text:
BishopAccountability.org
Documenting the Catholic Sexual Abuse and Financial Crisis – Data on bishops, priests, brothers, nuns, Pope Francis, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Documenting the Abuse Crisis in the Roman Catholic Church – Established June 2003
Abuse Tracker
US Database of Accused
Priest Files
Church Lists of Accused
Numbers of Accused
Assignment Histories
Bishops Accused of Abuse
Argentina Database
Chile Database
Ireland Database
CHURCH ACTIONS
Laws & Decrees
USCCB Data on Accused
2004 Diocesan Reports
Removed Bishops
Grand Jury Reports
Civil Filings
Civil Trials
Criminal Cases of Enabling
Survivors' Accounts
Native Abuse
Introduction to the Archives
Seminaries
2019 Abuse Summit
Other Denominations
Pope Francis in Argentina
A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking "Read original article." For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.
AbuseTracker
Abuse inquiry witness 'suicidal'
Kathy Shaw August 31, 2014
A woman abused while resident at a children's home in Northern Ireland was left suicidal after telling her story before a public inquiry.
Kate Walmsley, 58, was in an institution in Londonderry from 1964 to 1969, having been admitted as a young child. She recalled being targeted aged eight by a priest in a confessional box while under the care of the Sisters of Nazareth order of Catholic nuns.
The UK's largest child abuse inquiry so far is to resume again next week. A retired High Court judge is chairing the probe and took harrowing evidence from Ms Walmsley earlier this year.
She said: "It was reliving a nightmare and then being told horrible things about yourself.
"I just thought that I had spoiled my chance, the only chance in my life to get some sort of healing and they have ruined it.
"I ended up being suicidal and thinking I have wasted that day, the special day."
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Posting About National Catholic Reporter's Censorship of Jerry Slevin: 847 (Now 1002) Reads and Counting
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
It's fascinating to see, this morning, that the posting I made Friday reporting on how National Catholic Reporter has treated Jerry Slevin has had … 1002 reads (and counting)* in a mere two days — and on a holiday weekend at the end of summer at that, when many Americans are out of pocket due to Labor Day and people elsewhere are finishing summer vacations and not spending time online as a result.
It's remarkable to have this report so widely read and so widely distributed on such a weekend. My stats counter for the posting reminds me that Abuse Tracker and the Catholica blog in Australia have both linked to it, and I've noticed it being tweeted by folks to whom I connect on Twitter, too.
I read the interest in this story as a good sign that there are many lay Catholics who are extremely tired of the shoddy way in which many of our Catholic leaders and Catholic institutions play political games to make so many of us voiceless — when many of us, certainly people like Jerry Slevin, have important things to say to the Catholic community, and deserve a hearing. The shoddiness with which NCR has dealt with Jerry Slevin, the lack of transparency about how it censors people making commetns at its blog sites: these mechanisms deserve attention if we really do want to buid a healthy, vibrant, authentically catholic Catholic community.
Rabbinical court forces battered wife to meet husband
By Revital Hovel and Yair Ettinger | Aug. 28, 2014
The Jerusalem Regional Rabbinical Court forced a woman to speak privately with her abusive husband after the judges were allegedly swayed by fixers, or macherim, a complaint filed against the judges by the woman revealed.
According to the complaint, the macherim went to the rabbinical judges' homes and affected the way the case was handled. The complaint suggests that this was not an isolated case.
The ombudsman of the Israeli judiciary, retired Supreme Court Justice Eliezer Rivlin, found the complaint justified. Another complaint against an almost identical panel, which alleged that the judges had refused to accept women's testimony, was also found justified.
The complaint was filed by a woman whose husband used to beat her and her children. He was convicted of assault and sent to prison. When the woman wanted to divorce him, the rabbinical judges told her that macherim had spoken to them and suggested letting her husband have a private conversation with her for half an hour.
They said that if her husband failed to convince her to take him back, he would grant her the divorce.
Rabbinical Court Judges Chastised For Making Deal With Haredi Fixer In Divorce Case
Failed Messiah
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The official state Jerusalem Regional Rabbinical Court reportedly forced a woman to meet privately with her violent and abusive husband against her will. The rabbi-judges apparently made the move after haredi fixers taking the side of the husband visited them privately and convinced them to do it.
According to a complaint filed with the state ombudsman for the judiciary, retired Supreme Court Justice Eliezer Rivlin, the fixers went to at least on rabbi-judge's home and lobbied him. Ha'aretz reported that the complaint indicates that this was not an isolated incident.
Rivlin found the complaint justified, Ha'aretz reported.
The complaint was filed by a woman whose husband beat her and beat her children. He was convicted of assault and imprisoned.
When the woman filed for divorce, the rabbi-judges told her that the haredi fixers had spoken to them and suggested that they allow her husband have a private conversation with her for half an hour.
Report: Wide-Ranging Criminal Indictment To Be Filed Against Former Haredi Chief Rabbi
Israel's state prosecution will soon file a wide-ranging criminal indictment, pending a hearing, against former Ashkenazi haredi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger, Arutz Sheva reported based on a report by Israel's Channel 10 News.
Metzger was arrested in November on fraud, embezzlement bribery, money laundering and breach of public trust charges and stepped down as chief rabbi shortly afterward.
He allegedly took millions of shekels through bribes and embezzlement from charities he controlled or worked with.
Metzger had a long history of sexual abuse and fraud allegations before he was elected chief rabbi 11 years ago in a back room deal orchestrated by the former top Ashkenazi haredi rabbi, Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who passed away two years ago. After the election, Elyashiv admitted to Shmarya Rosenberg through a spokesperson that he knew the details of the accusations against Metzger before backing him but backed him anyway in order to "return the glory to the Chief Rabbinate."
Mars Hill pastor terminated from position
[with video]
Alison Morrow and Alex Rozier, KING 5 News
On August 22, nine current Mars Hill pastors submitted an accusatory letter to church leadership demanding Mark Driscoll step down from his role as lead pastor.
The letter describes a "lack of transparency" and creating a "culture of fear." It also accuses Mark Driscoll of misrepresenting the condition of the church and his leadership.
One of the pastors who signed the letter, Pastor Mark Dunford, was terminated on August 27, five days after the letter was submitted, sources tell KING 5. Dunford was an unpaid lay pastor at Mars Hill Portland.
Sources tell KING 5 the reason for his termination was "rebellion against the church."
The other pastors who signed the letter were called into a meeting Thursday with Mars Hill leadership.
In recent months, Driscoll has been embroiled in controversy, including being kicked out of the Acts 29 Network he helped create.
MM Marcial Maciel piggyback ride on Mary Magdalene in Galilee – to save face of Legion of Christ and MM billions of dollars in Vatican Swiss Banks
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.
Paris Arrow
To idiot Catholics members and priests of the Legion of Christ,
Below is our added REBUTTAL to the MM analogy between Marcial Maciel and Mary Magdalene – where we analyse sentence by sentence – the two key paragraphs of the booklet for the Magdala project. The Legion of Christ members are very stubborn in trying to justify their religious existence despite the fact that their order was founded by an evil man – thus making their congregation as a "castle built on sand". And they will try to use this analogy in another shape and form again. This MM analogy reflects their deep-rooted fanaticism in their charismatic founder Marcial Maciel who is akin to Adolf Hitler (but in the Catholic Church). Hitler was so charismatic he convinced the youth and the entire nation of Germany to fight to be the superior race. The Legion's Magdala project in Galilee is tantamount to having a Hitler project – with Hitler's Nazis' looted money – for the purpose of Holocaust victims. The Legion's Magdala project in Galilee is already – and will be – an exploitation of women.
Report: Two female coaches at Moore Catholic High School accused of sexual relationships with students
Staten Island Advance
By Mira Wassef | mwassef@siadvance.com
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.– Two female former basketball coaches at Moore Catholic High School are accused of having sexual relationships with students, and the NYPD is investigating the allegations, according to a report Saturday in the New York Post.
Megan Mahoney, 25, who was an assistant basketball coach and gym teacher at the Graniteville school, is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student that lasted months, and Moore's athletic director, Richard Postiglione, allegedly failed to report the the accusation, the article states.
The report said Postiglione and the principal, Bob Manisero, both knew about the allegations of faculty-student relationships.
The Post reports that the boy's mother claims she informed the Archdiocese in April, but got no reply. The Archdiocese told the paper it contacted the Staten Island District Attorney's office when it learned of the allegations.
Female coaches at Catholic school 'had sex with students for years'
By Brad Hamilton
Two female basketball coaches turned a Catholic secondary school into Horndog High, bedding students for years under the watch of a skirt-chasing athletic director, according to an alleged victim and three school sources.
The NYPD says it's now investigating sordid allegations swirling around Moore Catholic HS, a top Staten Island institution founded by nuns in 1962 and charging $8,000 in annual tuition.
Among the claims is that Megan Mahoney, a former assistant women's basketball coach and gym teacher, had a months-long sexual relationship last year with a 16-year-old student; and that Richard Postiglione, Moore's athletic director and chief operating officer, failed to report multiple faculty-student affairs to authorities beginning as early as 2006, though he and the principal were told of the randy romps.
The most recent alleged victim, whose name is being withheld by The Post, said he and Mahoney engaged in multiple trysts in her car, beginning last fall after she approached him in the gym and offered to coach him in basketball.
Janmashtami rape case: A fortnight on, 8-year-old victim still can't sleep
Avantika Mehta , Hindustan Times New Delhi, August 31, 2014
A traumatised eight-year-old, who was raped on Janmashtami by a 70-year-old priest from a temple, says she doesn't want to fall asleep again. "I see Baba's face every time I close my eyes," she explains.
A fortnight after the incident, she has to relive the trauma over and again — giving her statement to police, identifying her rapist in the Test Identification Parade (TIP), and the unwavering gaze of journalists eager for a story.
The report of her rape has translated into legal proceedings before a magistrate's court in Saket, and this eight-year-old has already had to confront her rapist twice — during identification and when he was sent to judicial custody on August 19.
On Sunday, she laid supine on a chattai, surrounded by her mother, father, neighbours, and acquaintances — but only another seven-year-old friend, sitting quietly by her — the priest's other victim — could truly empathise.
The incident was discovered on August 18 — Janmashtami day. The priest — a trusted member of the girls' village near Mehrauli for over a decade who had been repeatedly raping both girls for a week — tried to have penetrative sex with the eight-year-old child. Unable to endure any more traumas, the girl broke down and told her family everything.
Rezori | A fraud, a priest and a wife's tale of woe
By Azzo Rezori, CBC News Posted: Aug 31, 2014
Where does misery begin. Where does it end?
In the lives of some people it follows them around like a shadow, always and everywhere, even in the dark where they think they're safe.
"Where does one start?" asked Catherine Dinn in her statement to the court charged with sentencing her for her part in defrauding the Anglican parish of St. John the Evangelist in Topsail of money collected for missionary work, including support for orphans in Uganda.
More than $9,000 went missing between July and November of 2012. Catherine and her husband John Dinn, the parish's former priest, pleaded guilty to stealing it.
The Dinns were sentenced on Friday. He got two months house arrest, she a conditional discharge recognizing that he is out of a job and she is now the only breadwinner in their family of four.
'Many paths to this sad ending'
Not once in her statement did Catherine Dinn take responsibility for what she did. Instead, she presented herself as a victim of life-long misery.
"Looking back at my life from this end, there are many paths that have led me to this sad ending," she wrote.
That ending involved not just the Dinns. It cast a lasting chill over the entire parish.
Bishop of Charlotte to preside at memorial Mass for priest accused of abuse
Winston-Salem Journal
Posted: Sunday, August 31, 2014
Wesley Young/Winston-Salem Journal
The bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte will preside at a memorial Mass in Kernersville for the Rev. Joseph Kelleher, a priest who served in the Triad for a number of years and who was accused of child sex abuse in 2010 for an alleged incident more than 30 years earlier in Albemarle.
Bishop Peter Jugis will lead the service at Holy Cross Catholic Church on Wednesday morning.
Kelleher, 86, died in High Point on Aug. 20, weeks after a criminal charge against him was dismissed because of his poor health.
"The bishop always celebrates memorial Masses for priests," David Hains, the director of communication for the diocese, said on Saturday. "Father Kelleher is a lifelong Catholic. This is the type of Mass that would be celebrated for the life of any Catholic."
The Charlotte leader of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), David Fortwengler, called the bishop's decision "painful."
"I'm really disappointed and sad for the victims of Father Kelleher," Fortwengler said. "I'm not shocked. I'm not surprised, but I sure wish they cared about the victims as much as they do about the offending priests. I certainly do not rejoice in his death. But they could certainly do it more low key without the bishop presiding."
Rotherham is not an isolated incident
By Simon Danczuk 31 Aug 2014
The ball bounces high in the shadows off the gable end and a handful of kids chase it down the road. Under the stairway to the flats nearby, half a dozen teenage girls lie sprawled on the concrete, sheltering from the slate-grey drizzle. They watch the ball ping back up the street, strung out in the fading evening light, as the acrid smell of cannabis hangs overhead. Further down the road, a group of lads in hoodies mill around the off-licence asking passers-by if they can buy a few cans of strong lager for them.
It's a scene you'll find in many parts of northern England and one I'm all too familiar with. Even now, when I see the boredom and despair in kids' eyes out on the streets, the same feeling comes back to me. Growing up in a single-parent family near Burnley, drinking at 14 and hanging around off-licences asking grown-ups to buy me a drink, just as I see in Rochdale now, I knew about the vulnerability of kids roaming the streets with nothing to do. There were dangers then, but now it's worse. For gangs of men looking to groom kids to be violently abused, they're easy prey.
Scenes like this are not far from Rochdale Council's new £50 million offices. But when I spoke to child-protection bosses in the wake of Rochdale's grooming scandal a few years ago, where young girls had been continually raped by gangs of men, I may as well have been in a foreign country. Despite talking about a reality that existed a few minutes' drive from their offices, there was no awareness of what life was like for these kids. No connection, no empathy. The head of the Rochdale Safeguarding Children Board told me they needed to take "a deeper dive into the theory" to understand the problem. The director of children's services implied to me that young girls who were being raped were "making lifestyle choices". She later admitted to an incredulous home affairs select committee that she'd never met any of the victims.
The impression I got was that they viewed these girls as an astronomer would look through a telescope at planets. Their lives were so far from the girls' experiences that to them, they might as well have been a remote dot.
The Rochdale grooming scandal would have never come to light had it not been for the fantastic health care workers who helped these young girls. They listened, they understood and they cared. They were steeped in working-class community values, not remote theory. One of them in particular tried desperately hard to get the police and social services to listen to the girls and take action, but to no avail.
Evangelical Superstars and Why They Fall
August 30, 2014 by Roger E. Olson
Some Thoughts about Evangelical Superstar Pastors and Evangelists and Why They Fall
In recent weeks and months another American evangelical superstar pastor (also author and popular speaker) has fallen off his pedestal—if not completely at least partially and with a loud noise. As always when this happens, his followers and fans are divided. Some support him almost unconditionally while some accuse him of spiritual abuse, abuse of power and various misdeeds. It has all gone viral. This time, fortunately, the national secular media are not paying attention. I assume that's because there's no sex scandal to feast on. (In my opinion America's secular media exudes a rare combination of prurience and Puritanism.)
I'm not interested in delving into all the charges against the pastor (whom Christianity Today once described as "Pastor Provocateur"). I'm not close enough to the situation even to form an opinion other than to say a significant number of his former friends and colleagues in ministry (elders of his church) have departed and are going public with accusations and charges of misconduct (but not sexual). The situation is severe enough that the pastor in question is taking a leave of absence from the church and ministry he built up to mega-status.
Anyone who has been around in American evangelical life for fifty years (and probably less) can remember so many evangelical superstar pastors and evangelists who fell off their pedestals with a thunderous crash. Sometimes the thunder is only local (as in the case of a pastor I once worked with and knew very well); sometimes its echoes and shock waves spread out nationally and even internationally. But it always leaves behind disillusionment and confusion.
Our tendency is always to point our accusing fingers at the minister who fell. He (it's almost always a he) let us down, betrayed us, humiliated us (for being his fans), besmirched the reputation of evangelicalism. That's understandable.
However, my concern is that we evangelicals (and others) take a deeper look into the causes of this pattern. Why does this happen so often? Could we have met the enemy and discovered it's us—as much as the persons who fell?
Here's my diagnosis and prescription for this chronic evangelical problem.
I believe we tend to put too much trust in mere mortals once they attain a certain crucial level of evangelical ministry "stardom." We want to believe there are men who rise above the temptations and sins the rest of us face and fall into. We want to believe in near, if not total, Christian perfection. So we gradually allow, even encourage, lack of accountability. "That person," we think, "is so close to God he doesn't need to be accountable to mere mortals like us." Gradually these evangelical superheroes, with their inevitable feet of clay (that we try to ignore), fall—partly because they are mere mortals and power corrupts mere mortals and unaccountability is power. We set them up for failure.
Dominican court opens case on ex-Vatican official
The Post and Courier
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – A court in the Dominican Republic has taken the first steps toward possible sexual abuse charges against a former Vatican ambassador to the Caribbean country.
An investigative magistrate is examining allegations against Josef Wesolowski to determine if there is sufficient evidence to warrant criminal charges, the Santo Dominican prosecutor's office announced last week.
The announcement came a day after the Vatican said its former ambassador had lost his diplomatic immunity.
The Vatican recalled Wesolowski in August 2013 after allegations emerged he had sexually molested boys there.
Dominican officials say his presence is not required in the country for authorities to review an investigation of the allegations and decide whether formal charges are warranted.
Are Catholics Wearying From Vatican Spin?
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
One of the clear effects of Pope Francis' strong management style has been an expanded Vatican media "management" effort that includes trying to cultivate more "papal apologists", while also employing papal apologists to try to curtail Vatican critics.
As a longtime Vatican critic, I have recently experienced what appears to me to be an instance of this curtailment effort. I am being barred without explanation from making future comments on the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) website, after having made around 10,000 NCR comments, plus having written two NCR columns , over the last four and a half years.
Admittedly, as a Harvard Law trained retired Wall Street lawyer, I sometimes write with an "edge". But the rape of thousands of innocent children by perverted priests protected by ruthless bishops makes a grandfather like me "edgy" sometimes.
This has been picked up by other websites, including Bilgrimage. A quick review of the comments to date to the current Bilgrimage column by theologian, Bill Lindsey, suggests that the NCR censorship efforts may be backfiring. Catholics are waking up! Amen!!
For what I am driving at, please see Bill's column and the many new comments here:
[Bilgrimage]
In thinking about why Catholics are turning off to escalating Vatican spin efforts, the "elephant in the room" is, of course, always the continuing priest child abuse scandal. This is increasingly exacerbated by Pope Francis' failure after almost a year and a half to address honestly and transparently holding bishops accountable for covering up, as well as for failing effectively to deal with, the continuing scandal.
NI Historical Abuse Inquiry to hear from children sent to Australia
RTE news
Northern Ireland's Historical Abuse Inquiry is to hear evidence about the practice of sending children from homes in the North to institutions in Australia.
Documents examined by the Inquiry have revealed how in the decade up to 1956 the child migration scheme was in place and it has gathered testimony from over 60 people who were sent to Australia.
The Historical Abuse Inquiry was set up by Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive.
It is tasked with investigating what took place at residential institutions, run by the state and religious organisations in the 73 year period up to 1995.
Seven and eight year old girls raped by a priest in a temple in south Delhi
Cosmopolitan UK
By Ellen Scott
India's streak of making headlines for horrific acts of rape and sexual assault continues this week with the revelation that two young girls, aged seven and eight, were raped in a temple in South Delhi by a 70 year old priest.
The priest, Baba Vishvabandhu, allegedly molested the girls over the course of a week, taking advantage of Janmashtami day, when celebrations were taking place. The eight year old girl broke down and revealed what happened to her mother, after complaining of pain in her abdomen and difficulty passing urine.
The girls said that the man molested them each time they had gone to the temple in the past week. He offered money and food to buy their silence, and threatened them to ensure they told no-one about what he had done.
When the news broke, residents of the area dragged the priest out of the temple and beat him before going to the police. He has been arrested, but there are not yet any details of the length of his sentence.
Florida youth pastor busted for sharing child pornography: cops
BY CAROL KURUVILLA
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, August 28, 2014
A Florida youth pastor has been busted for reportedly victimizing the same age group he set out to serve.
Lucas Dillon Brandenburg, 30, was arrested Thursday on 10 counts of possession of child pornography, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed in a statement.
Cops were tipped off to the Titusville pastor's deranged preferences in July after identifying a computer at his home that was reportedly sharing images of young girls involved in sexual activity with men and boys. Some of the victims were as young as 9 years old.
In his arrest affidavit, Brandenburg "stated he has been viewing child pornography for over 10 years," WESH.com reports.
Motorcycle ride against child sexual abuse
Justice4PAKids
Contact: Maureen Martinez, info@justice4pakids.com or call 610-296-3264
Justice4PAKids is excited to announce its second annual Motorcycle Ride4PAKids presented by Meridian Bank and held Sept. 20, 2014. This event was created to recognize victims of child sexual abuse and also serve as the group's only fundraiser. Motorcyclists are meeting at "The Office Bar and Grille" in Malvern, PA between 9:30AM-11AM to register. Motorcycles will be on display and DJ Danny Madonna from Superior Sound will add to the fun.
Register is $25 per bike for a self-guided tour of Northern Chester County from 11am-1pm. At 1pm, riders meet back at The Office with non-riding Justice4pakids supporters for the "After Party" with food, drinks, exciting raffle items and a very special guest speaker, Matt Sandusky. A survivor of abuse, he will deliver a message of the importance of recognizing abuse.
"We need to find ways to leverage community empowerment rather than community destruction. We need to strengthen the connections between people, survivors and non survivors, by breaking down the silence and secrecy that enables abuse and by providing more support and better communication for individuals and families who need help. This event is a step in that direction and I am excited to be part of the effort," says Matt Sandusky.
"This event is rain or shine. If you are not a bike rider, come out and enjoy the food and festivities and help support our cause," says Bob Riley, Co-Founder of Justice4pakids.
Justice4PAKids is a 100% volunteer run non-profit dedicated to ending child sexual abuse. Find out more at www.justice4pakids.org.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews who moved from Canada to Guatemalan village …
Ultra-Orthodox Jews who moved from Canada to Guatemalan village to find 'religious freedom' are forced to leave because the locals don't like them
By JENNY AWFORD FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 09:41 EST, 30 August 2014
A community of Orthodox Jews have been expelled from their homes in a bitter conflict with hostile villagers.
Just a few months after fleeing from Canada amid allegations of child abuse, members of the Lev Tahor community were forced to leave San Juan La Laguna in Guatemala yesterday.
The village Elder's Council voted to kick them out because the group refused to greet or have physical contact with the community, according to a member of the council.
Lev Tahor is a radical strain of Hassidic Judaism that believes television and computers are bad and must be avoided.
The group rejects the state of Israel because it views the Jews as a people who must remain in exile.
Verbal abuse, threats to cut off power and eject them by force were the last straw for the Jews, some of whom have been there for six years.
By George: Cardinal sins in child protection
Annabel Crabb
Who can say where Cardinal George Pell gets his lines?
When he drew his recent analogy between church organisations and trucking companies, it was honestly difficult to spot whether he had got the idea from some parchment-shuffler in Vatican PR, or practiced it himself in front of the mirror that morning with a hairbrush.
"If the truck driver picks up some lady and then molests her, I don't think it's appropriate – because it is contrary to the policy – for the ownership, the leadership of that company to be held responsible," he told the Royal Commission.
It is not the first time Cardinal Pell has selected an unfortunate transport-related analogy to reinforce his argument that the Catholic Church has been unfairly targeted in the matter of sexual abuse.
"We are not interested in denying the extent of misdoing in the Catholic Church. We object to it being exaggerated," Cardinal Pell said in November 2012, responding to the establishment of the Royal Commission.
"We object to being described as the only cab on the rank."
In the ongoing titanic struggle between Cardinal Pell and his own mouth, it's become increasingly easy to demonise the church. Crimes against children are unspeakable enough; to complain implicitly that one's own organisation is less free to commit those crimes than another sounds reprehensible principally because it is.
Catholics, keep away, lest you hear what you ought not
Damien Murphy
The former president of Ireland Mary McAleese will deliver the Rosemary Goldie Lecture at Sydney Town Hall on Sunday week but local Catholics, it seems, are being discouraged from attending.
The Catholic Weekly newspaper refused to take advertisements for the lecture which honours an Australian Catholic theologian who became the first woman to serve in an executive role in the Roman Curia.
Professor McAleese had criticised the former Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell for his "boy's club" appointment of a Sydney colleague to a key position in the Vatican.
She had also openly attacked Rome over its refusal to ordain women and said it should rethink it stance on homosexuality, saying the issue was "not so much the elephant in the room but a herd of elephants" for the church.
The Irish Echo, Australia's Irish newspaper, ran The Catholic Weekly's refusal to run the McAleese advertisements as a front-page story this week.
The story claimed the advertisements were refused because Professor McAleese's views did not accord with the Church.
Resolution of the 2011 Incident at St. Peter Parish
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit
Joe Kohn, Director of Public Relations
Kohn.Joseph@aod.org
In 2011, the Archdiocese of Detroit became aware of the failure of the pastor of St. Peter Parish in the Archdiocese of Detroit, Father Michael N. Cooney, to report suspected abuse of a minor in a timely manner. The incident occurred in the final months of 2011 on St. Peter Parish property in Mount Clemens, Michigan. Initially, Father Cooney was suspended from office from February 10, 2012 to April 22, 2012. Subsequent to that action, as provided by Church law, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron appointed a panel of three canon lawyers/judges to conduct an independent review of the incident. With the panel's findings now in hand, Archbishop Vigneron has taken the necessary steps to conclude this formal process.
Following a canonical (Church law) trial, a panel of judges has concluded that in a 2011 instance, Father Michael Cooney was negligent in performing his duties as pastor of St. Peter Parish, Mount Clemens, by failing to properly report the suspected abuse of a minor in a timely manner and failing to take proper measures to protect an alleged victim. It was the conclusion of the of the judges that although Father Cooney did advise a family member of the alleged victim to report the suspected abuse to civil authorities, he had the responsibility to— and should have— reported what he knew to authorities when he first learned of the suspected abuse.
Archbishop Allen Vigneron takes seriously his responsibilities regarding the protection of minors. He deeply regrets that this matter occurred and apologizes for it. Father Cooney has acknowledged his failure to take proper action in this instance and apologized.
Whenever a crime— as defined in church law— has occurred, some penalty must be given. Archbishop Vigneron has issued a personal rebuke to Father Cooney, required him to make a retreat, and to write letters of apology to the parish and to the family and others affected by the failure to report. There will also be a program to review with Father Cooney the full requirements of civil and ecclesiastical law in these matters. In determining these actions, Archbishop Vigneron has also considered the 24 years of priestly service of Father Cooney at St. Peter's and the otherwise exemplary program of child protection in place at the parish. For his part, Father Cooney, a Detroit priest in good standing, has cooperated fully in the resolution of this matter.
Archdioscese of Detroit finds Mount Clemens priest …
Archdioscese of Detroit finds Mount Clemens priest 'negligent' in duties by delaying to report suspected abuse
LAUREN ABDEL-RAZZAQ THE DETROIT NEWS
The Archdioscese of Detroit has concluded an investigation into a Mount Clemens priest accused of not informing police quickly enough when an usher sexually abused a teen at a church event.
The abuse took place in the final months of 2011 on the St. Peter Parish property.
Rev. Michael Cooney was suspended from Feb. – April 2012, and following that, a panel of canon lawyers launched an investigation. More than two years later, the panel's findings have been reported to Archbishop Allen Vigneron.
The report states that Cooney "was negligent in performing his duties as pastor of St. Peter Parish, Mount Clemens, by failing to properly report the suspected abuse of a minor in a timely manner and failing to take proper measures to protect an alleged victim," according to a press release from the Archdiocese.
The panel determined that although the pastor advised a family member to report the abuse to authorities, he had the responsibility to report the abuse immediately when he learned of it.
Turning blind eye to sex abuse of children is not a rare flaw
Most of us – if asked – would agree that the sexual abuse of children is about as bad as human behaviour gets.
Most of us would like to think that we would do anything within our power to avert it, if given the opportunity.
But in the real world, people's reasons for looking the other way are many and varied.
In Britain this week, the South Yorkshire city of Rotherham – a regional metropolis just a bit smaller than Canberra – was devastated by the release of a report finding that 1400 young girls had been sexually abused and trafficked in the local area over the past seven years.
Councillors, council staff and police – the report found – had profoundly under-reacted to the widespread abuse of children, which was mainly inflicted by men of Pakistani origin.
"Several councillors interviewed believed that by opening up these issues they could be 'giving oxygen' to racist perspectives that might in turn attract extremist political groups and threaten community cohesion," the report found.
Former Labour MP for the area, Denis MacShane, confessed that he had failed to inquire deeply enough into what was going on.
"I think there was a culture of not wanting to rock the multicultural boat, if I may put it like that," he told the BBC.
In Australia at present, the focus is very much on institutions, thanks to the current Royal Commission into sexual abuse.
It's easy to register the failure of an organisation to respond properly to abuse. It's easier still when the leadership of that organisation appears to have difficulty registering – on a human level – exactly where that abuse should rank in terms of its priorities.
When Cardinal George Pell drew his recent analogy between church organisations and trucking companies, it was honestly difficult to spot whether he had got the idea from some parchment-shuffler in Vatican PR, or practised it himself in front of the mirror that morning with a hairbrush.
186 Magdalene survivors now receiving redress payments
Irish Examiner
By Noel Baker
Some 186 survivors of the Magdalene laundries are now receiving payments under the Government's new redress scheme.
Figures provided by the Department of Social Protection show that since the weekly payments commenced in June, 186 women are now receiving the payment, which is one of the steps recommended in the Magdalene Commission Report, also known as the Quirke Report.
The figures also reveal that in the year to August 19, €387,785 had been paid to Magdalene Survivors living overseas — and €366,826 of that amount was paid in the one month period to August 19.
Recipients living overseas receive a monthly payment, while those living in Ireland receive it weekly.
The sexual exploitation of children: What if anything is the Church going to do about it?
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion
Boz Tchividjian | Aug 30, 2014
In the past few years, a there has been a growing interest amongst many Americans in raising awareness and combatting the international commercial sexual exploitation of children. This is when an adult solicits or engages in a sexual act with a child in exchange for something of value. Many incredible individuals and organizations are focusing on this global horror and are beginning to make a real difference in the lives of untold numbers of vulnerable children around the world. Only recently are our eyes beginning to open to the ugly fact that this evil also permeates in the small towns and big cities of this nation. This has been clearly evidenced in a report released this past week by SharedHope, a Christian organization that is combating sex trafficking and serving abuse survivors. The Demanding Justice Report is one of the first comprehensive studies of its kind that examines the domestic commercial sexual exploitation of children. The heartbreaking and eye-opening findings of this study are a loud call to action to every American. Especially to those of us who call ourselves Christ followers.
Everyone should take the time to read this report. In this short post, I want to highlight just a small sample of its findings and what they mean for those of us who are a part of a faith community:
Who are the buyers? The age of those who commit these sexual offenses against children ranged from 18-89 years of age, with the average age being 42. Ninety-nine percent of these offenders were male. In the cases where the profession of the perpetrator was available, over 65 percent were in professions of authority such as attorneys, police officers, and ministers. Fifty-six percent were identified as working in occupations that had regular access to children, including teachers, coaches, and youth service organizations.
Who are the victims? Of the cases studied, almost 80 percent of the child victims were female. Approximately 10 percent of the victims were under the age of eleven, while almost 42 percent were between the ages of 11 and 15. The rest were between the ages of 16 and 18. In at least five of the cases reviewed during this study, children who were abused were actually charged with prostitution! Surprisingly, in only a small number of the cases were the young victims identified as being a runaway.
Catholic Church …
Catholic Church needs to beg for our forgiveness and Cardinal George Pell should be first in line says Angela Mollard
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH AUGUST 30, 2014
SOME stories never leave you. They settle in your bones and you revisit them, year after year, as if time might bring fresh insight or healing.
Such is the case with B's story. I was lying on her bedroom floor when she told me, feet propped on her bed.
She took a deep breath. During her teenage years, she told me, someone close to her family had sexually abused her. She'd kept it secret but the perpetrator was about to get married. She was concerned: what if he went on to have a daughter?
My friend didn't want to confide in her parents, to destroy their lives. As a practising Catholic she'd decided to tell the priest at the church she attended.
Priests were dependable, she reasoned. Problem solvers. Conduits to God and wisdom.
The priest said he'd think about how best to handle it. And so she waited. And waited.
"Has he done anything?" I'd ask as we drank tea. She'd shake her head.
What we didn't know was that the priest had a secret of his own. At the same time he was sexually assaulting a teenager, a girl he'd groomed from the age of 12 and who he'd continue to abuse for six years.
In 1994, seven years after my friend had confided in him, the priest was found guilty of sexual assault and jailed for four years.
Delhi: Priest held for rape on Janmashtami
Avantika Mehta, Hindustan Times New Delhi, August 30, 2014
Two minor girls, aged seven and eight, were raped in a south Delhi temple by a 70-year-old priest on Janmashtami day, at a time when celebrations were on in full swing.
Baba Vishvabandhu, who is also accused of molesting the girls for over a week, was arrested that very day (August 18) after the girls' parents lodged a complaint at Mehrauli police station.
The incident, which took place in a village near Mehrauli, came to light after the eight-year-old girl complained to her mother of pain in her lower abdomen and difficulty passing urine before finally breaking down in tears and revealing the truth. The mother went to the house of her daughter's friend, where she too narrated the same story.
Davis Priest Sentenced To Jail Time, Probation For Relationship With Teen
CBS Sacramento
Ron Jones
WOODLAND (CBS13) – A Davis priest who pleaded guilty to charges of having a sexual relationship with a teenager was sentenced by a Yolo County Superior Court judge Friday.
CBS13 confronted Fr. Hector Coria about the allegations and sentencing.
"Excuse me father, what do you have to say about the sentencing? What do you have to say about that?" we asked.
"No comment," Coria said.
"No comment at all? So the allegations are true?" we asked.
Investigators and church officials say Coria admitted to having an ongoing sexual relationship with one of his alter girls –- a 16-year-old –- at St. James Parish in Davis.
Troy parish gets new pastor to replace priest charged with embezzlement
Insurance News Net
By Patricia Montemurri, Detroit Free Press
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
Aug. 30–After more than 19 months, members of St. Thomas More Catholic parish are getting a full-time pastor to formally replace the Rev. Edward Belczak, the Catholic priest charged with embezzling $700,000 from the Troy parish.
This week, Detroit Catholic Archbishop Allen Vigneron said Msgr. Thomas Rice will become pastor of the large Troy parish, which struggled with attendance and donations in the wake of the accusations against Belczak and former parish manager, Janice Verschuren. Rice, who is now pastor of St. Louise de Marillac in Warren, will take the helm of St. Thomas More on Nov. 29.
Rice, 64, has been pastor of St. Louise for 24 years. From 1999 to 2012, he also served as publisher and editor-in-chief of the archdiocese's newspaper, the Michigan Catholic.
Charges filed against pastor accused of not reporting sex abuse
LIVE IN BREVARD COUNTY, MICHELLE MEREDITH, WESH 2 NEWS. FORMAL CHARGES HAVE BEEN FILED AGAINST A WINTER SPRINGS PASTOR ARRESTED FOR FAILING TO REPORT CHILD SEX ABUSE. WESH 2'S BOB KEALING REPORTS, AS A RESULT INVESTIGATORS SAY THE ABUSE WENT ON FOR ANOTHER YEAR. SEMINOLE COUNTY PROSECUTORS HAVE FILED FORMAL CHARGES AGAINST WINTER SPRINGS PASTOR CAESAR CHIN OF FAILING TO REPORT CHILD SEX ABUSE. A THIRD DEGREE FELONY. INVESTIGATORS SAY CHIN LIED TO THEM TO PROTECT THE ALLEGED ABUSER.
Bastrop youth minister accused of having sex with girl, 16
American-Statesman
By Philip Jankowski
American-Statesman Staff
A Bastrop youth minister has been charged with three counts of sexual assault of a child after he was caught having sex with a 16-year-old girl, according to the Bastrop County Sheriff's Office.
Isahiah Arellano, 25, was a youth minister with Faith Impact Fellowship in Bastrop County. Arellano had been staying with a family who had taken him in because he said he did not have any place to stay. One of the family members caught him having sex with the girl on April 29, the sheriff's office said.
Arellano admitted to having sex with the girl and said it was their only sexual encounter. However, the girl said they had engaged in sexual intercourse three times in April, the sheriff's office said.
Bastrop Co. Youth Minister Charged With Sexual Assault Of A Child
Updated: Thursday, August 28 2014
A 25-year-old Bastrop County youth minister is charged with sexual assault of a child.
The Bastrop County Sheriff's Office says they were notified of the alleged assault in April. Investigators say a witness saw Isahiah Arellano having sex with a 16-year-old girl.
The incident happened at a Bastrop County family's home Arellano had been allowed to move into last year because he had no electricity in his trailer, the Sheriff's Office says.
The victim told investigators they'd had three other sexual encounters in the past — which Arellano denied, the Sheriff's Office says.
Bastrop youth minister charged with sexual assault
KHOU
BASTROP, Texas — A youth minister in Bastrop has been charged with three counts of sexual assault of a child.
Isahiah Arellano, 25, is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl.
According to the Bastrop County Sheriff's Office, a family member saw Arellano and the girl having sex at a friend's house in April. The alleged victim told investigators she and Arellano had sex three times in April. Arellano admitted to having sex with the girl and denied any other sexual encounters.
Sheriff: Texas minister charged in assault
BASTROP, Texas (AP) — Texas authorities have charged a Bastrop youth minister who they say had sex with a 16-year-old girl.
The Bastrop County Sheriff's Office says 25-year-old Isahiah Arellano was arrested and charged with three counts of sexual assault this week. Authorities say Arellano was a youth minister with the Faith Impact Fellowship in Bastrop County. They say a family member caught him having sex with the teen at a friend's house in April.
Arellano tells authorities he only had sex with the teen once. She tells them it happened three times.
Authorities are working with the church pastor. No other cases have been reported.
The teen's relatives tell KXAN-TV that they stopped attending the church. The pastor says Arellano was fired.
Associate pastor breaks silence on abuse
Toledo Blade
BY TK BARGER
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
Kristopher Schondelmeyer, 30, is the associate pastor at Christ Presbyterian Church in Toledo, responsible for youth and small-group ministry and adult education. When he was a teenager, a minister touched him sexually, he alleges, but even so, he became a minister. And though he serves the Presbyterian Church, he is suing it. He claims that repressed memory kept him from realizing until November 2012 that he was a victim of clergy sexual abuse in July 2000.
His attorneys filed a legal petition in Fulton, Mo., on April 14, and an initial hearing was held in Columbia, Mo., Aug. 18, for a lawsuit against Fulton's First Presbyterian Church and the larger bodies that Fulton's church is a part of, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The Presbyterian Foundation, which holds church funds, is also a defendant. And Jack Wayne Rogers, 69, at the time an ordained Presbyterian lay minister, now a federal prison inmate convicted in 2004 of child pornography and obscenity, is named as the abuser and is also being sued. The Rev. Schondelmeyer is asking for "compensatory and punitive damages" and "other and further relief," the lawsuit says.
Rev. Schondelmeyer's allegations include that Rogers and the Presbyterian Church established a "trust relationship" with him and, exploiting that, Rogers "engaged in non-consensual sex acts with the plaintiff" on a church trip to a youth conference in Maryland. Rogers had been convicted of child pornography in 1992, and the lawsuit alleges the church knew, yet made him a chaperone for youth, and also that the church was "encouraging [Rogers] to commit the abuse and battery" and "actively concealing the abuse after it occurred." The Church also violated its own policies and procedures regarding sex abusers, the lawsuit says.
His Toledo congregation is very supportive of Rev. Schondelmeyer, said its pastor, the Rev. Tom Schwartz. "Our governing body, or session, had talked with Kris about it," and a letter was sent to all members. The alleged abuse, cover-up, and lack of accountability, response, and help by the Church is "out of line. It's why we would agree that his desire to litigate would be something we would be in support of."
Money at the heart of church response to child abuse saga
Dubbo Photo News
Saturday, 30 August 2014 13:26 Written by Tony Webber
During his testimony to the royal commission into child sexual abuse Cardinal George Pell compared the church's situation to that of a trucking company.
In an analogy so clunky that if it was a truck it would be unroadworthy, Pell said the actions of a sex offending truck driver could not be held against the company who employed him/her.
But of course a trucking company would report its errant driver to the police. For decades the church did not.
The trucking company would not relocate the driver to another route in the full knowledge of his/her crimes and therefore the awareness that not only would he/she continue to rape children, but that being an unknown would expose him/her to the children of unsuspecting families whose suspicions had not already been raised.
Choice of new Madrid archbishop marks new course for Spain's bishops
Madrid, Spain, Aug 29, 2014 / 04:27 pm (CNA).- The appointment of Carlos Osoro Sierra as the new Archbishop of Madrid is another step forward in the renewal of the ranks of the Spanish bishops that at the same time raises expectations for Curia reform.
The Vatican announced Aug. 28 that Archbishop Osoro, who headed the Valencia archdiocese, would go to Madrid to take the place of Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela, who resigned due to reaching the age limit for archbishops set by Church law.
Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, who has served in the Vatican as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship since 2008, will take Archbishop Osoro's place as the new Archbishop of Valencia.
Known for his liturgical principles, Cardinal Canizares, 69, has long been rumored to be willing to return to Spain.
Helena Diocese …
Helena Diocese to Ask for Approval of Insurance Settlement for Abuse Cases
By TOM CORRIGAN CONNECT
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena in western Montana will soon ask a bankruptcy judge to approve a key settlement with its insurance carriers that will be used to compensate about 380 individuals who allege they were sexually abused by clergy members.
According to a legal notice released Thursday, a $10.9 million settlement with six insurance carriers would be used to fund a proposed $15 million compensation package.
In exchange, the insurance carriers would receive immunity from any future lawsuits related to the abuse claims.
"The insurance companies are in effect buying back their policies from the diocese, and the money is going to the settlement of the claims," said Dan Bartleson, a spokesman for the diocese.
Ford Elsaesser, an attorney for the diocese, said Friday that the church would formally ask Judge Terry Myers of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Butte, Mont., for approval of the settlement within a matter of days.
Archbishop speaks on Benavente firing
Pacific Daily News
Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
Archbishop Anthony Apuron on Thursday, during a Mass at Father Duenas Memorial School, spoke publicly about his decision to fire Monsignor James Benavente, saying he didn't fire Benavente "to be mean."
Benavente was rector at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica for nearly 20 years and director of Catholic Cemeteries until Apuron fired him last month, alleging poor financial management.
Apuron said, in his 28 years as the archbishop, he "only sought to do the will of God and to follow whatever commands I receive from Rome."
"And I'm trying to be obedient. And I really do this out of a good conscience; I don't do it to be vindictive. I don't do it really to be mean."
The archbishop acknowledged that he's been criticized by some in the local Catholic community, including in letters to the Vatican and on blogs.
The Curious Case of Carlos Urrutigoity (III)
dotCommonweal
Read part one here, and part two here.
Grant Gallicho August 29, 2014
Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity knew it would be a tough sell. He wanted Jeffrey Bond to help build his dreamed-of Catholic liberal-arts college. Bond had moved to Shohola, Pennsylvania, in 1999 to be near the Society of St. John, soon after it had acquired property there. But he already had a job teaching at a New Jersey high school. And Urrutigoity's offer was hardly a no-brainer. It's hard enough to run a college that already has buildings and students. The College of St. Justin Martyr, as it would be called, had neither.
Urrutigoity assured Bond that the Society would provide the necessary funds—by covering tuition for its members and by raising money for the college until it could stand on its own, according to sworn testimony Bond would later give. (A chronology prepared by the SSJ claimed Urrutigoity "warned" Bond about the group's "difficult financial position.") Nevertheless, Bond, who had taught at Thomas Aquinas College, a conservative great-books school in California, found the idea intriguing. He would develop the school's theoretical framework, hire its faculty, and oversee its educational mission—all under the spiritual care of priests committed to the "restoration of the traditional Catholic liturgy and civilization," as a Society of St. John mailer put it. So Bond took the job. His career with the SSJ began on April 1, 2000. It would be a short honeymoon.
Bond and a few others incorporated the college separately in August 2000. The idea was to start by teaching SSJ novices, eventually developing the institution into a four-year college open to the public. By mid-October, SSJ postulants began taking a full course load taught by seven professors, including Nestor Sequeiros, who was brought over from Argentina to teach Latin. His reputation preceded him.
"Long before Mr. Sequeiros arrived…we had heard Society members speak of his awesome abilities, penetrating intellect, and academic prowess," according to a 2001 letter Bond wrote (with Fr. Richard Munkelt) to auxiliary Bishop John Dougherty of Scranton. He was so smart, rumor had it, that he had two PhDs. Sequeiros, who had taught Urrutigoity years before, was supposedly working on an "entirely new method of teaching Latin based on the liturgy" that would restore the language to "the center of Catholic life and thereby launch the Society into renown and glory," Bond and Munkelt wrote. "Imagine our surprise," the letter continued, when Sequeiros arrived and proved "unable to communicate effectively in English."
Davis priest sentenced to probation, 90 days in jail for sex with minor
Daily Democrat
By Sarah Dowling
sdowling@dailydemocrat.com @woodlanddowling on Twitter
Davis priest Hector Coria Gonzalez, front, was sentenced for unlawful sex… (Courtesy of Facebook)
Girl tells court it was consensual
A Roman Catholic priest began to cry on Friday as his attorney read the words of the teenage girl in which he admitted to having a sexual relationship while working at a Davis church.
Rev. Hector Coria Gonzalez, 45, entered his plea at a conditional hearing in June, where he admitted to one felony count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, identified as M.L., a 17-year-old parishioner at St. James Parish in Davis.
The remaining charges — two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse, and a single misdemeanor count of oral copulation with a minor — were dismissed.
Gonzalez was present and out of custody at Friday's hearing, where he was sentenced three years of felony probation, with 90 days in county jail for his acts, which M.L. claims were consensual.
Fighting for history: Uncovering the truth of residential schools
[timeline]
By: Tim Alamenciak News reporter, Published on Fri Aug 29 2014
WINNIPEG—There are two sacred boxes in the offices of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
One is a bentwood box sculpted from a single piece of cedar by an indigenous artist. Its panels are adorned with the mournful carved faces representing First Nations and Métis who suffered through the residential schools era, when government-sanctioned institutions systemically tried to eradicate indigenous culture, tore apart families and operated havens for child abuse.
The other box is a tall obelisk tucked away in an air-conditioned closet. Its blinking lights and bright blue screen belie the sacred stories that lie within. The archive stored on the server — more than four million letters, photographs and government records — is the life's work of the truth commission. Where the bentwood box represents reconciliation, the black server tower holds truth.
This story is about the struggle for history. The government of Canada was responsible for the creation and administration of a system that included more than 130 residential schools spread across the country. Many were tucked into the corners of the nation, run for more than 100 years by dozens of different church groups including denominations of Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians and the United Church. All of these parties kept records of the institutions they ran.
Rev. Brendan O'Donoghue
WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
[Retired in 1984. Placed on leave after man filed suit in 1994 alleging that O'Donoghue sexually assaulted him at age 13 in 1978. Suit referenced 2 previous allegations. Suit settled 1999 for $300K. Transferred 12 times in 1st 15 years as priest. 1999 civil suit by a 2nd plaintiff who alleged abuse in 1962 settled in 2001. Additional suits filed in 2002 & 2004. – From BishopAccountability.org database]
WORCESTER – Rev. Brendan W. O'Donoghue, 92, died Tuesday, August 26, 2014 at the St. Francis Nursing Center.
Father O'Donoghue was born in Worcester, son of William T. and Mary E. (Carrigan) O'Donoghue.
Father O'Donoghue graduated from St. Peter's High School and St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH. He studied for the priesthood at the Seminary of Philosophy and later the Grand Seminary in Montreal, Canada. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1950 at the Cathedral of St. Paul by then Bishop John J. Wright.
He served many years as a priest in the Diocese of Worcester before retiring in 1997. St. Matthew's Parish in Southborough was his last assignment as a Pastor. He had a strong interest in liturgical music and was choir director at several parishes during his ministry.
Ramsey County judge presiding over priest abuse cases named Trial Judge of Year
Pioneer Press
By Marino Eccher
meccher@pioneerpress.com
The Ramsey County judge presiding over sex abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church has been named Trial Judge of the Year by a legal group.
The Minnesota Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates presented Judge John Van de North with the award Aug. 21. The group cited his promotion of "integrity and civility among all parties in his courtroom" and his good reputation among colleagues.
The group is an association of lawyers and judges that promotes the integrity of civil litigation.
Van de North is hearing lawsuits against the Diocese of Winona and Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Doe 1, a man who claims he was sexually molested by former Rev. Thomas Adamson, sued in May 2013, claiming sexual abuse by Adamson at St. Thomas Aquinas in St. Paul Park. His attorney, Jeff Anderson, has used the case to gain disclosure of records by both the diocese and archdiocese on priests with substantiated claims of abuse.
by Michael Farris
The following article will appear in the Second Quarter 2014 Home School Court Report, due in mailboxes late August.
Two prominent speakers on the homeschooling circuit have experienced dramatic falls from favor due to admitted sin. Bill Gothard and Doug Phillips have both been accused of serious sins involving young women. The accusations are sexual in nature. Both men have admitted to some form of sin with regard to these accusations, although each has disputed some of the details. Gothard disputes that his sins were sexual in nature. Phillips admits to an improper physical "relationship" with one young woman.
Although some people want HSLDA to be the police force of the homeschooling movement—removing those who miss the mark in some manner—that is not our role. Even though I have been uncomfortable with the teaching coming from each of these men for several years, it is not my place to try to remove viewpoints from the homeschooling community just because the HSLDA board or I hold a different view. Our role is to defend the freedom of everyone to homeschool.
But with these recent scandals in view, we think it is now time to speak out—not about these men's individual sins, but about their teachings. Their sins have damaged the lives of their victims, and should be addressed by those with the appropriate legal and spiritual authority in those situations, but their teachings continue to threaten the freedom and integrity of the homeschooling movement. That is why HSLDA needs to stand up and speak up.
Frankly, we should have spoken up sooner. How much sooner is hard to say. There is a subtle difference between teaching that we simply disagree with and teaching that is truly dangerous. While we did not directly promote their teachings using our own resources, we did allow Vision Forum to buy ad space to promote their products and ideas. We were wrong to do so. And we regret it.
Homeschool Advocate Michael Farris Responds to Sex Scandals …
Homeschool Advocate Michael Farris Responds to Sex Scandals of Homeschool Leaders Bill Gothard, Doug Phillips
By Napp Nazworth , Christian Post Reporter
The Home School Legal Defense Association criticized the patriarchy movement among some Christian and homeschool leaders as unbiblical and harmful, and apologized for not speaking up sooner about the issue.
In an article posted to the HSLDA website, and which will appear in a publication that goes to members called Home School Court Report, HSLDA Chairman Michael Farris apologized on behalf of himself, HSLDA President Michael Smith and the HSLDA Board of Directors for "failing to speak up sooner."
In close to 2,500 words, Farris addressed the teaching of patriarchy, a view among some Christians regarding the role of women in church, families and society, and how that teaching relates more specifically to the recent sex scandals involving Bill Gothard and Doug Phillips.
"The philosophies of Gothard and Phillips damage people in multiple ways," Farris wrote.
Farris had "been uncomfortable with the teaching coming from each of these men for several years" but was reluctant to speak out because he did not believe it was the role of HSLDA to police the teachings of those within the homeschooling community.
Christian leader denounces Duggar family's patriarchal movement as 'truly dangerous'
By Travis Gettys
A prominent leader in the Christian homeschooling movement has denounced the "Christian patriarchy" movement followed by the prolific Duggar family.
Michael Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association and Patrick Henry College, described the Quiverfull ideology – which promotes procreation and the primacy of men – as "truly dangerous" in the wake of two sex scandals involving leaders in the evangelical movement.
Farris issued a newsletter article Thursday saying he had been uncomfortable for years with the teachings of Doug Phillips and Bill Gothard, but he had not spoken out because his organization defends the right of anyone to homeschool their children, reported Right Wing Watch.
"Frankly, we should have spoken up sooner," Farris wrote. "How much sooner is hard to say. There is a subtle difference between teaching that we simply disagree with and teaching that is truly dangerous."
MN- Archdiocese names new head of child safety department
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Monday, August 25, 2014
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )
Minnesota archdiocese names a judge as the head of the new department responsible for child safety. We hope he puts the safety of kids before the reputation of the church and predators.
The former head of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Judge Timothy O'Malley, has been hired as the director of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment for the Twin Cities archdiocese. O'Malley has expressed his disappointment in how the church has responded to the child abuse scandal and hopes to make a difference.
Time and time again we see church officials claiming that they put the safety of children and the needs of victims first, but in reality they do little to nothing. We hope O'Malley sticks to what he says and exposes predators and those who cover it up, reports abuse to police, and is open and transparent about child sexual abuse. Only then will change began to happen and children will really be safe.
OH- Victims applaud Cuyahoga judge
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
A Cleveland judge has denied defense lawyers request that a priest, Fr. James McGonegal, be allowed into an alternate sentence program. We applaud this move. Citizens are safest when predators are locked up.
It seems to us that Catholic officials – both those who commit and those who conceal sex crimes – often attempt to avoid justice through legal technicalities. That diminishes the faith that many have in our justice system and discourages them from reporting more crimes. That, in turn, makes vulnerable adults and innocent children more apt to be sexually violated in the future.
We hope as this case goes to trial that anyone else who may have been hurt by or witnessed crimes committed by McGonegal will come forward and report what they know.
Rome- Archbishop stripped of diplomatic immunity
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )
Now, after a page 1 New York Times story, Vatican officials have stripped a former archbishop of his diplomatic immunity. We hope Josef Wesolowski is caught by police before he flees.
It should not take embarrassing international headlines to force the Vatican to turn over a fugitive to law enforcement. Helping secular officials catch, charge and convict child molesting clerics routinely, not rarely, should be the norm.
There isn't much progress when wrongdoers change only when caught.
OH- Diocese of Toledo gets a new Bishop, SNAP responds
For immediate release: Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )
As Toledo, OH welcomes their new bishop, we hope that Bishop Daniel E. Thomas will be a better advocate for clergy sex abuse victims than his predecessor was.
In 2010, Toledo Catholic officials kept quiet about and waited six months to investigate alleged sexual misdeeds by Kevin Yeckley, a Catholic school counselor. He admitted "periodically" hugging a girl, working "alone for several consecutive Saturdays" with her and telling her "he was . . .having uncomfortable feelings for her."
Toledo Catholic officials admit that in around March 2009, a victim told a teacher about Yeckley's alleged misdeeds, but they only started to investigate in October, some six or seven months later. Delays like this endanger kids and enable predators to intimidate victims, threaten whistle blowers, discredit witnesses, destroy evidence, fabricate alibis and keep hurting children.
Dennis Gary is another example of the Diocese of Toledo irresponsibly handling child sex abuse. Gary was sued in 2002 and 2003 for sexually abusing boys. The diocese had been warned about Gray in the 1980s, but they allowed him to leave the priesthood without taking action against him or warning his future employers. Gray was later found working as a teacher and SNAP believes in 2012 he was trying to join a church in Perrsyburg.
NY- Priest guilty of child porn avoids prison time, SNAP responds
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-503-0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )
A retired New York priest plead guilty to possession of child porn and has avoided a prison sentence. We are disappointed by this outcome, but are glad he will have to register as a sex offender.
Fr. Robert Ours, who is currently living in Syracuse, was arrested in May on child porn charges. We hope church officials at the Syracuse Catholic diocese aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered Fr. Ours' crimes and urge them to contact police and prosecutors immediately.
It is important to remember that children were hurt in the making of these photos. The word 'porn' does not accurately describe what has taken place. These are violent child sexual images and the children involved are the victims of a horrific crime.
We fear others have been hurt and are fearful to come forward. We would encourage anyone who has been harmed by Fr. Ours to come forward, get help, begin healing and work with law enforcement. Often there are people in the community who have seen or suspect Fr. Our's misdeeds. No matter how old or insignificant the information may seem we hope they will contact law enforcement.
National Catholic Reporter Exercises Censorship Again: Jerry Slevin Reports Being Blocked from Commenting at NCR — Without Any Explanation
An important discussion has been taking place here in the past several days on two different threads. At both threads (cited below), Jerry Slevin reports that he was recently blocked from making comments at National Catholic Reporter — blocked without explanation or warning. And when he has sought an explanation for this from the powers that be at NCR, he receives no replies to his questions.
Bilgrimage readers will perhaps know Jerry (who's a Harvard-trained interational lawyer with extensive experience in the legal field) as the author of provocative, valuable statements about various issues in the Catholic church today. He's published some of his pieces here, and they can be retrieved by clicking on his name in the labels beneath this posting. Jerry also maintains the noteworthy Christian Catholicism blog, which is in my blog list here at Bilgrimage, and has contributed significantly to discussions of Catholic issues in discussion threads at NCR for several years now.
The inexplicable choice of NCR's managing staff to block Jerry Slevin from commenting at that site — again, according to Jerry, he received no forewarning and has been not been done the bare courtesy of being provided with any explanation — deserves attention, in my view. For my own discussion of (and serious concerns) about NCR's mechanism of censorship, which I've found directed against me, too, please see these postings — here, here, and here.
Unlike Jerry, I have not been blocked from commenting at NCR, though I've found comments I've made there deleted with no explanation, while nasty, and in many cases, outright homophobic, commenters to whom those comments were directed in some cases are allowed free rein to keep commenting. I decided after my last experience of censorship by NCR that I will no longer leave comments at that site. In my view, its process for censoring contributors is not in the least transparent, and it's capricious in a way that often serves the interests of folks who want to misuse the Catholic tradition and Catholic teaching to inflict misery on others — while it takes away from those who want to respond to these commenters any effective voice to respond.
OR- New lawsuit claims church knew about molester, SNAP responds
For immediate release: Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
Two Oregonian men have filed a lawsuit against the Seventh-day Adventist Church for allowing a convicted child molester to run a church sponsored youth club. We are grateful to these brave survivors for stepping up.
Leslie "Les" Bovee was hired as the leader of the Pathfinder Club, which is a Seventh-day Adventist Church sponsored youth group in Multnomah County, despite having spent two years in prison for abusing at least one boy. Church officials should be held responsible for allowing a convicted abuser to – not only be around children – but to be in a position of authority.
We urge church officials to explain how Bovee was able to get a job as a youth leader and publically change their employment policies to ensure child safety. We also urge officials to reach out to anyone else who might be suffering in silence and self blame.
We hope this lawsuit will encourage other officials working with children to do their due diligence when hiring youth workers and we hope it encourages others who saw, suspect, or suffered child sex crimes to come forward, report to secular officials, and start healing.
Nature tells us celibacy is not natural, the Catholic Church should listen
TOM ELLIOTT HERALD SUN AUGUST 30, 2014
THE ongoing Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse has already shone some welcome light into a variety of dark places.
One such place is the Catholic Church's requirement for its priests to remain celibate. Physical intimacy with a significant other is a normal and fundamental part of human existence. It can't be a good idea for priests to repress that urge.
When asked about this a few days ago, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, described celibacy as "fulfilling" and a "wonderful vocation". He also refused to accept a sexual life was necessary for all people. On which planet is the Archbishop living?
In the animal kingdom, the desire to procreate and ensure one's genes continue is a powerful innate force. Male lions fight each other, sometimes to the death, for access to females. Adult elephants will form a protective ring around a sickly youngster to keep predators at bay.
The human world is really not very different. Middle-aged men buy expensive sports cars, dye their hair and bleach their teeth in an effort to impress women.
And on a more serious note, adults of either gender will go to extraordinary lengths to protect and nurture their children.
Former Priest Sentenced to 60 Days in Jail Plus Counselling
VOCM
John Dinn, the former rector of St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church in Topsail, and his wife were sentenced in court today for defrauding the parish. VOCM's Andrew Hawthorn reports live from provincial court.
John Dinn, who had his licence revoked by the Church, was given 60 days incarceration plus a year's probation and mental health counselling, while his wife Catherine was given a conditional discharge, requiring them both to pay back the remaining $1,600 within the year.
In a personal statement, Catherine had cited a poor upbringing and addiction as bad influences on her choices, but Judge Mike Madden said the statement contained little mention of the impact their crime had made on the parish.
In sentencing, Judge Madden said the crime was not unsophisticated, easily detectable, and since paid back.
IN- Pastor denied reduced sentence, SNAP responds
A former Hammond Baptist pastor, who is serving a 12 year prison sentence for child sexual abuse, has had his petition to overturn his sentenced denied. We are glad the judge saw through this farce and upheld this rightly deserved sentence.
Rev. Jack Schaap was charged with using his position at the church to abuse an underage girl. He voluntarily agreed to a plea deal, and later claimed that he had a bad lawyer and his sentence should be tossed out. Gail Riplinger, a noted religious scholar, in a letter to the judge, wrote that since Schaap is a well educated man, with many lawyer friends, "(his) 'assertion that he could not understand the words regarding the sentencing seems preposterous.'" We applaud Riplinger for speaking up.
It is always disheartening when predators attempt to avoid justice through legal loopholes or by playing 'dumb'. We are glad he failed in his goal and that he must serve his sentence. We also hope that First Baptist Church of Hammond aggressively reaches out to anyone who saw, suspects or suffered abuse at the hands of Schaap.
Na Dominikanie ruszyła sprawa karna abpa Wesołowskiego
Wymiar sprawiedliwości Dominikany wszczął postępowanie karne w sprawie pedofilii, o którą oskarżany jest były nuncjusz w tym kraju arcybiskup Józef Wesołowski – podała włoska agencja prasowa ANSA powołując się na tamtejsze media.
Prokuratura w Santo Domingo złożyła już w sądzie dokumentację z zarzutami stawianymi arcybiskupowi Wesołowskiemu.
Decyzja o postępowaniu w sprawie czynów popełnionych w czasie pełnienia przez niego misji to rezultat informacji, jakie napłynęły w poniedziałek z Watykanu, który ogłosił, że były nuncjusz nie ma już immunitetu dyplomatycznego i może zostać osądzony przez inne wymiary sprawiedliwości.
Dominican Republic- Authorities begin criminal proceedings against archbishop, SNAP responds
The Dominican Republic has begun criminal proceedings against the former archbishop. We are glad the prosecutor's office in Santo Domingo has moved quickly to begin criminal proceedings and we hope Josef Wesolowski is apprehended and made to face justice immediately.
We urge law enforcement officials in the Dominican Republic to reach out to anyone else who might be suffering in silence and self blame because of the deplorable actions of Wesolowski. And we urge Vatican officials to do everything in their power to apprehend him before he flees.
We hope anyone who saw, suspects, or suffered child sex crimes will come forward, speak up, report to law enforcement, and start healing.
Political models for the papacy
Thomas Reese | Aug. 29, 2014 Faith and Justice
Defenders of the status quo in church governance often say, "The church is not a democracy," with the implication that the church can learn nothing from civil governments. The truth is that the church has been borrowing government structures from civil society almost from the beginning.
In fact, we know that bishops, including the bishop of Rome, were elected by the people in the early days of the church. Later in Rome, the Roman Senate was sometimes involved in selecting popes prior to the creation of the College of Cardinals.
Not surprisingly, the cardinals for many centuries saw themselves as successors to the Roman Senate, and until the revision of the Code of Canon Law in 1983, the College of Cardinals was referred to in church law as a senate. During some periods, the cardinals were so powerful that the pope could not do anything without their approval.
The Greek and Latin origin of many church terms reveals their political origins. "Ecclesia," the Greek term we translate as "church" was a common term for an assembly, or a gathering of people in a public place. "Diocese" was a territorial division in the Roman Empire. "Curia" was the Roman Senate or where it met. "Dicastery" was a court or judgment hall.
Pope Francis ISIS Threat Denied by Vatican, But Security Tightens
By Nick Sanchez
Vatican officials denied this week that Pope Francis is a target of ISIS, but the Italian government is stepping up security across the nation as it continues to collect intelligence on the growing terrorist group.
"There is nothing serious to this," spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi S.J. told Catholic News Agency in responding to a claim made by Italy's Il Tempo newspaper. "There is no particular concern in the Vatican. This news has no foundation."
Claiming the pope was under threat, the original Il Tempo report published Monday drew upon an unnamed source who said a number of Muslim jihadists had entered the country.
The source said the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, considers the pope "the greatest exponent of the Christian religions" and the "bearer of false truth." Because of this, Islamic fundamentalists led by self-proclaimed Caliph Al-Baghdadi seek to "raise the level of confrontation" by putting Pope Francis "in the crosshairs."
Pope assumes responsibility for abuse
By Nicole Winfield/The Associated Press
POSTED: 08/28/14
Pope Francis said Friday he took personal responsibility for the "evil" of priests who raped and molested children, asking forgiveness from victims and saying the church must be even bolder in its efforts to protect the young. It was the first time a pope has taken personal responsibility for the sex crimes of his priests and begged forgiveness.
Francis' off-the-cuff remarks were the latest sign that he has become sensitized to the gravity of the abuse scandal after coming under criticism from victims' advocacy groups for a perceived lack of attention to, and understanding of, the toll it has taken on the church and its members.
The evolution began last month when he named four women and an abuse survivor to a sex abuse advisory panel that the Vatican has suggested will address the critical issue of sanctioning bishops who cover up for pedophiles.
Francis delivered the comments to members of the International Catholic Child Bureau, a French Catholic network of organizations that protects children's rights. Sitting with them in his library at the Vatican on Friday, Francis spoke slowly, deliberately and softly in his native Spanish, deviating from his text.
Many Magdalene women spent decades in laundries
By Claire O'Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter
A grave just discovered by the Justice for Magdalenes group shows that, in one plot in North Dublin alone, a third of the woman buried remained at the Magdalene laundry for more than 50 years.
Such discoveries, which form part of the Justice for Magdalenes Research Graves Project, are in contrast to the findings of the McAleese report into the Magdalene laundries which stated that the median length of stay for the women was 27 weeks.
The interdepartmental report also stated that 60% of the women at the laundries from 1922 to 1996 stayed less than a year at the laundries — figures which have been hotly contested.
According to Claire McGettrick of Justice for Magdalenes, the deaths of women who never left the laundries and remained living with the nuns, in many cases working in the convents, after 1996 were not included in the 2013 McAleese report.
Catholic school teacher sex abuse case adjourned
THE case against a former teacher of a Toowoomba Catholic school charged with child sex matters has been adjourned.
The 44-year-old man and the school involved cannot be named for legal reasons.
He is charged with indecent treatment of a child under 16 (indecent film), two counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 (expose), and one count of indecent treatment of a child under 16 (take photograph).
The man has not as yet been required to enter any pleas to the charges and he was not in Toowoomba Magistrates Court when the matters were mentioned yesterday.
It is believed the allegations date back to the mid-1990s and involve two male students under the age of 16.
Circuit Judges Challenge Timing of Sexual Abuse Claims
Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal
Lawyers for both sides in the litigation over sexual abuse at Yeshiva University High School for Boys came under intense questioning by a federal appeals panel Thursday.
Judges Reena Raggi (See Profile), Guido Calabresi (See Profile) and Denny Chin (See Profile) of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit grilled the attorneys on their arguments about the statute of limitations on claims that Yeshiva was deliberately indifferent to sexual predations against 34 students by one-time principal George Finkelstein and a former teacher and student at the school.
On one side was plaintiffs' attorney Kevin Mulhearn, who argued that Southern District Judge John Koeltl (See Profile) got it wrong in February when he held the statute of limitations expired long ago and that positive statements the school made about the abusers, even after abuse was reported, were not enough to stop the clock on the three-year statute.
On the other was the attorney for the school, Karen Bitar of Greenberg Traurig, who prevailed before Koeltl below and who insisted the victims were put on inquiry notice from the moment of their abuse and should acted to expose the alleged indifference by school officials.
Homeschool leader disavows 'patriarchy'
By DANIEL JAMES DEVINE
Posted Aug. 28, 2014
Longtime homeschool attorney and advocate Michael P. Farris, who founded the Home School Legal Defense Association in 1983 and founded Patrick Henry College in 2000, issued a public statement Wednesday distancing himself from "patriarchy." Specifically, he criticized the teachings of two leaders formerly popular among homeschoolers, Doug Phillips and Bill Gothard, who both recently stepped down from ministries amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
Phillips, an attorney himself, worked with Farris at HSLDA for six years. He went on to launch The Vision Forum Inc. and Vision Forum Ministries with his wife Beall. Last year, Phillips resigned as president of Vision Forum Ministries after admitting to an inappropriate relationship with a young woman. The ministry closed soon after.
Gothard was a longtime ministry leader who drew thousands of families to weeklong seminars in the 1970s and '80s, teaching practical applications of biblical principles and warning against debt and rock music. He resigned as president of the Institute in Basic Life Principles in March amid allegations of sexual misconduct with multiple young women. (Gothard admitted to crossing the "boundaries of discretion" with some young women but denied any "sexual intent.")
Lawyer Seeks to Reinstate Suit Over Alleged Abuse Cover-Up at Yeshiva High
By BENJAMIN MUELLER
A lawyer for dozens of men who say they were sexually abused as high school students by rabbis at Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Manhattan asked a federal appeals court on Thursday to reinstate a lawsuit claiming that the school had covered up the misconduct for decades.
Contending that a federal judge who had earlier dismissed the case misconstrued the statute of limitations, the lawyer, Kevin T. Mulhearn, argued that the school, in Washington Heights, should be held accountable for hundreds of acts of abuse from the 1970s through the early 1990s because its complicity had only recently come to light. The case hinges, in part, on whether it was the obligation of the victims to pursue hints of a cover-up before school administrators acknowledged that they had known of the crimes.
The suit, filed on behalf of 34 clients, was thrown out in January by a federal judge, John G. Koeltl, who ruled that too many years had elapsed since the alleged abuse had taken place. Mr. Mulhearn countered in his appeal that the clock did not start ticking on their case until Yeshiva's role in protecting the two rabbis accused of abuse was revealed in a December 2012 article in The Daily Forward.
The arguments provoked often stinging replies from a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which focused on when the former students could have known that Yeshiva had put them in danger by ignoring claims of abuse by the rabbis. The judges challenged the timelines sketched by both sides; they disputed the notion that the former students could not have pursued legal action before 2012, as well as Yeshiva's claim that it was the students' duty to raise complaints of a cover-up immediately after the abuse occurred.
Noting that Yeshiva had allowed the rabbis to remain on the faculty for years after students had reported being abused, Judge Reena Raggi suggested that that sent a clear signal of a cover-up, triggering the start of a three-year window when the former students were eligible to file a lawsuit. "How does that not put your clients on notice that the school was deliberately indifferent?" she asked.
Mr. Mulhearn countered that the cover-up had put the students in an impossible bind, preventing them from discovering Yeshiva's role in the abuse even as the school continued to conceal its misconduct. The basis for the students' complaint was that the school's efforts to conceal earlier allegations had paved the way for his clients to be abused, he said, a fact that they did not discover until the university's chancellor admitted in 2012 that he had known of the allegations and dealt with them privately.
Yeshiva's Sex-Abuse Defense Raises Eyebrows
By ADAM KLASFELD
MANHATTAN (CN) – At a tense hearing Thursday, an attorney for Yeshiva University drew the ire of appellate judges by claiming that the clock of the statute of limitations started ticking the moment that rabbis allegedly victimized their high school students.
Thirty-four former students of the Yeshiva University High School for Boys sued the university, its directors and administrations in New York in 2013 for $380 million, for the "horrific abuse" they said they endured between 1968 and 1998.
Now in their late 30s and early 60s, the former students claim that the school knew about the assaults and did nothing to stop them.
Rabbi George Finkelstein "preyed on the children of Holocaust survivors," and Rabbi Macy Gordon sodomized a 16-year-old boy with a toothbrush, according to allegations of the graphic , 148-page complaint.
Spanish appointment tells Curia heads: You can go home again
John Thavis
A new chapter in Pope Francis' revolution was written today when the pope named Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera as archbishop of Valencia, Spain.
The appointment was remarkable mainly because it violated the age-old Roman Curia maxim, "You can't go home again." Cardinal Cañizares was being sent back to Valencia, where he was ordained a priest 44 years ago, after a five-year stint as head of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.
Traditionally, Roman Curia department heads, especially if they're cardinals, stay on the job until retirement. And after they retire, most continue to reside in Rome rather than returning to pastoral work in their home countries.
I've argued that if Pope Francis really wants to emphasize service over prestige in Vatican appointments, he should make it clear that those called to Rome are there temporarily, with no guarantee of career advancement, and can expect to return home after their five-year term is over.
That's what's happening to Cardinal Cañizares. A theologian known in Rome as the "little Ratzinger," he was archbishop of Toledo when he was picked by Pope Benedict to head the liturgy congregation, where he presided over a series of conservative decisions (his latest instruction was to tone down the exchange of the sign of peace during Mass, to reflect greater "sobriety" in liturgy.)
More complaints on Vic Christian Brother
Source AAP 29 AUG 2014
Four more people have made complaints against a former Christian Brother charged with child sex offences, a Victorian court has heard.
Ted Bales, 64, already faces 48 charges of indecent assault and gross indecency against 14 boys in the 1970s and 1980s.
But another four people have come forward to make complaints against Bales including one based interstate, the prosecution told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday.
The court heard police were still waiting on statements from the new complainants.
Bales, of Thomastown, was stationed with the Christian Brothers at Ballarat and Warrnambool, a previous court hearing was told.
Claims made against other teachers
Two more teachers at an all-boys Catholic grammar school where its former deputy head sexually abused 10 schoolboys would "likely" have faced similar charges if they were still alive, police have said.
The revelation emerged after the Rev Alan Morris, 64, a church deacon, was jailed for nine years after he used a "cloak of discipline" to gain perverse gratification when administering corporal punishment at St Ambrose RC College in Hale Barns, Manchester, between 1973 and 1990.
An initial complaint to the police about Morris in November 2010 led to a large number of boys saying they too had suffered at his hand, while sex abuse allegations were also made against two other teachers at the school.
Other former students complained about "inappropriate use" of corporal punishment against a number of other teachers, many of who have also since died.
Ten former pupils claimed they were sexually assaulted by a Christian Brother whose holy order had run the school, while four ex-students said they were also sexually assaulted by a second teacher.
Sex crime reports are up by 11% in Northern Ireland after Jimmy Savile case
BY CHRIS KILPATRICK – 29 AUGUST 2014
The number of sex crimes reported in Northern Ireland soared by 11% over the past year – with suggestions the Jimmy Savile scandal has encouraged victims here to speak out.
Figures released by police showed an average of more than six sex offences were reported to the PSNI every day.
In the past 12 months, officers have received 2,274 such complaints. These included 549 reports of rape, up from 531 last year.
During the same period, from July 2013, there was a decrease in the number of alleged sex offenders taken to court.
A leading charity for victims of sex abuse said it was impossible to tell if the statistics pointed to an increase in attacks or more people reporting assaults.
Son of Manchester United legend Willie Morgan speaks out about abuse at hands of pervert teacher Alan Morris
Aug 28, 2014 By John Scheerhout
The son of Manchester United legend Willie Morgan has revealed he was among scores of pupils sexually abused by St Ambrose College pervert Alan Morris.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, young Scott Morgan told how he was abused from the age of eleven when Morris became his form teacher and it continued until he was 16.
It began as physical punishment but soon became sexual, with Morris forcing the terrified youngster to bend over a stool in a small office at the rear of his classroom where he would close the curtains and smack Scott on his naked bottom with a variety of implements.
He would line up a pink rubber paddle known as the Paddywhacker, a series of canes and shoes and a leather strap on the desk before slowly choosing which one to use with his victim bent over the stool waiting for the punishment to be delivered.
Teacher who got sexual kicks from chastising pupils during 20-year abuse campaign is jailed
Aug 28, 2014 16:31 By Luke Traynor
A teacher who got sexual gratification from chastising dozens of his pupils in a campaign of abuse that stretched over two decades has been brought to justice.
Alan Morris, 64, of Rivington Road, Hale, was found guilty of 19 offences of indecent assault and inciting a child to perform an act of gross indecency.
The offences relate to the abuse of 10 boys in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
All the offences occurred during his time at St Ambrose RC College in Altrincham, an all-boys grammar school.
A further 28 offences involving 18 boys was ordered to lie on file.
Man reveals abuse he suffered at hands of former teacher and church deacon
By Claire Carter, and agencies
The son of former Manchester United player Willie Morgan has revealed the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a church deacon and former teacher.
Alan Morris, 64, has been jailed for nine years following a 17 year campaign of abuse against young boys at St Ambrose College in Altrincham, an all-boys grammar school.
Scott Morgan, now 43, has revealed the abuse he suffered at the hands of Morris started from when he was 11 and lasted for the next five years.
Since Morris' conviction it has emerged two more teachers at the grammar school would have faced similar charges if they were still alive.
Mr Morgan, who has waived his right to anonymity, explained how the punishment was at first physical but then turned sexual, with him forced to bend over a stool Morris with hit his naked bottom with a variety of weapons – including one he had made out of a table tennis bat.
Touting for abuse
Christopher Akehurst 23 August 2014
For well over a year now, the Royal Commission on child sex abuse has been trundling its inquisitional way around the country like Judge Jeffreys and his assizes. Soon its origin will be lost in the mists of antiquity; if anyone has already forgotten, the Royal Commission is the most enduring legacy of Julia Gillard. Floundering in her own ineptitude in the closing days of her unlamented prime ministership, she thought it up as an attention-grabber, a way to cash in on the even by then rather weary saga of clerical and other child abuse which, as far as the ABC and the rest of the right-on media are concerned, age can never wither nor the years condemn.
No doubt they would like it to go on forever, but there is some indication that the commission is running out of victims. I infer this from a telephone call a friend received one Sunday from a "market researcher" asking, quite out of the blue, whether the friend knew, should he happen to be a victim of sexual abuse, how he would go about bringing a complaint before the commission – in order to "share (his) story" as the commission's website puts it.
That sounds to me like touting for custom, as though not enough "survivors" (as they have come to be called, as if they'd got out of a plane crash) have already come forward. If there'd been an avalanche of claims you'd think the commission would have its work cut out dealing with them without looking for more.
Survivors are finally being listened to. The commission on child abuse is doing a great job
Helen Davidson
theguardian.com, Thursday 28 August 2014
Writing in Spectator this month, Christopher Akehurst managed to pull together no facts and a lot of ignorance in Touting for abuse, an attack on the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.
Akehurst is quite alone with this "the royal commission is a stunt" rhetoric. No one who understands anything about the work of the commission would dare to hold that view any longer, although some did when the commission was first announced. Among the many royal commissions and inquiries currently running, this one is unique in the overwhelming support for both its purpose and its conduct.
Akehurst's view is that the commission is a conspiratorial witch hunt out to bash the Roman Catholic church launched by former prime minister Julia Gillard as a last ditch attempt at creating a legacy. His main argument is that two years on, the commission is running out of victims and has to resort to telemarketing to find some.
There are many points in the Spectator article which can simply be answered by reading the commission's terms of reference, and more still that I could tear apart for inaccuracy, but I want to focus on this last claim.
Man providing day care services in home charged with sexually abusing a child
MS News Now
By Michael Clark
SOUTHAVEN, MS –
(WMC) – Police say a man who ran an home day care is under arrest and charged with sexually abusing a child.
Richard Dewayne Marsee, 45, is accused of fondling a child under the age of 16.
During the investigation, detectives say they uncovered that Marsee and his wife were running some type of day care service out of their home.
Southaven police say the crime took place on the same property as the home day care, but it's unclear if any of the children using the home day care's services were present at the time of the alleged incident.
Neighbors told WMC Action News 5 that they have seen parents dropping off several children at the house.
Investigators are trying to determine if the home was required to be licensed by the state of Mississippi to be a day care center.
Southaven man charged with child sexual abuse
WREG
GEORGE BROWN AND DENNIS TURNER
SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — Police in Southaven have charged a man with inappropriately touching a child in his home.
Richard Dewayne Marsee is currently in the DeSoto County jail.
Marsee wouldn't talk, but it was a different story at his home.
"Nothing happened! And the lawyer told us to say no comment," someone at the home said.
The woman wouldn't identify herself and threatened to call the cops on us, but she claimed nobody ever molested a child at the home daycare in a nicely-manicured Southaven subdivision.
Neighbors say man charged with child molestation is a pastor
AUGUST 28, 2014, BY KATIE RUFENER
SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — People say he's a man of God, but the things he is charged with would make any parent sick.
Neighbors tell WREG Richard Marsee, who's charged with child molestation and who was running a childcare service out of his home, is also a pastor at a Southern Baptist church in Southaven.
One woman, Rose Moore, said he even invited her to come worship with his family.
Now he's behind bars, charged with child sexual abuse.
The Legion of Christ sitting on tens of billions of dollars in secret Vatican Swiss Banks and with their highest annual ordination of new priests (ordained only in Rome -even outnumbering the Opus Dei) have to find ways to justify their religious existence because whatever churches and no matter how many priests they may have – the raw truth is, the Legion of Christ is 'a castle built on sand' — the sand of evil– because its founder, Mr. Marcial Maciel (we refuse to call him "Father"), is one of the most evil member of the JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army – one of the evil Achilles Heels of Satanas St. John Paul II. Read more in our related article, John Paul II the Holy Father of Lies! Cardinal Dziwisz book: "JPII knew nothing" about bestial pedophile priest Fr. Maciel is Vatican Titanic Deceits http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/11/john-paul-ii-holy-father-of-lies.html
Case of defrocked archbishop set to be crucial test for Vatican
Paddy Agnew
Fri, Aug 29, 2014
A case involving a Polish archbishop may prove to be a crucial test for the Holy See in its road to reform and change, as promised by Pope Francis.
Archbishop Wesolowski (66), formerly papal nuncio to the Domincian Republic, has been accused of paedophile behaviour both in the Domincian Republic and in his native Poland. Last June, a canon law court in the Vatican "reduced" him to " lay status" after finding him guilty of child sex abuse.
Allegations of improper behaviour had been made against him last autumn by a TV channel in the Dominican Republic, which claimed that during his five years (2008 – 2013) as papal nuncio, he had regularly frequented an area in Santa Domingo, well known for child prostitution.
Extradite
Last January, in response to media reports that Poland wanted to extradite the archbishop, the Holy See confirmed that as a Vatican City state citizen, he would be tried in Holy See (canonical) and subsequently Vatican City state courts. The ex-nuncio is awaiting an appeal, probably in October, against his June canonical court prosecution. Following that, he may be tried for child abuse in a Vatican City court.
The Wesolowski case resurfaced this week, following a report in the New York Times that provided details and first-hand evidence of his paedophile activities in Santo Domingo. Victims claimed Archbishop Wesolowski used to "cruise" the oceanfront promenade, looking for shoeshine boys to whom he would offer small sums of money ($10 dollars) in return for sexual favours. Sometimes, he wanted to watch the boys swim naked. On other occasions, he wanted to watch them masturbate on the beach.
Top Italian Bishop Nunzio Galantino Says Church Must Welcome 'Unconventional Couples'
Religion News Service | By JOSEPHINE MCKENNA
ROME (RNS) The Catholic Church should make "unconventional couples" feel at home instead of making them targets of "de facto discrimination," the leader of the Italian Bishops Conference and an ally of Pope Francis said this week.
"Couples in irregular matrimonial situations are also Christians, but they are sometimes looked upon with prejudice," said Bishop Nunzio Galantino, an apparent reference to divorced and remarried Catholics.
"The burden of exclusion from the sacraments is an unjustified price to pay, in addition to de facto discrimination," he said Wednesday (Aug. 27) in an address to a national conference on liturgy in the Italian hill town of Orvieto.
Galantino was Francis' choice in March to lead the fractious Italian hierarchy, and from the beginning the bishop has adopted the pontiff's inclusive approach. That has often landed Galantino in hot water, as he has spoken about the need for the church to welcome gays and to consider optional celibacy for the priesthood.
But Galantino has not softened his views, which are especially newsworthy because in October the Vatican will host a major conference of the world's top bishops, called a synod, to discuss issues facing the modern family.
Catholic paper refuses ad for McAleese event
IRELAND/AUSTRALIA
Padraig Collins
Thu, Aug 28, 2014
An Australian Catholic newspaper has refused to run an advertisement for an event featuring former President Mary McAleese because of her views on homosexuality and the ordination of women.
Ms McAleese is the guest of Catholic think-tank, Catalyst For Renewal, at an interview and open forum in Sydney next week.
The organisation's aim is to "prompt open exchanges among the community of believers".
But Catholic Weekly editor Peter Rosengren said it would not accept an advert for the event because of Ms McAleese's views.
"She is reported as being in favour of ordination of women as Catholic priests and in favour of homosexuality – whatever that actually means," Mr Rosengren told the Sydney-based Irish Echo newspaper.
Catholic paper in Australia refuses McAleese advert
Sarah MacDonald
The refusal of a Catholic newspaper in Australia to run an advertisement for a talk by former president Mary McAleese has been criticised as another attempt by the agents of the official church to silence those with views they do not agree with.
Censured cleric Fr Tony Flannery, who is a personal friend of the former head of state, told the Irish Independent that the refusal by the Sydney-based 'The Catholic Weekly' to publish ads to promote the event was "sad" and "ridiculous".
The editor of the newspaper, Peter Rosengren, said that the refusal to run the ad was because of Mrs McAleese's reported views on the ordination of women and homosexuality.
He said Mrs McAleese, who is completing a doctorate in canon law, had "an agenda".
Mrs McAleese is a guest of the University of New South Wales' chair of Modern Irish Studies in Sydney and the Catholic think-tank Catalyst For Renewal (CFR).
Titusville youth pastor arrested on child pornography charges
TITUSVILLE, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) – The Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Thursday arrested a Titusville man on 10 counts of possession of child pornography.
FDLE Agents began investigating Lucas Dillon Brandenburg in July after identifying a computer at his residence sharing images of child pornography. Brandenburg, 30, is a youth pastor for Building 418, a ministry of St. Gabriel Episcopal Church in Titusville.
Brandenburg was booked into the Brevard County Jail on $350,000 bond.
According to the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida Brandenberg has been terminated as an employee of St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church, Titusville and is prohibited from being on all church property or having contact with any children.
"Before his employment at St. Gabriel's, Brandenburg was subject to a thorough background check and had fulfilled the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida's required Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse certificate program," said Joe Thoma, spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida. "Completion of the program is mandatory for all workers — paid or volunteer — who have contact with youth at diocesan organizations."
Youth pastor kept child pornography, FDLE says
By Kevin P. Connolly and Jeff Kunerth, Staff Writers
4:19 p.m. EDT, August 28, 2014
A 30-year-old Brevard County youth pastor was fired by church leaders after his arrest Thursday on 10 counts of possession of child pornography.
Lucas Dillon Brandenburg, 30, of Titusville was a youth pastor for Building 418, a ministry of St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church in Titusville, state agents said.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents began investigating Brandenburg in July after flagging his computer as one that shared images of child pornography.
Agents with FDLE's Orlando Regional Operations Center arrested Brandenburg on Thursday morning.
The Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida has fired Brandenburg after his arrest.
Florida youth pastor busted after his computer is detected 'sharing' child porn
By David Edwards
A Florida youth pastor was arrested on Thursday after investigators said that they found a computer at his home "sharing" images of child pornography.
According to a statement from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, St. Gabriel Episcopal Church youth pastor Lucas Dillon Brandenburg, 30, was arrested on 10 charges of possession of child pornography.
The statement said that agents first noticed that there was a computer at his residence in Titusville that was "sharing images of child pornography" in July.
FDLE arrests Titusville man for possession of child pornography
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
TITUSVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Department of Law Enforcement Orlando Regional Operations Center today arrested Lucas Dillon Brandenburg, 30, of 3545 Sable Palm Lane, Apt. B, Titusville, Fla. on 10 counts of possession of child pornography.
FDLE Agents began investigating Brandenburg in July after identifying a computer at his residence sharing images of child pornography.
Brandenburg is a youth pastor for Building 418, a ministry of St. Gabriel Episcopal Church in Titusville, Fla. Anyone with information related to this case is urged to contact the FDLE Orlando Regional Operations Center at (800) 226-8521.
Brandenburg was booked into the Brevard County Jail on $350,000 bond. The case will be prosecuted by the Office of the State Attorney, 18th Judicial Circuit.
Titusville youth pastor arrested on child porn charges
Rick Neale, FLORIDA TODAY 5:29 p.m. EDT August 28, 2014
Lucas Dillon Brandenburg, 30, of Titusville was arrested Thursday on 10 counts of possession of child pornography.
Brandenburg is a youth pastor for Building 418, a ministry of St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church in Titusville, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported.
FDLE agents began investigating Brandenburg in July after identifying a computer at his home that was sharing images of child pornography, according to a news release.
'Spotlight' movie is Opus Dei Beast PR stunt propaganda for the Vatican & publicity for Boston Globe Catholic website – to salvage Vatican Titanic
PopeCrimes& Vatican Evils.
Our message is the same for the new producers and sponsors of the movie-to-be-made about Boston Globe investigation on priest pedophilia in 2002. Read our related article, DreamWorks movie on Boston Pedophile Priests: Its moral message and mission in Boston, in the USA and in the world http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/04/dreamworks-movie-on-boston-pedophile.html
Read also our related article — Argo &"saint" John Paul II are make-believe legends of Hollywood and the Vatican, the twin cities that "lie for a living" http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2013/07/argo-john-paul-ii-are-make-believe_11.html
The Catholic Abuse Crisis: Three Recent Stories…
The Catholic Abuse Crisis: Three Recent Stories — Cardinal Pell (Again) Infuriates Survivors, Bishop Finn Up for Probation, Damning Report on Józef Wesołowski , Former Apostolic Nuncio to Dominican Republic
On the front of the sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic church, there have been several important stories in recent days. I'd like to point readers today to commentary about these stories that I've found valuable:
1. First, as Josephine McKenna reports for Religion News Service, a little over a week ago, Cardinal George Pell gave testimony from the Vatican in an Australian government probe seeking to ascertain how the leaders of the Catholic church have (or have not) responded to the sexual abuse of children by priests in Australia. Pell managed to outrage abuse survivors and those who stand with survivors by saying the following (this is McKenna's summary):
Using a hypothetical example, Pell said the church was no more responsible for cases of child abuse carried out by church figures than a trucking company would be if it employed a driver who molested women.
To which the Brisbane Times responds with this editorial statement:
Leadership is about asking a simple, profound question – "is this right?" – and then acting appropriately in response. On this measure, Cardinal George Pell, who now resides in the Vatican after his stints as archbishop of Sydney and before that of Melbourne, has serially failed.
Residential schools timeline
2005: The agreement-in-principle is signed between the federal government, survivors and church organizations.
Sept. 19, 2007: The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement is formally signed and enacted. The agreement will lead to the creation of two separate bodies: the Independent Assessment Process, responsible for administering claims, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
June 1, 2008: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission formally launches, and begins its mission of research and statement-gathering.
June 11, 2008: Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other party leaders deliver a formal apology in the House of Commons.
June 16-19, 2010: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission holds the first of its seven national events.
Former Concord youth pastor sent to prison for molesting boys in his care
WBTV
By David Whisenant
CONCORD, NC (WBTV) –
A former youth pastor in Charlotte and Concord pleaded guilty today to taking indecent liberties with young boys who were in his care.
Judge Erwin Spainhour sentenced Bobby Price to serve an active prison sentence of at least 16 months.
There were lots of tears in that courtroom, under the terms of the plea agreement the judge gave Price as much time as he could, saying this was a heinous crime.
The mother of one of the victims said she felt used and that while trying to protect her child, every Sunday, Sunday night, and Wednesday, she took her little boy in a den of wolves and let him be attacked.
Dozens of family and friends stood in court to support Bobby Price, but when they left, they had not a word to say.
NC–Youth pastor pleads guilty in sexual abuse charge
For immediate release: Thursday, August 28, 2014
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314-503-0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )
A former youth pastor from Concord has pleaded guilty to charges that he sexually molested children and was sentenced to sixteen years.
Robert "Bobby" Price was the youth pastor at King's Way Baptist church in Concord, NC. Law enforcement officials began investigating Price after a victim reported to police in 2011. A civil case against Price has previously been settled. One of Price's victims was represented by Charlotte attorney Seth Langson.
We are glad guilty plea will keep Price away from children for a long time. We also strongly encourage anyone else who has been sexual abused or witnessed abuse to come forward and report to law enforcement. Healing can begin when the truth is revealed.
American ultra-orthodox charge sexual abuse at Israeli seminaries
By SAM SOKOL
Rabbi Elimelech Meisels, and figures associated and figures from a number of other institutions are named in the class action suit in a Chicago court. Sexual Abuse
The head of a chain of religious seminaries in Israel, accused of engaging in sexual abuse and fraud, is now the target of a class-action suit by members of the American ultra-Orthodox community in a Chicago court.
Rabbi Elimelech Meisels, the operator of four seminaries for post-high school girls, stands accused of having "engaged in a fraudulent and unlawful scheme to induce Orthodox Jewish parents from across the United States to send their daughters to various seminaries in Israel that he controlled under the guise of educational and spiritual development" for the purposes of "sexually assaulting these vulnerable young girls" since 2004, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by the Failed Messiah blog.
"Once the sexual assaults were complete, upon information and belief, defendant Meisels would intimidate his victims by telling them that no one would believe that a rabbi and author with his reputation would have done such a thing," the plaintiffs wrote.
American Orthodox teenagers, both male and female, customarily spend a year or more between high school and college in an Israeli seminary catering to English-speaking students.
Helena diocese seeks bankruptcy judge's approval of key piece of sex-abuse settlement
By MATT VOLZ Associated Press
HELENA, Montana — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena is asking a judge to approve an agreement with its insurers that would provide the bulk of the funding for a proposed settlement with hundreds of people who say they were sexually abused by clergy.
The plan would allow the insurers to buy back their policies from the diocese for $10.9 million, which would go toward the $15 million proposed settlement with 362 people who sued the diocese in 2011 over sexual abuse from the 1940s to the 1970s.
Those plaintiffs say the diocese knew or should have known the abuse was happening but did nothing to protect the children in the schools and parishes in western Montana at that time.
The diocese's insurers had filed separate legal challenges over which claims they are obligated to cover. This deal would settle those challenges and permanently bar anybody else from coming forward with sexual abuse claims related to those insurance policies.
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