superiors, the newspaper said.
• Worcester Installs McManus As Fifth Bishop
   Turn to 10, www.turnto10.com/news/3306668/detail.html , May 14, 2004
   WORCESTER, Mass. -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester installed its fifth bishop on Friday.
   The Most Rev. Robert McManus was installed during a ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral in Worcester.
   News Channel 10's Larry Estepa reported that victims of clergy sexual abuse decided not to demonstrate at the installation. They decided to ignore it instead.
   McManus replaces Bishop Daniel Patrick Reilly, who retired. McManus spent nearly 26 years in the Diocese of Providence as a priest and most recently as auxiliary bishop.
• Legal system 'shields' schools, churches in sex cases [Hundreds of complainants]
   ABC, Australia, www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1108833.htm , Last Update: 6:25am (AEST), Saturday, May 15, 2004
   BRISBANE, Queensland, AUSTRALIA: A solicitor representing sexual abuse victims has told a Brisbane legal seminar that schools and churches hide behind the legal system rather than face allegations of sexual abuse.
   Brisbane lawyer Roger Singh, who has represented hundreds of victims, says churches and schools often duck and weave to avoid financially compensating victims.
   Mr Singh says getting an apology from the hierarchy of a school or church is also a difficult drawn-out process, increasing victims' trauma.
   "The opposition dragging out the case, failing to deal with it in my view in a sensible fashion, failing to acknowledge the abuse occurred, putting the victim through all sorts of hoops and hurdles until they might finally, sensibly decide to deal with the claim," Mr Singh said.
   "But by that stage the protracted litigation process reinforced and entrenched the suffering the victim has already been subject to."
• Anglicans focus on 'healthy' church
   ABC, Australia, www.abc.net.au/tasmania/news/200405/s1108898.htm , Saturday, 15 May 2004
   LAUNCESTON, Tasmania, AUSTRALIA: More than 200 leaders of the Anglican Church in Tasmania are in Launceston for day two of the annual synod.
   Bishop John Harrower has completed a year-long review of the state of the church.
   The report, 'A Healthy Church, Transforming Life', outlines a vision for an improved Anglican Church.
   Its priorities are care of the elderly, asylum seekers, poverty and addressing sexual abuse.
   "This has been a hard thing because these are hard decisions that as a church we've decided to make because we really want to be a healthy church," Bishop Harrower said.
   Launceston's Parish of St John will showcase its work resettling 16 refugee families from Africa.
   "They're looking for security and they're looking for friendship and a bit of TLC and that's what we're doing," he said.
   The review will help in planning future church programs. #
• Vosen sues accusers
   Baraboo News Republic, http://baraboo.scwn.com/articles/2004/05/14/news/news1.txt , By Brian Bridgeford, May 14 2004
   BARABOO (WI): Last week, Father Gerald Vosen filed a lawsuit against those who made sexual abuse allegations against him.
   Attorneys for the Baraboo priest filed the civil suit in Rock County Circuit Court against Peter L. Arnold, 24, and his parents, Leland R. Arnold and Nancy S. Arnold, all of Janesville. The suit charges that the Arnolds made false statements about sexual abuse of Peter Arnold to a Madison Catholic Diocese representative.
   "At this point the main thing for Father Vosen is to clear his name," said Vosen's Baraboo attorney, Mark Reitz. "He's not asking for any specific sum of money. Whether it's a dollar, $10 or $10,000, he wants to clear his name."
   Peter Arnold said sexually abusive acts by Vosen took place between 1989 and 1991, when Arnold was in the fifth and sixth grades at St. John Vianney Catholic School in Janesville, he said. Vosen was pastor of the St. John Vianney Catholic Church at the time.
• Bubba Ginsberg- Redneck Picaso of Southern English
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): BubbaGinsburg.com ; http://bubbaginsberg.com , May 12, 2004
   - Just when I thought it was safe to turn my attention from the Catholic Church Pedophile Priest Scandal, I find I was wrong. A few weeks ago the folks in Springfield, Massachusetts were excited to get a new Bishop to replace the one accused of sexually molesting little boys. Bishop Depraved (Dupre) was gone, the wicked witch was dead and we were no longer in Kansas, Toto.
   Ah, that wonderful passion for self-delusion that possesses those of us who somehow believe right will eventually win out struck again. The new Bishop is the same old song and dance with a new name and perhaps a more ominous agenda than his predecessor, the molester-embracing Bishop Depraved.
   This week the new Bishop, the Most Reverend Timothy A. McDonnell (that is what he calls himself in e-mail) showed that he cut from the same old cloth. Most reverend compared to what is my question? All these haughty demands of titles and nobility coming from someone who has issued a call of duty to blind obedience by the priests under his supervision make me want to puke. I shall explain.
   Most of my readers are familiar with this story; but for those of you who are not, I direct you to the jungle page of my website for clarity. And now back to today. The Most Reverend Timothy A. McDonnell is, from my vantage point, a friend of pedophile priests and in particular Richard Lavigne.
   McDonnell has been asked many times why he would need to take time to tell convicted pedophile, laicized priest (for those of you who don't know what that means, it means the Catholic Church threw his sorry ass out of the office of Priest) and prime suspect in the murder of a little boy, Richard Lavigne, "hell no, you are not getting another red cent from the Church." McDonnell says he needs time to think and he'll not be bullied. Oops, shades of Depraved are creeping in. A friend of freak boys is in charge again. God help us all. [...]
   And then you have Father James Scahill, my friend and hero in the faith. Padre Scahill is the same type of man Andrew Jackson spoke of when he said "One man with courage makes a majority." Father Scahill understands that obedience to God comes before obedience to any earthly man or institution. Up until a couple of days ago Father Scahill served on the Presbyteral Council under Bishop McDonnell. Seems Father Scahill got on the very last nerve of the Most Reverend McDonnell and was thrown off the council during a temper tantrum by the Most Reverend. ...
• McManus installed as Worcester's new bishop [17 charged]
   Providence Journal, www.projo.com/ap/ne/1084570072.htm , The Associated Press, May.14.2004
   WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - Bishop Robert McManus, installed Friday as the new head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester, pledged to restore the confidence of Catholics, who have endured two years of the clergy sex abuse scandal.
   "I am painfully aware that more than a few Catholics feel alienated from the church today because of a betrayal of trust by some of its clergy or religious leaders," McManus told 1,000 people in attendance at St. Paul's Cathedral.
   "I hope that I ... can help to heal the hurt that has kept some Catholics from feeling at home in the church of their youth," he continued. "This effort at healing and reconciliation must be an essential part of the new evangelization in the Diocese of Worcester."
   A report release in January by Worcester District Attorney John Conte found 17 clerics in the Worcester diocese have been charged with criminal sexual abuse since 1985. The diocese is facing 20 pending civil lawsuits alleging abuse by clergy.
   McManus, 52, a former auxiliary bishop in Providence, R.I., is the fifth bishop of Worcester. He was named in March by the Vatican to succeed Bishop Daniel Patrick Reilly, who retired at age 75.
• Rift between bishops and lay board raises trust issue
   Christian Science Monitor, www.csmonitor.com/2004/0514/p04s01-ussc.html , By Mary Wiltenburg | Staff writer, from the May 14, 2004 edition
   UNITED STATES: Frank Keating said it all along: US Roman Catholic bishops' commitment to church reform is still an open question.
   A year ago, the outspoken former Oklahoma governor lost his seat on a prominent lay board probing clergy abuse because he compared some church officials to the mafia. Few panel members were sorry to see him go.
   Today, some of them appear as angry as he was. The new head of the 13- member National Review Board says bishops are returning to "business as usual" as media attention shifts away from the sex abuse scandal. In a scathing letter, Illinois Appellate Judge Anne Burke accused the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) of undermining her board by trying to block an annual audit for the protection of children.
   Several bishops responded with letters berating the judge for assuming the "worst motives on the part of the bishops."
   The exchange, posted Tuesday on the website of the National Catholic Reporter, is the strongest signal yet of strife between the bishops and the lay board they appointed 22 months ago to help restore their credibility with parishioners. Less than two years after news of widespread clergy abuse rocked the nation, the conflict threatens what for many church members has become a fragile trust in Catholic leaders. [...]
   But with faith in church leaders already shaken, many Catholics see the decision as a setback to rebuilding trust. "What [the bishops] need more than anything to restore credibility is a unanimous vote from the board saying, 'The bishops are on board and we're really happy with them,' " says the Rev. Tom Reese, editor of the Jesuit magazine "America." "That sure hasn't happened yet." ...
• Clohessy urges vigilance on priest abuse
   Contra Costa Times, www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/8665350.htm?1c , By Robin Evans, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, Fri, May. 14, 2004
   CALIFORNIA: A day before he is set to participate in a Santa Clara University conference looking at lessons learned from the sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, the leader of a national victims' group warned Thursday of backsliding by bishops.
   David Clohessy, national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, hand-delivered a letter to the San Francisco archdiocese urging Bishop William Levada to support a second annual audit of diocese progress in identifying and removing problem priests and preventing further abuse. It was a message intended for all U.S. bishops
   The bishops of several East Coast dioceses were able to put off to November a vote by the U.S. Conference of Bishops on whether to even conduct an audit this year.
   "The newly released letters from dozens of bishops clearly indicate the postponing or canceling of one of the most clear and simple, common-sense reforms in the clergy molestation crisis," Clohessy said.
   The delay was only recently discovered by the lay Review Board, the committee established to oversee church response and progress toward the goals set at the bishop's 2002 conference in Dallas. The board was able to get the vote on the agenda of a June retreat in Denver.
• Welcome, Bishop McManus
   Telegram & Gazette, http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040514/NEWS/105140017/1020/OPINION , May 14 2004
   WORCESTER (MA): The Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester officially will welcome Bishop Robert J. McManus as he is installed as the fifth bishop of Worcester today in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
   Archbishop McManus, 52, has been serving as auxiliary bishop of Providence, his hometown, since 1999.
   He is the third new bishop to be appointed in Massachusetts in less than a year. Bishop Sean P. O’Malley became head of the Boston Archdiocese in July after Cardinal Bernard F. Law was forced out under fire for his management of sexually abusive priests. Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell was named to head the Springfield Diocese after Bishop Thomas Dupre was accused of child molestation.
   Bishop McManus arrives under less trying circumstances. He replaces Bishop Daniel P. Reilly, who at the age of 75 is retiring.
   While today’s installation will have a small audience - only 400 people have been invited because of space limitations - the public will have a chance to meet the new bishop from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday in the atrium of St. Vincent Hospital at Worcester Medical Center.
   Today’s ceremony will be, as it should, a church event, with only one public official, Mayor Timothy P. Murray, invited.
   The new bishop is well-aware that he must speed up the healing process for those from this diocese who have been connected to the church’s sexual abuse scandals. He comes to Worcester at a time when church attendance is dropping, parishes are being forced to close and fewer and fewer young men are entering the priesthood.
• Congressman, group blast Vatican over comments on abuse
   Troy Record, www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11650477&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept_id=7021&rfi=6 , By Devlin Barrett, The Associated Press, 05/14/2004
   WASHINGTON (DC): Catholic lawmaker Peter King ripped church leaders as hypocrites Thursday for the Vatican's foreign minister claim that the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal is worse for America than the Sept. 11 attacks.
   "If there's anyone in the world who has no right to speak on sexual abuse, it's the Vatican," said Rep. King, an anti-abortion Republican. "This is the height of hypocrisy."
   In an interview published Wednesday in the Rome daily La Repubblica, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo described the abuses as "a tragic episode in the relationship with Islam" and said the scandal would fuel hatred for the West and for Christianity.
   "The torture? A more serious blow to the United States than Sept. 11. Except that the blow was not inflicted by terrorists but by Americans against themselves," Lajolo was quoted as saying.
   Disturbing photographs of Iraqi prisoners being abused and sexually humiliated by American military at the Abu Ghraib prison have stunned the world, and prompted some Democrats to call for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to resign or be fired.
   King said the Catholic Church should be the last group to claim moral high ground on issues of sexual abuse, given the past several years of revelations about priests abusing children for years while church officials failed to stop such behavior.
   "Whatever the United States has done to prisoners in Iraq is nothing compared to what priests and nuns did to Catholic kids for decades while the Catholic hierarchy covered it up," King said.
• Bishops gird for 'retreat'
   Rocky Mountain News, http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/religion/article/0,1299,DRMN_61_2885123,00.html , By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News, May 14, 2004
   COLORADO: It may be the most misnamed "spiritual retreat" in history.
   A traditionally low-key bishops' gathering at the Inverness Hotel in Englewood June 14-19 is likely to become a national battleground for two issues besetting the Catholic Church.
   Neither controversy appeared on the original agenda, which was dedicated to reflection and collegial discussion. But now the "Catholic politician" issue, and a new blowup over the church's 2-year-old sex abuse scandal, are likely to dominate the proceedings:

As host, Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput will invite the bishops to discuss what to do about giving communion to Catholic politicians - many now on the campaign trail - who disregard the church's teaching against abortion.
"It seems like an opportune time (to discuss). It's been on people's minds," said Chaput's communication director, Sergio Gutierrez.

A watchdog organization wants the bishops to commit in June to another stage of sex abuse reforms, without waiting for the bishops to conduct their November business meeting. Those reforms are part of a child-protection charter adopted by the bishops in 2002.
   "They will only do what they were mandated to do - our concern has been there's so much more they can do," said Barbara Blaine, founder of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, called SNAP. "We constantly ask them to stretch themselves."
• Globe Gazette Editorial: Full disclosure essential in abuse cases
   Globe Gazette, Editorial, www.globegazette.com/archives/archive_template.php?content=http://www.globegazette.com/rednews/2004/05/02/stories/opinion/op1.txt ; Published online on May 02, 2004
   IOWA: It is with some reluctance that we approach today’s topic, sexual abuse accusations against former clergy in the Archdiocese of Dubuque. We do not wish to be thought of as critics of the Roman Catholic Church, or of any faith.
   So let us make it absolutely clear that we respect the church. It would be difficult to find an institution that has equaled the good works of the church, either on a personal or communitywide scale.
   Why, then, did this newspaper devote front-page coverage last week to efforts by two men, Larry Kramer of Byron, Minn., and Steve Theisen of Hudson, to heighten awareness of their tainted boyhood experiences with officials of the church? Both contend they were sexually abused, Kramer by a priest in Stacyville and Theisen by a nun in Dubuque.
   The archdiocese concedes the accusations are credible and, in the case of the priest, demonstrable. Monsignor James Barta, vicar general for the Archdiocese of Dubuque, also explained that neither is involved in any type of work for the church. Both are elderly and Barta said the church took action to prevent the priest from serving in any capacity.
   It is worth noting that the archdiocese appears to consider these types of accusations as a serious matter. Late in 2003, for example, Archbishop Jerome Hanus sent a letter to every household in the 30-county Archdiocese of Dubuque, which includes North Central Iowa, apologizing for sexual misconduct by some priests and offering a program for preventing abuses in the future.
   The church reported that 26 priests were accused of misconduct between 1950 and 2002, a period of time in which a total of 973 priests served the archdiocese. Only eight of the 26 priests linked to misconduct were alive when the letter from Hanus was sent to members of the church. Those eight priests were not named in the letter, nor has the church ever publicly disseminated their names, although some have been identified in news accounts of criminal cases, Barta explained in a Friday telephone interview.
   Barta said a decision to identify the priests could only be made by the archbishop. He said that he would relay this newspaper’s request for identification to the archbishop, and that the matter of identifying members of the clergy who are thought to have acted inappropriately still is part of an ongoing consideration of the topic. [...]
   Perhaps we will be accused of making too much of a fuss over a small number of accusations in a 52-year time span involving nearly 1,000 priests. But it must be remembered that the faithful view nuns and priests as God’s representatives on earth. They have a position of nearly unimaginable trust.
   We are talking about an abuse of that trust. [...]
   If there have been credible and demonstrable allegations made against priests and the bishops have taken action on those allegations, they owe it to the laity to name names and cite specifics so that we can protect ourselves.
   The fact that someone is no longer serving as a priest or is elderly doesn’t mean he isn’t still a danger, even if the church has tried to remove itself from responsibility by removing the priest from the priesthood or from active ministry. ...
• Maverick priest suggested fund
   Republican, www.masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/108452090484120.xml?nnae , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Friday, May 14, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): Long before the Rev. James J. Scahill railed against a diocesan fund that would have financially helped sexually abusive priests, the maverick priest himself had suggested a similar fund to his former bishop.
   Scahill's suggestion to the Most Rev. Thomas L. Dupre in September 2002 was very different from the fund Dupre helped establish last year, according to Scahill.
   "I didn't want it associated with the church. I distinctly remember saying that it needed to be set up apart from the diocese," said Scahill.
   Scahill said he told Dupre that then-Rev. Richard R. Lavigne should be laicized and cut free from the diocese, thus removing the diocese's liability for future potential abuse.
   "I wanted two conditions on the fund: That there be non-anonymous donors and that disbursements be made by an objective board that included people well versed in finances," said Scahill.
   The fund was established last year by Dupre under the diocesan umbrella. A few people donated about $100,000. Diocesan officials never identified them.
   When Lavigne's defrocking was announced in January, Dupre said Lavigne's stipend and health benefits would cease May 31. He said Lavigne would have to ask for charity and suggested that any charity would come from the newly created fund.
• Bishop offers apology [2004 McDonnell]
   Republican, www.masslive.com/news/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/108452071084120.xml , By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Friday, May 14, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield issued an apology yesterday for comparing a maverick priest who has supported sexual abuse victims to a notorious ex-priest convicted of child sexual abuse.
   But supporters of alleged abuse victims say the apology by the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell doesn't go far enough. They said the comment, made during a heated exchange with the Rev. James J. Scahill earlier this week, insulted them and belittled their strongest advocate.
   The three-paragraph statement by McDonnell was issued two days after he said that Scahill caused as much damage to the diocese as defrocked priest Richard R. Lavigne.
   "I would never intentionally cause more hurt to those who have already suffered so much pain. I apologize to all those who have had wounds reopened," the statement read in part.
   But supporters of alleged victims cite the part of the statement that reads, "Out of frustration, I was attempting to get the message across that one man's ongoing sniping at the hierarchy, with myself as the latest focus, has caused additional division in the Church and, more importantly, has hindered the possibility of at least some healing with victims."
   Sandra L. Tessier, the mother of a man who has accused Lavigne of sexually abusing him as a minor, said it is wrong for McDonnell to call Scahill a verbal sniper.
   "He owes Father Scahill an apology. Doesn't he understand that the victims see Scahill as a hero and martyr? He is the one person in the diocese they can trust," Tessier said.
• Court questions ruling on abuse records [2004 Alexander]
   Portland Press Herald, www.pressherald.com/news/state/040514priests.shtml , By GREGORY D. KESICH, Portland Press Herald Writer, Friday, May 14, 2004
   BANGOR (ME): Saying it would have a "chilling effect" on law enforcement, a justice of Maine's highest court led blistering questioning Thursday of a lower court ruling that requires the state to give the public access to sexual-abuse allegations against Roman Catholic priests who are now dead.
   Supreme Judicial Court Justice Donald Alexander was particularly critical of the lower court's order to release files that include the names of the priests' alleged victims and witnesses who reported the abuse.
   "What signal is sent to potential victims if the word goes forth from this court that if you come forward today, your name could be splashed on the front page tomorrow?" Alexander asked. "If our message is, 'Yes, we are going to let the newspaper hang people out to dry,' there would be a definite chilling effect."
   The center of controversy was a decision by Superior Court Justice Kirk Studstrup, who said the now-deceased priests' privacy rights are outweighed by the public's right to know about the charges and how they were handled. He also ruled that the privacy rights of the people who made the allegations had been "eroded by time, life and the manner in which the information came to the attorney general."
• Former priest admits guilt [1999-2000 Campobello. RCC. Pleaded guilty. 2 teens]
   Chicago Daily Herald, www.dailyherald.com/news_story.asp?intid=38121419 , By Patrick Waldron, Posted Friday, May 14, 2004
   ILLINOIS: Former priest Mark Campobello, the man who gave the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal a name and face in Kane County, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse Thursday in a deal that will send him to prison later this month.
   Dressed in a black suit with a gray shirt and tie, Campobello stood before Kane County Judge Timothy Sheldon and admitted guilt to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse stemming from relationships he had with two teens in 1999 and 2000.
   The guilty plea, finalized with prosecutors just after 2 p.m. Thursday, came 11 days before Campobello, a former vice principal at Aurora Central Catholic High School and a former associate pastor at St. Peter Catholic Church in Geneva, was to stand trial on the first of two indictments he faced.
   Under the terms of the deal, Campobello, 39, will be sentenced to eight years in prison -- four years for each count -- pay court costs and register as a sex offender.
   "We thought it was very fair," said Assistant State's Attorney Jody Gleason. "Both victims are very happy with the outcome."
   [LOOK FORWARD: July 14, 2010]
• Ex-priest accused of molesting Winslow boy in '80s [1983-84 Burns]
   The Arizona Republic, www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0513az-churchabuse13-ON.html , Associated Press, May. 13, 2004
   WINSLOW (AZ): A former priest in New Mexico's Diocese of Gallup has been accused of sexually abusing a Winslow boy two decades ago.
   James Matthew Burns, 70, of Wickenburg, appeared this week before Judge John Lamb on three counts of molestation of a child and one of sexual contact with a minor. Lamb set a preliminary hearing for May 27.
   In the hallway outside court Tuesday, Burns told a reporter for The Independent in Gallup: "I feel terrible about it. It has ruined my life and his life."
   A criminal complaint alleges that between Jan. 1, 1983 and Dec. 31, 1984, Burns molested and engaged in sexual contact with the boy, then under age 15, near a Winslow park and in the church rectory.
   At the time, Burns was a Gallup Diocese priest assigned to St. Joseph's parish. Before then, he had been assigned to parishes across northern Arizona. After Winslow, Burns moved to a parish in Blanco, N.M.
   A message left by the Associated Press on Thursday seeking comment from the Gallup Diocese was not immediately returned.
• Church protected priest, suit alleges [1984 + Garcia-Rubio]
   Sun-Sentinel (South Florida), www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-smolest14may14,0,732748.story?coll=sfla-news-broward ; By Robert Nolin, Posted May 14 2004
   FLORIDA: Top church officials in Miami, warned of a pedophile priest, not only offered to "protect" him, but also put him in charge of a boy's dormitory, where he molested a young Nicaraguan immigrant, a lawsuit claimed Thursday.
   The suit, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court against the Archdiocese of Miami by a sole claimant, "John Doe," said the church was negligent in covering up for the Rev. Ernesto Garcia-Rubio and allowing him to have contact with young boys.
   Church officials countered that the case is decades old, and the priest is no longer affiliated with the archdiocese.
   Garcia-Rubio, now defrocked and in hiding in Central America, came to Miami from Cuba in 1968, according to the suit. Shortly thereafter, Coleman Carroll, then archbishop, received a letter from Luigi Raimondi, the Vatican's delegate to the United States.
   Garcia-Rubio, the letter said, was "forced to leave Cuba because of serious difficulties of a moral nature [homosexuality]."
   Three days later Carroll responded to Raimondi. "I assure you that I will do what I can in every way to protect him," the archbishop wrote. [...]
   The episode caused depression and alcohol and drug abuse, said the victim, who came forward last year after seeing news of other assaults by priests. "I don't believe in the church and the system any more," he said.
   In 1988, Garcia-Rubio fled the country after separate allegations of abuse were raised against him. The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office did not pursue charges against him at the time, citing a lack of victims. Since then, however, at least four other men have come forward to say they were assaulted by the priest. ...
• 8 years for priest in sex abuse [1999-2000 Campobello]
   Rockford Register Star, www.rrstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040514/NEWS0101/405140326 , May 14, 2004
   ST. CHARLES (IL): A Catholic priest who has served Rockford and Belvidere parishes was sentenced to eight years in prison Thursday for sexually abusing two minor girls.
   Mark Campobello, 39, originally was charged with 18 counts of criminal sexual abuse and assault after two Kane County women told authorities he touched them indecently in 1999 and 2000, when the two were teens. Campobello reached a plea agreement this week in which he pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
   He was sentenced to four years on each of the Class 2 felony counts by Kane County Judge Timothy Sheldon. The sentences are to be served consecutively.
   Campobello must turn himself in May 28 to the Kane County sheriff. He then will be transferred to the Illinois Department of Corrections, which will decide where he will do his time.
   His attorney, Paul Gaziano of Rockford, said the least time Campobello could serve is about 42 months. Campobello also will have to register in Illinois as a sexual offender.
• Springfield bishop apologizes for remark [2004 McDonnell]
   Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/05/14/springfield_bishop_apologizes_for_remark ; Associated Press, May 14, 2004
   SPRINGFIELD (MA): The new bishop of the Springfield Diocese apologized yesterday for offending victims of clergy sexual abuse by comparing an outspoken priest and critic of church policies with a convicted pedophile.
   In a heated exchange Tuesday that ended with the priest's dismissal from an advisory board, Bishop Timothy McDonnell said the Rev. James Scahill had done as much damage to the diocese as Richard Lavigne, a defrocked priest who was convicted in 1992 of molesting two altar boys, according to Scahill and others present. In a statement yesterday, McDonnell didn't deny making the remark, and said he "would never intentionally cause more hurt to those who have already suffered so much pain. I apologize to all those who have had wounds reopened."
   Scahill's East Longmeadow parish has been withholding a portion of its weekly collections for the past two years to protest continued diocesan support for Lavigne. Scahill recently publicly questioned why McDonnell was taking so long in deciding to dissolve a fund created by private donors to support indigent priests -- a fund that Lavigne could have been eligible for.
   On Tuesday, McDonnell dismissed Scahill from the Presbyteral Council, an advisory panel to the bishop. Monsignor Richard Sniezyk, vicar general for the diocese, who heard McDonnell's comments to Scahill, told The Republican in Springfield that Scahill's style on the panel had created tensions and his dismissal was met with relief by many of the other members. Still, he called the bishop's remarks unfortunate.
   "To compare child abuse with some other offense should never be done," said Laura Failla Reilly, a diocesan victim advocate, adding that she had passed on complaints from victims and others to the bishop's office.
• Congressman King berates Vatican for 'hypocrisy'
   Newsday, "King berates Vatican for 'hypocrisy'," www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usking143801105may14,0,5177480.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines ; BY CAROL EISENBERG, May 14, 2004
   NEW YORK: Rep. Peter King expressed outrage yesterday at the claim by a top Vatican official that the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal was worse for America than the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
   "It's the ultimate hypocrisy," said King (R-Seaford), a practicing Catholic. "If there's anyone in the world who has no right to speak on sexual abuse, it's the Vatican. More than that, to equate this in any way with Sept. 11 is outrageous. And coming from people with such unclean hands, it is a disgrace."
   King, who has been a steadfast supporter of the Iraqi war, reacted in an interview yesterday to published comments by Vatican Foreign Minister Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, who called the torture of Iraqi prisoners "a more serious blow to the United States than Sept. 11. Except that the blow was not inflicted by terrorists but by Americans against themselves."
   Lajolo also described the scandal as "a tragic episode in the relationship with Islam," and predicted it would fuel hatred for the West and for Christianity. His comments were published in La Republica, a daily newspaper in Rome.
   King acknowledged church officials' right to criticize the U.S. treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison. "But if they do that," he said, "then they should put it in perspective, and commend the U.S. for investigating the abuse and rooting it out - whereas they had decades of sexual abuse of young children that they systematically ignored and covered up."
   The congressman added that, as a practicing Catholic, he felt he had to challenge what he viewed as misleading statements by church officials.
• Abuses hard to prevent, ex-bishop says [1970s Broderick; 19 priests removed, < $US 4m paid]
   Albany Times Union, www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=248008&category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=5/14/2004 ; By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Friday, May 14, 2004
   ALBANY (NY): The former bishop of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese insists there was little he could have done to prevent the clergy sexual abuse that plagued the diocese in the 1970s and continues to haunt church leaders today. "In those days, we had 550 priests," the Rev. Edwin B. Broderick said. "What are you going to do, go down to every rectory at midnight and check to see if the priests are alone? Or if there are little boys around? They all take a vow of celibacy."
   The remarks by Broderick, who headed the diocese for eight years before Bishop Howard Hubbard took over in 1977, are his most extensive since the scandal erupted in 2002. Nearly 80 percent of the abuse documented by the diocese dates from the 1970s or earlier, with some cases occurring on Broderick's watch even though came to light long after he left Albany.
   Nineteen priests have been removed from the ministry since 1950 and nearly $4 million has been paid out in settlements and services to victims.
• Ex-priest pleads guilty to sex abuse of 2 girls [Campobello]
   Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-priest14.html , BY DAN ROZEK, May 14, 2004
   CHICAGO (IL): A former Catholic priest scheduled to stand trial later this month abruptly pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two teenage girls and was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison.
   But the surprise guilty pleas by 39-year-old Mark A. Campobello don't end his legal battle. Kane County prosecutors say they still want an appeals court to rule on whether the Catholic Diocese of Rockford must turn over its records on Campobello.
   Church officials have balked at turning over the records and filed an appeal after a Kane County judge last year ruled that the diocese was in contempt of court for refusing to hand over the documents sought by prosecutors.
   "It's an issue that needs to be decided," said Assistant State's Attorney Jody Gleason, who prosecuted Campobello.
• SJC tells Jesuits to hand over priest file [1970s Talbot]
   Boston Herald, http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=27817 , Associated Press, Friday, May 14, 2004
   BOSTON (MA): The state's highest court yesterday ordered the Roman Catholic Jesuit order to turn over the personnel files of a priest charged with molesting two of his students at Boston College High School in the 1970s.
   The Rev. James F. Talbot and the Society of Jesus of New England, known as Jesuits, sought constitutional protection under religious freedom to withhold more than 15 documents demanded by prosecutors, but a 4-3 majority of the Supreme Judicial Court disagreed.
   Dissenting justices wrote that the decision may dissuade church institutions from doing their own investigations of alleged sexual assaults by clergy, and one argued that the court was undermining religious freedom in its ruling.
   Talbot, 66, has pleaded innocent to one count of rape and one count of assault with attempt to rape. He was the first New England Jesuit to be prosecuted since the clergy abuse crisis started in Boston more than two years ago.
   The Jesuits, one of the Catholic Church's largest religious orders, are noted educators who operate many colleges and secondary schools, including Boston College and BC High.
• Lawsuit alleges Sweetwater priest raped teen refugee in 1984 [1984 plus, Garcia-Rubio]
   The Ledger, www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040514/APN/405140635 , The Associated Press, Friday, May 14, 2004
   MIAMI (FL): A Nicaraguan immigrant filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Miami, accusing a former priest of sexual abuse 20 years ago.
   The suit filed by the now 33-year-old victim, who is identified as "John Doe," is the fifth implicating Ernesto Garcia-Rubio.
   In the suit, the plaintiff alleges Garcia-Rubio, a priest at Our Lady of Divine Providence in Sweetwater, raped him in 1984, when he was a 13-year-old refugee seeking asylum.
   Garcia-Rubio was removed as pastor of that parish in 1988, amid claims he had sexually abused several Latin American refugee boys. The Vatican removed him from the priesthood in 1994.
   The suit, filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Thursday, alleges that the Archdiocese of Miami knew he had a history of sexual misconduct when he was hired.
   A statement released by the archdiocese Thursday said Garcia-Rubio has not been associated with the local Catholic Church for 15 years, but declined to comment on the latest lawsuit. [Posted by Kathy Shaw at 06:51 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse , Fri May 14, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont80.htm
• Melbourne priest steps down from parish duties. [1994 Robinson]
   CathNews (Roman Catholic news), Australia; http://www.cathnews.com/news/405/76.php , 14 May 2004
   MELBOURNE, Victoria, AUSTRALIA:
   A Catholic priest who was allowed to work next to a Melbourne primary school - despite having sex with a teenage boy 10 years ago - has resigned from the parish.
   The move came amid a public outcry over the church's decision to allow Fr Barry Robinson to return to St Mary Immaculate Conception, in Williamstown, where he had been assistant priest for seven years before details of his past in the US emerged in January.
   The Age revealed yesterday that while the Melbourne Archdiocese and many parishioners supported the priest's return, some parents with children at St Mary's Primary School next to the church had raised concerns.
   A church spokesman confirmed last night that the priest, now in his 60s, had asked to withdraw from St Mary's.
   "In light of what has happened, he's applied to be relieved of his duties," the spokesman said. "He's been given administrative leave which means he no longer operates as a priest for as long as he is on that leave."
   Father Robinson admitted to sex with a 16-year-old boy while a priest in Boston in 1994. He was never charged and was appointed to Williamstown after "intensive and successful treatment" according to the church.
SOURCE: Priest who had sex with boy resigns (The Age 14/5/04)
LINKS:
Statement regarding Father Barry Robinson -- Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne
Priest's return to parish worries Melbourne parents (CathNews 13/5/04)
Priest asks to be relieved of duties (ABC 13/5/04)
Priest quits church over sex row (Herald-Sun 13/5/04)
Principal quits over play ban (Daily Telegraph 14/5/04) of children playing or running about at St Mary's Primary School in Melbourne's Williamstown
• Global-PAC (Protect All Children).
   http://www.global-pac.org/, Cambodia
   The time is now to eliminate pedophilia and protect all children. (Sighted May 14, 2004) FOR GOOD TEACHINGS TO BE HEEDED, A BIG CLEAN-UP IS NEEDED Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker SIGN-UP: www.ncrnews.org/abuse/signup.php for daily e-mails
or click Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker www.ncrnews.org/abuse for current on-line
The Boston Globe Spotlight http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse
The Needle periodically, and books: pbpress@iinet.net.au W. Australia
References at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm
Overview at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/minilist.htm
Books: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/carnalbooks.htm
Buy Fidelity magazine www.j23.com.au Australia

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