Saturday, April 06, 2002

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/6/2002 12:35:56 PM Mahony E-Mails Cite Fears Over Scandals
Abuse: In another development, a Fresno woman alleges the L.A. archbishop molested her in 1970.
CALIFORNIA: The Los Angeles Times' LARRY B. STAMMER and RICHARD WINTON report: "A series of confidential e-mails written by Cardinal Roger M. Mahony show how pervasively the nationwide child-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church has affected the Los Angeles Archdiocese. The e-mails, leaked to radio station KFI, which provided copies to The Times, paint a picture of a sometimes-agitated archbishop alarmed that he is losing public relations ground."

The Cardinal's 'Biggest Mistake'--One of Many
COLUMN: Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez writes: "There is talk of telling police as little as possible about priests who were known sex offenders. There is the crafting of statements to avoid being caught in a lie down the road. he truth is framed, needled and massaged in the name of protecting the church. All this from those who hold themselves up as paragons of morality and virtue, with God as their guide."

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/6/2002 12:15:38 PM

Friday, April 05, 2002

Former priest explains past
Neil Conway talks of his sex crimes as police investigate a recent allegation
OHIO: The Akron Beacon Journal's Stephanie Warsmith
reports: "Neil Conway doesn't fit the image as the poster child for fallen priests. Dressed in a plaid shirt and paint-stained pants, he sipped nonalcoholic beer and puffed on his pipe earlier this week as he reflected on the strange turn his life has taken."

Catholic Charities subs mailing for party fund-raiser
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Herald's Laurel J. Sweet
reports: "A mass mailing will pinch hit this spring for Catholic Charities' usual garden party fund-raiser in hopes that donors will give generously to the social service arm of the scandal-ridden church from the privacy of their homes. In what is portrayed as a struggle for its very existence, the charitable organization endeavors to pull in $1.5 million between now and June 6 - up $100,000 from last year - according to today's edition of The Pilot."

Cover-up charges made in alleged abuse case
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Herald's Eric Convey reports: "Men alleging abuse by the late Rev. Joseph E. Birmingham and women who said they tried to stop it by warning high-level church officials 30 years ago fired fresh cover-up charges at top officials from the Archdiocese of Boston yesterday."

Worker's warnings on priests led to her firing
MISSOURI/FLORIDA: The Boston Globe's Stephen Kurkjian reports: "Last month's resignation of Palm Bea
ch, Fla., Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell following accusations that he molested a Missouri seminarian did not surprise youth worker Donna Cox. A decade ago, after O'Connell became a bishop, Cox complained about possible sexual misconduct at the seminary O'Connell ran for a quarter century. But instead of acting on her complaints, which included six other priests, the chancellor of the Jefferson City Diocese swore Cox to secrecy - and then fired her after Cox expressed concern that nothing was being done."

DA calls N.Y. diocese policy on abuse 'disturbing'
NEW YORK: The Boston Globe's Fred Kaplan reports: "NEW YORK - Cardinal Edward Egan, head of the New York Archdiocese, took a step toward greater openness this week when he gave the Manhattan district attorney a list of priests who have been accused of child abuse, but at least one New York prosecutor said he did not go far enough."

Ireland to undertake priest abuse inquiry
IRELAND: The AP's Shawn Pogatchnik reports: "DUBLIN - The Irish government will appoint a lawyer to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clerics in southeast Ireland, the health minister announced yesterday after meeting more than a dozen men and women who reported being abused as children."

Judge: No gag order for alleged victim
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Globe's Matt Carroll reports: "A Middlesex Superior Court judge yesterday cleared the way for the possible public release of internal Catholic Church documents that may contain evidence about whether Cardinal Bernard F. Law and other church officials knew about the sexual molestation of minors by Rev. Paul R. Shanley. Judge Leila R. Kern refused to impose a gag order on Gregory Ford, a 24-year-old man who was allegedly sexually abused by Shanley at a Newton parish in the 1980s, ruling that Ford and his family are free to talk about or distribute documents they will receive today."

Law is new defendant in clergy abuse suit
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Globe's Matt Carroll reports: "Cardinal Bernard F. Law and a retired monsignor were added as defendants yesterday to a lawsuit that now includes 14 alleged victims of the late Rev. Joseph E. Birmingham, with the two officials accused of allowing Birmingham to continue serving in parishes despite knowledge of his sexual abuse."

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/5/2002 06:47:46 AM

Thursday, April 04, 2002

Pray the News
Indiana Nuns Post Their View of World Events on the Web
NPR AUDIO: Listen to Susan Stamberg's report; Read excerpts of opinions from Pray the News.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/4/2002 08:57:27 PM Priest stripped of powers is missing
MARYLAND: The Baltimore Sun's John Rivera reports: "A Roman Catholic priest who is accused of filing a false carjacking report to cover up a night with a male prostitute has been relieved of his priestly faculties and is missing from his Lansdowne parish. The Rev. Steven P. Girard, 54, pastor of St. Clement I Catholic Church, has been missing since last week, when Baltimore County police charged him with making a false statement to a police officer after his story about a carjacking unraveled under police questioning."

Digest of Baltimore Sun Coverage

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/4/2002 01:30:59 PM Atlanta priest scandals costly
Old records show more settlements
GEORGIA: Atlanta Journal Constitution's STEVE VISSER and JIM AUCHMUTEY report: "The price of sexual misconduct by Catholic priests in Atlanta exceeds a half million-dollars, according to long forgotten court records that surfaced Wednesday. The amount dwarfs the $31,250 that the Archdiocese of Atlanta earlier this week said it had paid from its own coffers to settle sexual abuse claims against priests since 1989. Most of the money came from insurers."

Suits say archdiocese aided molester priests
ILLINOIS: The Chicago Sun-Times' CATHLEEN FALSANI AND FRANK MAIN report: "Two priests with histories of sexually abusing children were able to move from parish to parish across three states and two countries even though the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago was aware of their conduct, two lawsuits charged Wednesday. In one of the suits, filed in Portland, Ore., an unnamed man says he was molested by the Rev. Andrew Ronan in the mid-1960s when Ronan was a priest assigned to a Portland shrine. Ronan was a teacher at the all-boys St. Philip High School on Chicago's West Side from 1959 to 1965, until he was reassigned by the Order of Friars, Servants of Mary. Ronan had been accused of sexual misconduct with St. Philip's students, said the Rev. Michael Guimon, the provincial of the order, which has its headquarters here."

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/4/2002 01:27:00 PM Claims Strain Church Liability Insurance
Legal Defense Costs Alone Run Into Six-Digit Figures
NATIONAL: The Hartford Courant's reports: "Through all the sexual abuse scandal, churches in Connecticut and across the nation can still get liability insurance - but how much they'll collect on past policies has been a messy matter. Although rates have been rising, as they have for businesses, many houses of worship continue to buy protection from little-known organizations founded or owned by the religious groups they serve. Catholic Mutual, Church Mutual, and the National Catholic Risk Retention Group are among them."

MSNBC Video re National Poll
NATIONAL: Washington Post religion writer Alan Cooperman interviewed on MSNBC.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/4/2002 01:22:28 PM Dozens more allege abuse by late priest
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Globe's Sacha Pfeiffer reports: "In the last week alone, more than two dozen alleged victims of the late Rev. Joseph E. Birmingham have come forward, some with accounts of how they fruitlessly complained about his compulsive molestation of children during the first of six parish assignments Birmingham had in 29 years as a priest. The number of Birmingham victims is so large - as many as 25 alone from his third assignment in Lowell in the 1970s - that his profile is similar to former priest John J. Geoghan, who was rotated through six parishes of his own, where he allegedly accumulated close to 200 victims even though high church officials knew he was molesting children."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/4/2002 06:33:08 AM Archdiocese sued over abuses claim dating to the 1970s
WASHINGTON: The Seattle Times' Ray Rivera reports: "A lawsuit filed in Clark County Superior Court alleges the Archdiocese of Seattle knew or should have known about a priest accused of pedophilia years ago at a Vancouver parish. The 59-year-old priest, who most recently has been at a Pierce County parish, has been placed on administrative leave. The adult plaintiff, a former altar boy listed only as "M.H." in the lawsuit, claims the priest "enticed, induced, directed and coerced" him to engage in various sexual acts with him over a five-year period. The suit, filed in September, does not list the dates of the abuse, but archdiocese spokesman Bill Gallant said it involved abuse alleged to have happened more than 25 years ago."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/4/2002 06:30:54 AM Most Catholics Say Church in a 'Crisis'
NATIONAL: The Washington Post's Richard Morin and Alan Cooperman
report: "A growing majority of Catholics are sharply critical of the way the Catholic Church has handled instances of child abuse by priests and believe the scandal has deeply tarnished the church's reputation, according to a national survey by The Washington Post, ABC News and Beliefnet.com.
The survey suggests that weeks of media reports about priests who are sexual predators have led many devout Catholics to wrestle with long-held beliefs and assumptions about their church and its leaders."

Suit Names St. Pete Diocese, Vatican
FLORIDA: The Tampa Tribune's Brad Smith reports: "TAMPA - The Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg and the Vatican were named defendants today in a lawsuit which alleges the cover-up of a year-long sexual molestatation of a student while enrolled in the Mary Help of Christians school. During the emotional news conference, the details of the civil lawsuit were expained, alleging a conspiracy to move pedophile priests across state and national boundaries. A national victims' group says it is filing the lawsuit against the Holy See; dioceses in St. Petersburg, Portland, Ore., and Chicago; and two religious orders."
--WFLA-TV coverage of news conference about above suit.

Leading Roman Catholic bishop says church must work harder to restore trust
NATIONAL: The AP's Rachel Zoll reports: "The president of the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops' conference said Wednesday that molestation scandals involving priests will end only when church leaders take definitive steps to restore parishioners' trust. Bishop Wilton Gregory gave few specifics, but the man who leads the Belleville, Ill., diocese near St. Louis left the door open to asking the Vatican to approve a binding sex abuse policy for American clergy."

N.Y. Archdiocese Gives DA List of Sex Cases
NEW YORK: Newsday's Karen Friefeld reports: "With the church still reeling from child sex abuse scandals, the Archdiocese of New York said Wednesday that it gave Manhattan prosecutors a list of sexual misconduct complaints made against priests in the last 40 years. The archdiocese also released a new policy for handling such allegations against its priests. That policy calls for accusations of misconduct to be put in writing; for the priest to be interviewed by church officials and to respond in writing; and for a committee of clergy and lay experts to determine whether the allegations should be sent to law enforcement officials."

Brooklyn Bishop Daily Stands Firm On Non-Disclosure
NEW YORK: Newsday's Ron Howell reports: "As other church leaders agree to hand over records on alleged sex abusers, Brooklyn Bishop Thomas Daily is standing by his refusal to do so, his spokesman said Wednesday. Asked for Daily’s position on the issue, diocesan spokesman Frank DeRosa referred to the bishop’s statement of March 22, in which he said, I do not plan to issue the names and number of priests against whom allegations have been presented.'”

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/4/2002 06:23:59 AM

Wednesday, April 03, 2002

Hell To Pay
COLUMN: Columnist Art Buckwald writes: "'What's going on?' I asked the man in a white collar, after I read in the paper about trouble in the church. He said, 'The Devil made me do it.' It was a smoking gun, so I decided to go visit the Devil, aka Satan, and check it out. I found him in Hades, making junk calls to Earth."

St. Petersburg diocese alters plan for fall meetings
Church leaders planned a Mass to kick off a historic gathering. That service is now on hold amid improper conduct claims against a bishop.
FLORIDA: The St. Petersburg Times' WAVENEY ANN MOORE and SHARON TUBBS report: "ST. PETERSBURG -- An embattled Bishop Robert N. Lynch has abruptly postponed the spiritual beginning of a historic gathering of area Roman Catholics. This Sunday, clergy and representatives from parishes throughout the five-county Diocese of St. Petersburg had been expected to attend a special Mass to launch the first-ever synod, a series of meetings to plan the local church's future."

Atlanta archdiocese reveals abuse claims
GEORGIA: The Atlanta Journal Constitution's JIM AUCHMUTEY
reports: "The Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta disclosed Tuesday it has responded to claims over the last 13 years that six priests had sexually abused boys. It paid $31,250 in church funds -- plus additional money from insurers -- to settle four of the claims. Archdiocese attorney David Brown listed the cases Tuesday in response to a Journal-Constitution request growing out of news reports of how the church nationwide is dealing with pedophile priests. His written response is the most complete picture yet of how Atlanta figures into what has become a national scandal."

Church finds sex abuse has no guaranteed cure
Programs help some priests, but not others
NATIONAL: The Chicago Tribune's Evan Osnos and Jeremy Manier
report: "One after another, Roman Catholic priests accused of sexually molesting children check into a handful of specialized hospitals around the country to confront a destructive disorder that science can control but not cure. There, the new patients--an estimated 1,400 priests since 1985--begin a treatment regimen of five to seven months, in which doctors mix psychotherapy and medication in the hope of halting patterns of behavior that may originate deep in childhood trauma."

Criminal complaint filed vs. accused ex-priest
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Herald's Robin Washington and Tom Mashberg report: "A Newton man filed a criminal complaint yesterday against the Rev. Paul Shanley, a former pastor shuffled between several Boston area churches where he allegedly molested children before relocating to San Diego, where sources say he now works as an auxiliary police officer. Greg Ford, 24, said that Shanley - already the subject of several molestation cases settled by the Archdiocese of Boston - repeatedly fondled and raped him as a child in the rectory of St. Jean's Parish for six years beginning in 1984."

Priest treatment unfolds in costly, secretive world
Psychiatrists, church trade misdeed charges
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Globe's Ellen Barry reports: "As far as his parishioners knew, the Rev. Jay Mullin was on ''sick leave,'' and would be absent from his Plainville pulpit until he felt better. In truth, he had crossed over into a secretive world of church-funded psychiatry. For decades before the case of defrocked priest John Geoghan elevated clergy sexual abuse into a national crisis, the Catholic Church was spending millions of dollars to quietly treat accused sex offenders in a constellation of psychiatric hospitals - some independent, some church-affiliated - advertised in the back pages of religious publications."

Globe to write book on church sex scandal for Little, Brown
BOOK: The Boston Globe reports: "The Boston Globe and Little, Brown & Co. have entered into an agreement to produce a book on the sexual abuse scandal that has roiled the Roman Catholic Church."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/3/2002 07:18:44 AM L.A. Bishop Mahony Says Victims' Requests Led to Secrecy
Catholics: In interview, he defends decision not to reveal accused priests' identities.
CALIFORNIA: The Los Angeles Times' Larry B. Stammer reports: "Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, in his first interview since the priest-abuse scandal broke, said Tuesday his refusal to give details about priests dismissed from the Los Angeles Archdiocese was based on requests from police and victims. The cardinal, the archbishop of Los Angeles, requested an interview with a Times reporter to clear the air about the archdiocese's role in the sex abuse cases. He compared the church's sexual abuse crisis to a cancer, saying that until the "'ast injurious cell' is removed, the church will not be able to move on."

Former Pastor Gets 32-Month Term
CALIFORNIA: The Los Angeles Times' JEAN GUCCIONE reports: "A former associate pastor at a Canoga Park church was sentenced Tuesday to serve 32 months in state prison for failing to register as a sex offender. Paul Henry Ilger, 50, of West Hills was taken into custody immediately after Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz sentenced him at the Van Nuys courthouse."

Victims Crushed in a Priestly Silence
COLUMN: The Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez writes: "Well, there goes another round of Sunday offerings. Your Easter tithes won't pay for hymnbooks or boost the salaries of underpaid Catholic schoolteachers, but will go straight into the scandal management fund. You read about these sex abuse cases each day and wonder if the national spectacle of hypocrisy and betrayal can get any more outrageous, and now we know the answer is yes. The latest case involves an Orange County priest who allegedly got a teenager pregnant roughly 20 years ago and then quietly paid for her abortion, breaking perhaps a half-dozen commandments in this one relationship alone."

2 Catholic Dioceses Settle Abuse Suit for $1.2 Million
Church: Woman alleges priest molested her and two other priests ignored her pleas for help.
CALIFORNIA: The Los Angeles Times' WILLIAM LOBDELL reports: "The Roman Catholic dioceses of Orange and Los Angeles paid $1.2 million Monday to a 37-year-old woman who alleged in a lawsuit that a popular priest molested her as a teenager, got her pregnant and paid for her abortion. The church's settlement with Lori Haigh was the second high-profile settlement the two dioceses have paid in eight months to a victim of priestly abuse. It was the latest in a mounting string of cases throughout the nation that have focused attention on the church's tolerance of abusive clergy."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/3/2002 06:42:13 AM Breaking faith
As sexual scandal rocks the Roman Catholic church, Protestants face a lurking sex scandal as well. Will churches and national organizations take biblical steps to prevent further shame?
NATIONAL: The World magazine's Lynn Vincent reports: "While northeastern precincts of the Roman Catholic Church writhe in the bonds of yet another sex scandal—more than 80 priests accused of pedophilia and other abuse—the Protestant church has a severe problem of its own: some pastoral counselors having sex with counselees. Such contact can be classified biblically as "adultery" or "fornication," but often is not a "consensual affair." It is sexual abuse—and an egregious abuse of power that can rob women of their faith in clergy, in the institution of the church, and even in God."

Why do we cover this?
NATIONAL: World Editor Marvin Olasky writes: "WORLD is purposely leaving out of this story gross specific detail, but some readers may wonder why we are running it at all. The essential reason: Churches can take steps to prevent or at least reduce the frequency of clergy sexual abuse—if leaders and members are informed...By bringing this question out into the open, we hope Christians will work toward establishing sexual-abuse policies in their own churches, and that church leaders will educate members about the problem and how to prevent it. We also hope that other Christian publications will investigate other occurrences of CSA and bring to bear the power of shame on any who take advantage of those who trusted them."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/3/2002 06:33:18 AM Attorney will sue Vatican in two U.S. sex-abuse cases
NATIONAL/VATICAN/FLORIDA: The Miami Herald's Andy Driscoll reports: "An attorney who has sued the Catholic Church in hundreds of sex-abuse cases will file two new cases today -- but this time, he'll name the Vatican in an alleged conspiracy to protect pedophile priests by moving them across state and national boundaries to avoid prosecution. Minnesota attorney Jeff Anderson will file the cases simultaneously -- one in Pinellas County circuit court and the other, a federal suit, in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore. The suits will name the Vatican, two religious orders and three dioceses: St. Petersburg, Portland and Chicago."

The priests who're guilty of nothing
CANADA: The Toronto Globe and Mail's MARGARET WENTE reports: "In 1955, a young Oblate priest named Bernard Pinet arrived in Western Canada from Montreal. Since then, he has worked and lived with aboriginal people. In the justice system, he met dozens of young native kids who had suffered sexual abuse, and worked with native elders to find ways of helping them. Today, Father Pinet lives with a dwindling community of aging Oblate priests in St. Boniface, Man. He's still on the job. Today, however, that job is fighting lawsuits. Father Pinet told me that the Oblates are facing 2,500 claims for residential-school abuse. Their legal bills are bankrupting them. Soon they may not be able to support the elderly priests who took vows of poverty when they joined the order, and thought they would be looked after until they died."

Priest in sex abuse case may testify by phone
NEW JERSEY: The Philadelphia Inquirer's Nancy Phillips reports: "ATLANTIC CITY - Monsignor Philip Rigney drove to Easter Mass on Sunday and then enjoyed a lunch out with his sister. Later still, he got behind the wheel to go to dinner. Or so a surveillance video played today showed. Stephen C. Rubino, the lawyer who hired a private investigator to tape that video in Florida, played it in a judge's chambers to argue that Father Rigney could indeed travel to New Jersey to testify in a lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/3/2002 06:12:03 AM

Tuesday, April 02, 2002

Gallery of Related Stories from The Los Angeles Times

Minister Ruled Exempt in Sex-Harassment Suit
Courts: Because they're not licensed therapists, clergy are protected. Plaintiff had seen pastor for marriage counseling.
CALIFORNIA: The Los Angeles Times' MONTE MORIN reports: "An Orange pastor accused of making sexual advances to a woman who turned to him for marriage counseling cannot be sued in civil court because he is not a licensed counselor, a California appellate court ruled. The decision, released Friday, affirms a state law that exempts the clergy from civil lawsuits involving advice they give to those who seek their counsel. The law was intended to encourage people to confide in the clergy in a setting not bound by codes of professional conduct."

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/2/2002 07:10:37 AM State priest dodged abuse claims
Conviction ends practice of transferring him to new parishes
WISCONSIN: The Milwauke Journal Sentinel's MARY ZAHN and TOM KERTSCHER report: "A Catholic priest accused of sexually molesting boys in a church rectory after offering them beer and X-rated movies was shielded from criminal prosecution by top church officials in northern Wisconsin for at least six years as they moved him from parish to parish. In the end, a distraught mother - not church officials - finally put an end to Father David J. Malsch's freedom after she found pornographic videos in the bedroom of her son, who has learning disabilities, in 1991. The boy told her that the videos came from Malsch."

Priest who resigned amid abuse claims found a new life
WISCONSIN: The Milwauke Journal Sentinel's MARY ZAHN and TOM HEINEN report: "A Milwaukee priest accused of sexually abusing deaf children more than two decades ago moved to the Rhinelander area and was allowed to teach Sunday school and preside at Masses for the deaf for about 20 years at three Northern Wisconsin parishes. Father Lawrence C. Murphy resigned as director of St. John's School for the Deaf in 1974 after a small group of former students - some of whom claimed to have been abused by Murphy - sought his removal. The school was closed in the 1980s because of rising costs."

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/2/2002 06:42:52 AM

Monday, April 01, 2002

Scandal shifts to R.I.: Priest could face criminal charges
The Boston Herald's Robin Washington reports: "Bernard Cardinal Law celebrated Easter Mass before a capacity crowd at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross yesterday, making several passing references to the priest child sex abuse scandal engulfing the church...Today, attention on the scandal shifts to Providence, R.I., where Hyde Park's David Carney, 36, will file charges against Monsignor Frederick Ryan, the one-time vice chancellor of the Boston archdiocese who Carney says brought him across state lines to molest him two decades ago."

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/1/2002 07:41:49 AM US Catholic leaders debate cure for sexual abuse scandal
NATIONAL: The Boston Globe's Susan Milligan reports: "WASHINGTON - On a day designated for celebration, prominent Catholics struggled with a tough question: How does a church shaken by disclosures of sexual misconduct by priests find salvation?...Details from a Meet the Press roundtable.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/1/2002 07:35:45 AM Recalling past horrors
ARIZONA: The Arizona Republic's Nena Baker reports: "The memory washed over Sean Watson as he sat in a Scottsdale bar, high on methamphetamine, watching O.J. Simpson's acquittal in his 1995 murder trial. A man had hurt Watson when he was a child and gotten away with it. The man was a Roman Catholic priest."

Catholics Take Comfort in Easter
Religion: In one Florida diocese, the sex scandal has not shaken the faith of parishioners.
FLORIDA: The Los Angeles Times' JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG reports: "PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- For Christians, the deepest meaning of Easter is that life follows death, that hope can vanquish suffering. For American Catholics, who have endured weeks of seamy, sorrowful revelations about the behavior of some priests, that message Sunday held a special poignancy and comfort."

Northern California parish reels as priest stands trial on 20-year-old sexual abuse charges
CALIFORNIA: The AP's KIM CURTIS reports: "HEALDSBURG, Calif. (AP) -- Roman Catholic parishioners in this bucolic northern California town are reeling as a priest stands trial on 20-year-old sexual abuse charges. The Rev. Don Kimball, who worked at St. John the Baptist Church in the early 1980s, has been on trial for rape and lewd conduct. He is being tried now, more than two decades after the alleged crimes, because of recent changes in state law that extended the statute of limitations for sex crimes involving children under 14."

$1.2 million settlement in alleged SoCal priest sex abuse case
CALIFORNIA: The AP's LOUINN LOTA reports: "LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A $1.2 million settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed by a woman who sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for alleged sex abuse by priests two decades or more ago, the archdiocese announced Monday. The woman claimed an Orange diocese priest impregnated her when she was 16 and first sexually assaulted her in 1979 when she was 14, her lawyer said in a news release. The release did not state whether she gave birth."

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/1/2002 07:27:11 AM A Calling in Crisis
Conversations with Catholic priests
NATIONAL: The Christian Science Monitor's Brad Knickerbocker reports: "EUGENE, ORE. – Mike Fones has his hands full. With one, he totes a slide projector. In the other, he balances a stack of plastic containers full of leftovers. He scans the building's directory for Alice Kennedy Hooten's apartment and buzzes to be let in.
Once the chicken and potatoes, pasta and beans are stowed in Mrs. Hooten's refrigerator, the two sit by the living-room window overlooking this river town. In the distance, steam rises from the pulp mill where the late Mr. Hooten worked for 37 years."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/1/2002 07:14:39 AM

Sunday, March 31, 2002

Looking for light in the darkness
As archdiocesan priests celebrate the hope of the Easter season, they feel their brethren's shame
ILLINOIS: The Chicago Tribune's Flynn McRoberts and Donna Freedman report: "This holiest Sunday of the Roman Catholic calendar celebrates hope and resurrection. Yet the men leading those celebrations can't help but bring to this Easter season a measure of shame and anger. Rev. Bill Malloy, pastor at St. Germaine parish, spoke for many of those priests last week as church authorities revealed that Rev. Robert Kealy, who served in the Oak Lawn church in the 1970s, had resigned over allegations of sexual misconduct."

Suspicion May Dim Lynch's Rising Star
FLORIDA: The Tampa Tribune's Michelle Bearden reports: :ST. PETERSBURG - When Monsignor Robert Lynch became bishop of the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg in January 1996, the buzz on the streets was unanimous: Don't get too attached...But last week's disclosure that Lynch's former diocesan spokesman had accused him of sexual harassment - and received more than $100,000 in a settlement - might have put such aspirations out of the bishop's reach, observers say."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 3/31/2002 09:44:42 PM Pansexuality. The Perfect Culprit From the Pulpit
CONNECTICUT: Hartford Courant columnist Colin McEnroe writes: "The cardinal [Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos] said he could not deviate from his prepared remarks because "in this particularly difficult moment, I cannot improvise." He blamed the problem of sex abuse by priests in part on the current "environment of pansexuality." - The New York Times. The last Cardinal who tried to blame something on the current environment of pansexuality was Mark McGwire. During a brief slump on his way to breaking Babe Ruth's single season home run record, McGwire told me - we were in a sports bar in San Diego - that he was having trouble picking up the rotation on curve balls."

Unlikely pedophiles could slip through now, New Mexico priest trainers say
NEW MEXICO: The AP reports in the Hartford Courant: "ALBUQUERQUE -- In the nine years since the Archdiocese of Santa Fe started developing "zero tolerance" guidelines for men going into the priesthood, its newly ordained clergy have avoided repeating the sex scandals that triggered the reforms."

Priestly celibacy is not the problem
Secular prejudices get in the way
OPINION: David Walsh. David Walsh, a professor of politics at Catholic University of America, writes in the Chicago Tribune: "Let's face it. The media love a sex scandal. It's a lot easier than trying to unravel the arcane details of accounting shenanigans or reporting on the daily toll of infant AIDS transmission in Africa. Everyone understands the issue and enjoys the satisfaction of contemplating the misdoings of others. Not since the halcyon days of the Clinton White House has the media had a gift that kept on giving like the sex scandals roiling the Roman Catholic Church. One shocking disclosure builds on another until the taint of wrongdoing envelopes the responsible hierarchy and is eventually declaimed as "systemic corruption" within the church. Generally overlooked in this lather of indignation is the inconsistency of the critics, not to mention the schizophrenic attitude of our society, on the subject of sex. There is no judgment that does not simultaneously expose the judges themselves."

. . . and sacrilege
Silence has been the biggest sin of all
OPINION: Mark J. Allman. Mark J. Allman teaches ethics in the School of Religion at DePaul University in Chicago, writes in the Chicago Tribune: "Anyone who has worked in or around the Catholic Church for even a short period of time knows that the recent cascade of stories about clergy molestation of children is only the tip of the iceberg. The Boston Globe, which brought national attention to this scandal in a series of stories on former priest John Geoghan who is suspected in more than 130 molestation incidents, gets more than 1,000 e-mails a day reporting other alleged cases of clergy sexual abuse. The publicity of this case has spurred other victims of abuse to come forward."

posted by Bill Mitchell on 3/31/2002 09:22:48 PM McGrory: Pope Should Fly Victims to Rome to Apologize
NATIONAL: Columnist Mary McGrory writes in The Washington Post: "Leadership is needed. A devout friend of mine suggests the Vatican sell off treasures to pay the staggering costs of this evil -- so people will know the pope regards what happened not as a passing ecclesiastical problem but as an abomination. I say the pope should pay victims' way to Rome, and in St. Peter's Square he should apologize to them in the name of God."

posted by Bill Mitchell on 3/31/2002 02:07:45 PM The New Catholics
MASSACHUSETTS: the Worcester Telegram and Gazette's Kathleen Shaw reports: "The Roman Catholic Church may be rocked by the scandal of priestly abuse of children and teen-agers, but that is not stopping people from joining. The Catholic Diocese of Worcester last night welcomed into the church dozens of new people from throughout Central Massachusetts at Easter vigil services."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 3/31/2002 01:08:09 PM
posted by Bill Mitchell on 3/31/2002 01:03:43 PM