Saturday, April 20, 2002

Pope Says Bishops Must Act Firmly in Cases of Abuse
VATICAN: The New York Times' Melinda Henneberger reports: "ROME, April 20 — Pope John Paul II extensively addressed sex scandals involving priests today, ordering bishops to "diligently investigate accusations" against those who break their vows of celibacy and chiding any who might see the priesthood as an easy life. The pope did not single out the American church in today's remarks, which were directed to a group of visiting Nigerian bishops, who have also grappled with scandals involving sexual misconduct by priests."

Failure of bishop to unfrock priest angers brother
MASSACHUSETTS: The Worcester Telegram and Gazette's Kathleen A. Shaw reports: "PUTNAM-- The brother of a man who killed himself after being abused by the Rev. Bernard W. Bissonnette yesterday called for the resignations of Bishop Daniel P. Reilly and Bishop Daniel Hart over their lack of leadership and failure to unfrock the priest. Gene Michael Deary, a businessman with offices in Vernon and Northboro, Mass., said Bishop Reilly told him in the 1990s that Rev. Bissonnette had been removed from the priesthood. He found out from Bishop Hart that Rev. Bissonnette is still a priest, is being paid by the Norwich Diocese and was never laicized."

New Jersey Bishop OK'd accused priest
NEW JERSEY: The Herald News's ANDREW GLAZER reports: "
Paterson Bishop Frank J. Rodimer settled a lawsuit in 1999 alleging he let a priest continue teaching at a local Catholic school, even after a teen-ager complained the clergyman had raped him, according to court papers obtained by the Herald News. The priest, Charles V. Bradley, was never criminally charged with the 1981 rape but settled a civil lawsuit filed by the victim. The victim alleged he told Rodimer and another priest about the incident at the time, but they never acted on the information."

Homosexuality in Priesthood Is Under Increasing Scrutiny
NATIONAL: The New York Times' Laurie Goodstein reports: "With the Roman Catholic Church weathering one case after another of priests who sexually abused boys, the Catholic faithful are asking whether there is a closeted culture of homosexuality in the priesthood, and if so whether it is connected to the sexual abuse problem. The Vatican itself will discuss the issue when American cardinals meet with Pope John Paul II next week in Rome for a hastily arranged session on the American abuse scandal."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/20/2002 06:06:42 PM Catholic leaders hit coverage
Stories on abuse called exaggerated
NATIONAL: The Boston Globe's Michael Paulson reports: "As US cardinals prepare to gather at the Vatican to debate how to respond to the crisis caused by clergy sexual abuse, an increasing number of Catholic leaders are charging that the news media have exaggerated the scandal. Over the last several days and weeks, prominent church opinionmakers, including two cardinals, have suggested that the clergy sexual abuse crisis is a relatively minor phenomenon that is being turned into a major scandal by the media and others with an ax to grind. Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, for example, told The Washington Post this week that some newspapers are having a ''heyday'' with the issue.

Cardinal Egan: 'I Am Deeply Sorry'
Prelate cites his mistakes in handling sex abuse cases
NEW YORK: The AP reports: "Cardinal Edward Egan, in a letter to parishioners this weekend, said he apologized 'if in hindsight' he has made any mistakes in handling sex abuse cases involving priests. Egan, the former bishop of Bridgeport, Conn., and currently head of the New York Archdiocese, said that over the past 15 years, 'I consistently sought and acted upon the best independent advice available to me from medical experts and behavioral scientists.'"
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/20/2002 01:45:26 PM National Catholic Reporter Calls for Law's Resignation:
Courage needed for complex, painful cure
EDITORIAL: The NCR editorial says: "The Catholic family is hurting as never before. It is facing two crises: the sex abuse scandal and a leadership meltdown. Catholics everywhere are looking for accountability. Accountability is essential. People want answers. They are also looking for leadership. Instinctively, Catholics know the unprecedented problems facing their church go beyond sex abuse of children. The problems involve a host of organizational, cultural and sexual issues intricately related to church governance...Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston must step down."

Cover story: Listening to survivors sets direction of diocese’s ministry
CALIFORNIA: Author Jane Redmont writes in The National Catholic Rreporter: "As the sex abuse scandal continues to upend church life in the United States, at least one bishop has earned respect and even praise from survivors of abuse for listening to them and for establishing a strong ministry on their behalf. Listening has played a large role in the development of the Ministry for Survivors of Clergy Sexual Abuse in the Oakland, Calif., diocese. The ministry is led by diocesan chancellor Barbara Flannery, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/20/2002 12:24:22 PM For 2 Decades, in 3 Countries, Priest Left a Trail of Sex Abuse
NATIONAL/SOUTH AMERICA: The New York Times' DEAN E. MURPHY with JUAN FORERO report: "The Rev. Enrique Díaz Jiménez is a priest from Colombia who has ministered during the past 25 years in the best international tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. Likable and hard-working, he has led popular charismatic services for Spanish-speaking immigrants in New York. He has taken needy children on spiritual retreats from the shantytowns and coastal villages of Venezuela. And he has served in working-class parishes of Bogotá."

Sex Scandal Gives Catholic Reformers a New Momentum
NATIONAL: The New York Times' STEPHEN KINZER reports: "In the 40 years since Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council, Roman Catholic theologians have fiercely debated how the church should be run. The council encouraged a sweeping series of reforms aimed at democratizing the church, but those who supported its conclusions have often felt themselves at odds with subsequent popes more committed to centralized power, most notably John Paul II. The current scandal over sexual abuse by some Catholic priests may have tipped the balance back in favor of liberal reformers, at least within the United States. Several theologians said this week that reformers who have pushed for changes on a range of fronts — from giving the laity more power to re-examining longstanding policies on celibacy and female priests — have gained new momentum."

Catholic principal denies allegation
The principal of St. Petersburg Catholic High School, accused of abusing a boy nearly 20 years ago, has been cleared by church officials.
FLORIDA: The St. Petersburg Times' Mike Brassfield reports: "ST. PETERSBURG -- The principal of St. Petersburg Catholic High School called all of his students together Friday morning and gave them some unpleasant news: He had been accused of sexual misconduct. Two weeks ago, an anonymous accuser leveled charges that the Rev. Louis Molinelli had improperly touched him nearly 20 years ago. At that time, the accuser was a 14-year-old boy at a Catholic school in Tampa."

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/20/2002 12:13:56 PM McCormack steps down as head of bishops' sex abuse committee
NATIONAL: The AP's J.M. Hirsch reports: "CONCORD, N.H. -- Facing questions about his role in the growing church abuse scandal, Bishop John B. McCormack has stepped down as head of the committee developing the church's national response to the sex abuse crisis. McCormack's spokesman said Friday the bishop will remain on the committee, and that the decision to give up his position as chairman was prompted by a desire to focus on the church's work in New Hampshire, not by allegations of his involvement in the scandal."

Suit says bishop in KC knew of abuse
MISSOURI: The Kansas City Star's MATT STEARNS and JUDY L. THOMAS
report: "ST. LOUIS - Bishop Raymond J. Boland of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph knew about sexual abuse of a minor by a priest and conspired to keep it secret, a racketeering lawsuit filed Thursday alleges. The civil lawsuit filed against Boland, the Vatican, and several bishops and Roman Catholic dioceses, alleges sexual abuse by former Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell of the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla."

Hannibal seminary caught up in scandal will close
MISSOURI: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's ERIC STERN reports: "A high school boarding seminary tucked on a Hannibal, Mo., hill for the last 45 years - but caught recently in a web of sexual abuse allegations - will close at the end of the school year because of "insurmountable" financial problems, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City announced Friday. 'How can we go out in the next couple of years to do any recruiting?' Bishop John Gaydos of the Jefferson City diocese said by telephone Friday. 'I'm very sad that we have to do this.'

Sacrament of Lies
Eighteen years after notorious pedophile priest Gilbert Gauthé shook the faith of Acadiana Catholics, the acts of Boston's Father John Geoghan have reopened a wound that's not yet fully healed.
LOUISIANA: The Times of Acadiana's Louis Rom reports: "Images of Gilbert Gauthé still haunt many of his 100-plus victims today, but this story is not about the man who put priestly pedophilia on the map. It's about the nearly two dozen priests, past and present, in the Lafayette Diocese who have been accused of molesting scores of children since Gauthé's arrest in 1983. It's about what the diocese is doing to protect those children. What the district attorney's office is doing to protect those children. What legislators have done to protect those children."

Cardinal pens path of change
In letter to parishes, Maida tells plans to address sex scandal
MICHIGAN: The Detroit Free Press's ALEXA CAPELOTO AND PATRICIA MONTEMURRI report:"As he prepares for a historic Vatican meeting on sex abuse by priests, Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida's message to the faithful at home promises an unprecedented level of openness and communication. In a letter to be read this weekend at parishes in the six-county Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, the cardinalasks for forgiveness from anyone who was ever abused by a priest and admits that mistakes were made by church leaders "here and elsewhere" in dealing with the allegations."

Sex rules for priests harsh on adultery
Canons easier on clergy molesting minors than for sex acts with women
NATIONAL: The AP's Richard N. Ostling reports: "Sex between clergy and adult women is a more serious offense than molesting minors under an obscure but important body of Roman Catholic rules known as canon law, experts in the field agree. Church law also emphasizes restoring wrongdoers to active priesthood over removing them from the clergy. Some canonists even complain that the system grants abusers more protection than their victims."

L.A. cardinal's role outrages abuse victims
Mahony lacks credibility to protect kids, critics say
CALIFORNIA: The San Francisco Chronicle's Don Lattin reports: "Abuse victims familiar with a Stockton pedophile case are outraged that Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles -- one of eight U.S. cardinals called to Rome next week over the sex scandal rocking the Catholic Church -- is entrusted with carrying out new policies to protect children from harm. Testimony in the 1998 Stockton case, in which a jury awarded two brothers millions of dollars in damages, indicated that Mahony had knowingly allowed a pedophile priest to continue working and taken no action to keep him away from children."

Archdiocese alters full-disclosure plan
Church to protect privacy of adults
LOUISIANA: The Times Picayune's Bruce Nolan reports: "A day after saying it will automatically inform police of all complaints, new and old, of alleged sexual abuse by priests or other employees, the Archdiocese of New Orleans seemed to backtrack Wednesday. While reiterating that law enforcement agencies would be notified of any allegations involving abuse of children, a one-page news release issued without comment said the church would cooperate in protecting the privacy of adults who have come forward to report being abused when they were young."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/20/2002 12:36:09 AM

Friday, April 19, 2002

Diocese of Dallas defends priest's transfer
Officials say breach of abuse policy falls on cleric; he says move 'unfair'
TEXAS: The Dallas Morning News' SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH reports: "Officials of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas said this week they were stunned that parishioners of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church appeared to be "making a martyr" of their priest while vilifying the officials for taking a tough stance on child abuse. In a rare joint interview, Bishop Charles V. Grahmann, Coadjutor Bishop Joseph Galante and Chancellor Mary Edlund offered a fuller explanation for the Rev. Stephen Bierschenk's reassignment for failing to do criminal history checks on church employees and volunteers."

TEXAS: Background: Dallas Morning News Coverage of the Catholic Church abuse scandal.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/19/2002 12:40:12 PM Shanley couldn't outrun past
Repeated attempts to start over failed
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Globe's Tatsha Robertson reports: "PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -For the dozen years since he left Boston, the Rev. Paul R. Shanley has bounced from coast to coast, trying to build a new life for himself in at least four different cities in California and New York. But a dark past as an alleged child molester has kept catching up with the onetime ''street priest'' affiliated with the Archdiocese of Boston. Shanley's first stop in his flight from the abuse accusations was in Southern California, where for several years in early 1990s the troubled priest led an amazing double life. He spent most of his time in Palm Springs with another Boston priest in exile, running a hedonistic inn catering to gay men. Every other weekend, he drove 50 miles to San Bernardino to say Mass at a Catholic church where parishioners were unaware of his other life."

Mahony Takes His Message to Airwaves
Religion: The cardinal, slow to react publicly to sex-abuse crisis, regains his media-savvy ways.
CALIFORNIA: The Los Angeles Times' Larry B. Stammer reports: "On a day when an alternative newspaper pictured him on its cover with a zipper locking his lips, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony settled in for a series of media interviews Thursday to get the word out that he is committed to taking direct action against sexual abuse. It wasn't unusual for Mahony to grant interviews. He's viewed as one of the most media-savvy bishops in the Roman Catholic Church and sits on a pontifical council on social communications. Pope John Paul II once called him 'Hollywood' for short."

Not Even the Pope Can End the Sex Abuse Scandal
OPINION: Author/Priest/Sociologist Andrew Greeley writes in the Los Angeles Times: "As Pope John Paul II assembles the American cardinals in Rome, cries are heard around the land for the Catholic Church to recover its credibility as a moral teacher in the wake of the sex abuse scandal. Unfortunately, the church in its present form cannot. Still, it is clear from surveys that Catholics are not leaving the church, that those who plan to cut their contributions are those who go to church rarely and don't contribute much, and that in general Catholics trust their priests and approve of their pastors."

Local priest responds to Catholic crisis
Church's understanding of sexual abuse has evolved, and policies along with it, Holy Family's Shea says.
CALIFORNIA: An interview conducted by The News Press' Marshall Allen and published in the L.A. Times: LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE -- The Catholic Church has undergone heavy criticism in recent months for its handling of past allegations of sexual abuse by priests against children...Father Joseph Shea of Holy Family Catholic Church on Thursday shared his feelings with the News-Press about the crisis. Shea, 49, has been at Holy Family for seven years and is considered a leader in the Glendale community. QUESTION: How would you describe the situation in the Catholic Church right now?"

Conte starts extradition of Desilets from Canada
MASSACHUSETTS: The Worcester Telegram and Gazette's Kathleen A. Shaw reports: "WORCESTER-- District Attorney John J. Conte said last night he has begun extradition proceedings against the Rev. Paul Desilets, who was indicted last Friday by a Worcester County grand jury on charges of molesting boys when he served at a parish in Bellingham. The priest was last living in a rest home in Rigaud, Quebec."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/19/2002 10:15:28 AM

Thursday, April 18, 2002

Experts doubt Vatican will heal U.S sex scandal
MASSACHUSETTS: The Worcester Telegram and Gazette's Kathleen A. Shaw reports: "Catholics should not have high hopes for next week's meeting of the American cardinals and Pope John Paul II if they are looking for major reforms in the church. That is the opinion of Professor David O'Brien, of the College of the Holy Cross, an expert on the American Catholic church, who said it appears the Vatican is attempting to put limits on what the American bishops can do in dealing with the current scandal of priestly sexual misconduct."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/18/2002 10:45:53 AM Cardinals may face obstacles at summit
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Globe's Michael Paulson reports: "The US cardinals who head to Rome to meet with the pope next week appear ready to go further than the American church has ever gone in tackling clergy sexual abuse, but their efforts are likely to face some resistance and are not expected to include any serious discussion of broad church reforms, Vatican observers say. The extraordinary summit next Tuesday and Wednesday will provide an opportunity to publicly rebut the notion that the pope has failed to understand the breadth of the problem or the depth of Catholic anger."

Cardinal to say Mass on Sunday
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Globe's Michael Rezendes and Tom Farragher report: "Cardinal Bernard F. Law continued to drape his future in mystery yesterday, although he announced through a spokeswoman that he had returned from a secret trip to Rome and will resume his customary place at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Sunday to say morning Mass. As Law remained secluded in his Brighton residence, planning for a gathering of US cardinals and Vatican officials in Rome next week, he prepared a public explanation of his handling of clergy sexual abuse allegations that he plans to deliver after his return from the Vatican."

Cardinal laments lost trust in church
ILLINOIS: The Chicago Tribune's Julia Lieblich reports: "In his most expansive remarks yet on the sexual misconduct scandal facing the Catholic Church, Cardinal Francis George said Wednesday that the sex-abuse victims are the first casualties, but the others are parishioners who no longer trust their leaders. 'What is broken is the belief in the honesty of bishops,' George said. 'They covered up and allowed a crime to continue in a few instances.'"

Molester Priest: I Strayed, But Not With Underage Girls
CALIFORNIA: The San Francisco Chronicle's Pamela J. Podger, Peter Fimrite and Henry K. Lee report: "Donald Wren Kimball, the Santa Rosa priest convicted of molesting a 13-year-old girl two decades ago, said in an interview to be aired tonight that he never sexually abused girls but that women 'were coming on to me' because of his position. Despite trial testimony to the contrary, Kimball insisted to CNN reporter Connie Chung that he never molested anyone who was underage. But he said he had strayed from his vows of celibacy several times."

Sex-abuse primer for priests
S.F. Archdiocese hosts special training
CALIFORNIA: The San Francisco Chronicle's Elizabeth Fernandez reports: "With the eruption of a national crisis in the Roman Catholic Church, the Archdiocese of San Francisco held a special primer for priests Wednesday on sexuality and child abuse. The two-hour session at St. Mary's Cathedral delved into moral and psychological issues concerning child abuse and sexuality in general, as well as the archdiocese's impending release of records to the San Francisco and San Mateo district attorneys."

Upside of convicting molester priests
Experts believe it purges church, gives victims credibility
CALIFORNIA: The San Francisco Chronicle's Peter Fimrite and Harriet Chiang report: "The criminal convictions of priests who molested children in Santa Rosa and Boston may have a purging effect on the Catholic Church -- and give the victims credibility in a way millions of dollars in settlements have never done. Legal experts say more victims are likely to come forward, and the adults they complain to are more apt to believe their stories."

Orange County priest files slander suit vs. accuser
CALIFORNIA: The Orange County Register's VALERIA GODINES reports: "Monsignor Lawrence Baird of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange has filed a slander lawsuit against Lori Haigh, making him one of few priests to challenge an accuser in court. Haigh, who accused another priest of impregnating her and paying for her abortion when she was a teen, settled with the Diocese of Orange and Archdiocese of Los Angeles on April 1 for $1.2 million. She also accused Baird of kissing her and rubbing against her with an erection about 20 years ago when she asked him for help."

Costa Mesa priest accused of sex abuse
The Rev. Jerome Henson is on leave during investigation of 1981 case.
CALIFORNIA: The Orange County Register's BRIAN MARTINEZ, VALERIA GODINES and TERI SFORZA report: "The Diocese of Orange has placed a Costa Mesa priest on paid leave while it investigates a 21-year-old allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, church officials said Tuesday. The Rev. Jerome Henson, who was temporarily removed in late November, is the fourth priest targeted by the Diocese of Orange amid a widening sex-abuse scandal that has gripped the Roman Catholic Church. Henson, through his attorney, adamantly denied the allegation."

Catholic priest attempts suicide after police contact him
CALIFORNIA: The AP reports: "A retired Catholic priest being investigated by police for alleged child abuse attempted to kill himself this week, authorities said. The Rev. Stephen Hernandez, 68, cut his wrists and took an overdose of pills Monday morning, police said. He was listed in stable condition at an undisclosed hospital."

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/18/2002 07:07:21 AM

Wednesday, April 17, 2002

Priest's Getaway Home
He took some victims there, lawyer alleges
NEW YORK: Newsday's Ron Howell reports: "The Rev. James Smith, accused of molesting dozens of boys and girls in various parishes of Queens years ago, sometimes took the youngsters to a second home on Long Island, an attorney for the alleged victims says. Attorney Michael Dowd says some of his clients were abused by Smith at the Amityville home in the 1970s and earlier."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/17/2002 09:27:36 PM Cardinal Law to face questions about Shanley during deposition in lawsuit
Judge in Cambridge agrees to attorney request for more church documents in the case
MASSACHUSETTS: The AP's Robert O'Neill reports: "CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Cardinal Bernard Law will be forced to answer questions about his handling of a priest accused of sexually abusing children in a civil suit deposition scheduled for June 5. Middlesex Superior Judge Leila Kearns set the date during an evidentiary hearing Wednesday in the case of a man who claims that Law and the Boston Archdiocese failed to protect him from being sexually abused by the Rev. Paul Shanley."

Cardinal Law will not participate in Boston College commencement
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Globe's Boston.com staff reports:" BOSTON — Cardinal Bernard F. Law will not participate in this year's commencement exercises at Boston College, the Boston Archdiocese and the school announced today. 'Because of his concern that his presence this year could detract from what otherwise should be a joyous occasion for the graduates and their families, [Cardinal Law] has informed Father William P. Leahy, S.J., the President of Boston College, that he will not be present,' an archdiocese press release stated."

Long Island Diocese to Remake Team Investigating Sex Abuse Cases
NEW YORK: The New York Times' DAVID W. CHEN and DANIEL J. WAKIN
report: "The Catholic Church's top official on Long Island has dismantled a three-man team of clergymen that had been assigned in 1992 to investigate sex abuse allegations against priests, and vowed to replace it with a more diverse group that would include lay people, officials said yesterday. The unexpected restructuring at the Diocese of Rockville Centre comes at a time when Bishop William Murphy, the leader of Long Island's 1.5 million Roman Catholics, has come under increasing pressure to cooperate more fully and openly with law enforcement officials. Just last week, when Thomas J. Spota, the Suffolk County district attorney, announced the formation of a special grand jury to investigate abuse accusations, he suggested that the church was covering up cases."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/17/2002 08:01:02 PM Jesuit leader's exit was sudden
Abuse allegation a first for former school chief, current president says
TEXAS: The Dallas Morning News' BROOKS EGERTON reports: "The former Jesuit College Preparatory School president accused of sexual abuse left his post suddenly and inexplicably more than 20 years ago, according to people who were associated with the prominent Catholic institution at the time. An unidentified ex-student recently told Jesuit Prep's principal that the Rev. Thomas Naughton molested him in 1978, when the accuser was a sophomore. That was the first misconduct complaint of any type ever made against the priest, said the Rev. Philip Postell, the North Dallas boys school's current president."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/17/2002 03:34:13 PM Most Catholics in poll want a resignation
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Globe's Michael Paulson reports: "A sizable majority of Boston-area Catholics surveyed now want Cardinal Bernard F. Law to resign over his handling of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, according to a Boston Globe/WBZ-TV poll. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed say Law should leave his job as archbishop of Boston, up from 48 percent in a Globe/WBZ poll taken in early February. Just 27 percent want him to stay, compared with 38 percent two months ago."

What the cardinals must do
COLUMN: Columnist James Carroll writes in The Boston Globe: ""THE GREATEST EPIPHANY in literature occurs when Oedipus sees that he himself is the fugitive murderer of the king. Two days ago the American cardinals were summoned to Rome by Pope John Paul II, and what they must report is an equivalent epiphany: The power structure of the Catholic Church itself - these self-same cardinals, this pope - is guilty of a heinous crime. The only hope of a staggered American Catholic Church is that our leaders, having at last faced the truth, will report in Rome what the broad experience of the American Catholic people has been and what the people now demand."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/17/2002 07:30:30 AM Uniform Policy on Priests' Abuse Proposed
D.C.'s Cardinal McCarrick Urges More Openness With Public, Authorities
NATIONAL: The Washington Post's Alan Cooperman and Caryle Murphy report: "When American cardinals meet behind closed doors with Pope John Paul II next week, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington said yesterday, they should adopt a national policy requiring every diocese in the United States to notify civil authorities of any credible allegation of sexual abuse by priests. McCarrick is one of 11 U.S. cardinals abruptly summoned to Rome to address the widening sex abuse scandal in the United States. It has led to the removal of dozens of priests across the country and a deep crisis of trust in the Roman Catholic hierarchy of bishops and archbishops, who head nearly 200 independent dioceses."

Reluctant Mexican Church Begins to Question Its Own
For First Time, a Bishop Acknowledges Pedophilia Cases
MEXICO: The Washington Post's Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan report: "MEXICO CITY, April 16 -- Channel 40, a small, independent television station, aired a news program in May 1997 in which several former priests said a prominent Mexican priest had sexually abused them years earlier. The next day, station officials said, a Mexican corporation canceled an advertising contract worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Over the next months, they said, all 25 major advertisers withdrew and the station hovered near bankruptcy until it was bailed out by another TV station."

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/17/2002 07:25:47 AM

Tuesday, April 16, 2002

Audio Interview with New York Times national religion correspondent Laurie Goodstein. (Free registration to nytimes.com required.)

Vicar: Sell non-faith-based holdings
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Herald's Robin Washington reports: "The parochial vicar of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross has posted a ``Plan for the New Millennium'' on the church's Web site, advocating the archdiocese sell schools and other properties if they fail to deliver the true teachings of the faith. Addressing the priest child sex abuse scandal directly, the Rev. Robert J. Carr of the Mother Church in the South End said critics calling for the church to behave like other corporations fail to recognize its real mission is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/16/2002 10:40:43 PM From Wednesday's Sun
Keeler says charges of abuse must be reported
He vows to back proposal requiring that of every diocese at Rome meeting
MARYLAND: The Baltimore Sun's John Rivera reports: "Cardinal William H. Keeler said Tuesday that when he meets next week in Rome with other American cardinals, he will endorse a proposal requiring every Catholic diocese to report allegations of sexual abuse to civil authorities.
But Keeler, the archbishop of Baltimore, also said at a news conference at his downtown offices that he believes the scandal over Roman Catholic priests molesting children has been largely driven by the media."

Sexual disorder remains a mystery
Experts want society to look at pedophilia as public health issue
NATIONAL: Knight Ridder's Robyn Suriano reports: "It is described as a compelling desire that will not go away with medication, time or therapy. Pedophilia -- an adult's sexual attraction to children -- remains a mystery. Psychologists struggle to treat it without fully understanding its causes."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/16/2002 10:36:04 PM Lasting trauma inflicted by priest
NEBRASKA: The Omaha World-Herald's Stephen Buttry reports: "LINCOLN - Paul Margand was a priest for only two years, serving only one parish, St. Teresa in Lincoln. The fear and anger he sowed in molesting boys during that time endure to this day, some 15 years later. Rob Butler still has difficulty speaking about his weekly abuse by Margand. He glances down and breathes heavily at times as he tells the story, rubbing and flexing his hands."

Sex abuse by priest was known
NEBRASKA: The Omaha World-Herald's STEPHEN BUTTRY AND TODD VON KAMPEN report: "More than 30 years ago, a delegation from St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Omaha went to Archbishop Daniel Sheehan, asking him to protect children from the Rev. Thomas Sellentin, two former parishioners said Monday. Over the next 20 years, Sheehan transferred Sellentin to six parishes in rural Nebraska and one other Omaha parish."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/16/2002 10:25:15 PM Dallas priest protests reassignment
Criminal background checks at heart of controversy
TEXAS: The Dallas Morning News' KRISTEN HOLLAND reports: "The Rev. Stephen Bierschenk of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church wrote a letter to Bishop Charles V. Grahmann on Sunday protesting his reassignment to St. Michael’s Catholic Church in McKinney. The longtime pastor at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, off Abrams Road, was reassigned because some church workers were not given criminal background checks as required by the diocese's policies to prevent sexual abuse. He has not been accused of sexual misconduct."

Bishop's stance angers some in pews
But supporters say comments on abuse are misinterpreted
TEXAS: The Dallas Morning News' SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH reports: "Bishop Charles V. Grahmann took the stand five years ago to defend the Dallas Diocese against charges that it had covered up a priest who molested children. In the end, a civil jury ruled that the diocese had committed 'gross negligence' and concealed information about the crimes. Last week, the bishop again defended himself, as well as his fellow bishops, against criticism that they had mishandled predator priests. And again, the bishop was admonished, this time by Catholics who took issue with his comments."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/16/2002 10:15:50 PM Decades of Sex Abuse Are Described at Choir School in New Jersey
NEW JERSEY: The New York Times' DIANA JEAN SCHEMO reports: "PRINCETON, N.J. — In its 65 years, the American Boychoir School has created one of the nation's best-known choirs, with its sweet-voiced students, all fifth graders through eighth graders, invited to sing for presidents and at least one pope. But in a series of interviews in the last two months, a dozen alumni from the 1960's to the 1980's described a pattern of sex abuse at the nonsectarian boarding school by two longtime choirmasters and by nine other staff members, from a headmaster to teachers' aides to a cook, that they say has resonated through their lives."
(Free registration to nytimes.com required.)
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/16/2002 08:23:22 AM Worcester Catholics Push for Role for Laity
MASSACHUSETTS: The Worcester Telegram and Gazette's Bronislaus B. Kush reports: "WORCESTER-- Some parishioners of Christ the King Church are withholding contributions to the Diocese of Worcester until Bishop Daniel P. Reilly seriously considers recommendations they believe will help the Worcester church deal with the widening sex scandal involving local priests."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/16/2002 07:34:22 AM Pope summons US cardinals on crisis
New attention to sexual abuse
THE VATICAN: The Boston Globe's Michael Paulson and Stephen Kurkjian report: :"In a dramatic acknowledgment of the severity of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, the Vatican yesterday summoned US cardinals to Rome next week to discuss the evolving crisis. The gathering of the cardinals, who are among the pope's top advisers and who oversee many of the nation's largest dioceses, signals a new level of focus by the Vatican, which has previously left it to the US church to sort out the problem."

Polish Catholics suffer a shock
Archbishop scandal prompts scrutiny of Catholic hierarchy
POLAND: Boston Globe correspondent Brian Whitmore reports ""KRAKOW, Poland - In the bad old days, when the Roman Catholic Church in Poland was under constant assault from the Communist regime, the faithful viewed the struggle as a badge of honor and proof of their virtue. Today the church is finding its honor and virtue challenged as never before. When Juliusz Paetz, the archbishop of Poznan and one of Poland's leading religious figures, resigned on Holy Thursday over allegations that he sexually abused young seminarians, it roiled this overwhelmingly Catholic nation."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/16/2002 06:50:35 AM D.A.s press church for details
PENNSYLVANIA: The Philadelphia Inquirer's Maria Panaritis reports: "Two suburban prosecutors are following the lead of Philadelphia's district attorney in pursuing direct discussions with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia about cases of sexual abuse by priests. While Philadelphia's Lynne M. Abraham has kept silent about her goals, Bucks County District Attorney Diane E. Gibbons was blunt yesterday in her demand for information about the 35 priests whom the archdiocese has said molested 50 victims over the last half-century."

Priest denies sexual abuse
PENNYSLVANIA: The Philadelphia Inquirer's Nancy Phillips reports: "ATLANTIC CITY - Thanks to modern technology, the 84-year-old priest at the center of a sex-abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden gave his side of the story yesterday from Florida - and that version was different from everyone else's. Msgr. Philip Rigney, accused of sexually assaulting two teenage brothers 20 years ago and their father and uncle before them, testified yesterday that he denied the abuse when first confronted by Camden Bishop George H. Guilfoyle in 1984. The priest said he was not disciplined, not removed from duties, and not sent for counseling."

Priest Who Headed Pennsylvania High School in the late '80s Removed from North Carolina Parish
PENNSYLVANIA: The Intelligencer's Edward Levenson
reports: "A priest, formerly principal of Archbishop Wood High School for Boys in Warminster, has been removed as pastor of a North Carolina church because of alleged sexual misconduct. The Rev. James W. O'Neill was relieved of his duties at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Greensboro, N.C., after an allegation was made to O'Neill's priestly order, the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/16/2002 06:43:14 AM

Monday, April 15, 2002

Archdiocese fought hard in court
Church aided victims, but records show it also sought legal costs
WISCONSIN: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's TOM KERTSCHER and MARIE ROHDE
report: "In the early 1990s, even as the Archdiocese of Milwaukee was getting credit for an innovative program to help heal the wounds of sexual abuse by priests, the archdiocese continued to play legal hardball with some victims. Archdiocesan lawyers put victims and their families through lengthy depositions, moved to collect legal costs from the plaintiffs and sought to place some case files under seal to protect them from public scrutiny."

Catholics urge youths to talk about scandal
MISSOURI: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Patricia Rice reports: "Throughout the region, St. Louis Catholics are encouraging children to talk about what one priest calls the "spotted elephant in the living room" - the scandal of priests sexually abusing minors. 'In some families, there are situations where something horrible, shameful, embarrassing has happened,' said the Rev. Michael Doody, a Jesuit priest and chaplain at St. Louis University. 'And it's on everyone's mind, but everyone acts like nothing has happened.'"
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/15/2002 08:44:34 AM Protesters, Not Cardinal, Show Up for Mass
MASSACHUSETTS: The New York Times' Fox Butterfield reports: "BOSTON, April 14 — Cardinal Bernard F. Law broke with his usual practice and did not say Mass in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross here today, as protesters stood outside demanding he resign or even go to jail after years of retaining priests accused of sexual abuse. It was the first time in memory, parishioners and clergy members here say, that the cardinal has missed Sunday Mass at the cathedral, his home church, when he was not traveling or ill."

Sent to California on Sick Leave, Boston Priest Bought Racy Gay Resort
CALIFORNIA/MASSACHUSETTS: The New York Times' Nick Madigan reports: "PALM SPRINGS, Calif., April 12 — When Boston church officials granted the Rev. Paul R. Shanley a medical leave 12 years ago and allowed him to move here, they saw it as a chance for him to heal various physical ailments, primarily allergies, in the desert air, and to do a little pastoral work if and when he was well enough. At his insistence, Father Shanley's Boston superiors arranged for regular checks to be sent to him for living expenses and medical bills, and sent laudatory letters of recommendation to their counterparts at the Diocese of San Bernardino, carefully avoiding mention of a swirl of accusations that he had molested more than two dozen young boys in Massachusetts going back to 1967."

Bishop Orders Diocesan Review Of Priests
FLORIDA: The Tampa Tribune's Stephen Thompson reports: "ST. PETERSBURG - While refusing to give law enforcement officials files containing allegations of sexual abuse, Bishop Robert Lynch has ordered his own internal review of all his priests. In a two-page letter distributed to churchgoers Saturday and Sunday, Lynch said he believed 'every credible or substantial claim'' involving a priest and minors has been ``fully assessed and appropriate action has been taken.'
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/15/2002 08:26:18 AM

Sunday, April 14, 2002

Making peace with past
Betrayed and scarred as a child by a parish priest, a sexual abuse victim looks back on his life
WISCONSIN: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's MEG KISSINGER
reports: "Even now, 27 years later, Scot Edgerton flinches when he thinks of that morning in the sacristy at St. Aloysius Catholic Church in West Allis, and how the priest grabbed him from behind, thrusting his hands down the boy's pants.
faith has remained strong. Before he was assaulted as an altar boy, Scot was considering the priesthood. 'I could see people in the church,' he said, tears filling his eyes. 'I was screaming, 'Help me! Help!' But no one came to help.' Edgerton is still screaming, in a manner of speaking, and finally someone is listening.

Priestly Duties, Shared Stigma
D.C. Pastor Soldiers On as Church Struggles With Sex Abuse Scandal
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The Washington Post's Caryle Murphy
reports: "Lately, Kevin J. Hart is more self-conscious about the looks his uniform gets from other passengers when he rides the Metro. He worries about a loss of public trust in his profession. And he's upset with how the senior leaders of his ancient organization have handled one of its biggest crises in modern times."

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/14/2002 04:00:29 PM The Cry For A New Church
Egan, Law Become Symbols Of Resistance To Change In Catholicism
NATIONAL: The Hartford Courant's Rinker Buck reports: ""Already, church scholars are describing it as a unique moment in the 300-year history of America's largest religion, an ecclesiastical catharsis that will forever change Catholicism as we know it. The pomp and authority of American cardinals are rarely challenged, certainly not by demands for resignation by ordinary churchgoers, parish priests or outraged politicians. Indeed, the imagery of cardinals departing has always been significant for Catholics. Most of them die in office, distant, saintly figures in their official residences, their right to serve far into old age virtually unquestioned. Only popes or God recall a cardinal."

Priest sex case raises doubts
Facts appear to contradict firmness of Egan policy
CONNECTICUT/NEW YORK: The Connecticut Post's DANIEL TEPFER reports: "BRIDGEPORT -- The resolution of a case involving a priest accused of sexual abuse raises doubts about Cardinal Edward M. Egan's recent statements that he acted swiftly and decisively when confronted with such charges in the Bridgeport diocese. Potential contradictions with Egan's stated policy surface in the manner and timing of the diocese's handling of the case of Rev. Walter Coleman, who was allowed to continue working in his position for more than a year after the diocese began investigating him."
posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/14/2002 03:17:55 PM A Clerical Error
COLUMN:New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd writes: "The text (and annotated subtext) from a letter sent on Friday by Cardinal Bernard Law to Boston priests: My dear brother priests (there will be sisters when hell freezes over): The expression of support and the assurance of prayer which have come from so many of you in recent weeks have been, for me, a source of strength and consolation. (Judases! The polls in that pagan fishwrap Boston Globe say 119 percent of Catholics want me to pack up my vestments. But Rome doesn't care a fig about the hurt feelings of spoiled, sex-obsessed Americans. The Holy See likes me just the way I am.)" (Free subscription required for articles on nytimes.com.)

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Prosecuting the Church
NATIONAL: The New York Times' Frank Bruni reports: "WASHINGTON — As public outrage continues to build over the still-spreading scandal of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests, many Americans who once held religious leaders above secular reproach are now demanding that ways be found to hold them accountable. Lawsuits have not done the trick. Over the last two decades, dioceses across the country have faced hundreds of civil actions and paid an estimated $1 billion in damages. Yet the church has not made the fundamental changes many feel it must."

Bishop Says Pope Is Leaving Scandal to American Catholics
THE VATICAN: The New York Times' Melinda Hennenberger reports: "OME, April 13 — The leader of America's Roman Catholic bishops said today that Pope John Paul II had expressed great compassion for and 'fraternal solidarity' with American church leaders over the sexual abuse scandal, and was leaving it up to them to resolve it. When Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was asked at a news conference today, after a week of meetings with top church officials here, whether the Vatican had placed the issue completely in the hands of American bishops, he said yes. 'At this point, it is,' Bishop Gregory said.

Uncertainty casts pall over Hub's archdiocese
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Herald's Tom Mashberg and Eric Convey report: "An air of gloom and foreboding descended over the Archdiocese of Boston yesterday - at its headquarters in Brighton and among its widely dispersed clergy and laity - as Catholics endured a dispiriting weekend in which their cardinal remained in seclusion and their church seemed a ship at sea. Bernard Cardinal Law kept his whereabouts secret after failing to have his resignation accepted by the Vatican on Friday. His sole communication to his top clerics was a brief notice that he was canceling Thursday's meeting of the Presbyteral Council, a group of about 40 priests who serve as advisers to Law on pastoral issues."

Scandal darkens a bright career
MASSACHUSETTS: The Boston Globe's Jack Thomas reports: "For the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, the future never seemed more promising than it did that spring night in 1985 in the spacious courtyard at the American seminary in Rome. Hundreds of Boston's elite of all faiths waited in line, four abreast, for as long as two hours to express affection for the man who had just become the fourth archbishop of Boston to be elevated to the rank of cardinal, Bernard Francis Law."

Attorneys see cases' scope expanding still
NATIONAL:The Boston Globe's Walter V. Robinson reports: "For Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the road ahead is not lined merely with the placards of angry Catholics. He faces even more potentially damaging disclosures about his oversight of other sexual predators, the disquieting prospect of testifying under oath, and an avalanche of claims from a growing queue of alleged victims of priests. In interviews yesterday, attorneys for the three law firms that have been most prominent in filing lawsuits against the Boston Archdiocese said that since late February they have been retained by about 300 people who claim they were molested by priests."

Reclaiming their church
COLUMN: Boston Globe columnist Eileen McNamara writes: "Jim Muller is accustomed to being dismissed as either presumptuous or naive...It should be no surprise, then, to find this Harvard cardiologist at the heart of a spontaneous movement by Roman Catholics to reclaim a deeply wounded church...Cardinal Bernard F. Law would have been better served these last painful weeks in the company not of sycophantic subordinates but of a newly empowered laity."

Former Bellingham priest indicted
MASSACHUSETTS: The Worcester Telegram and Gazette's Kathleen A. Shaw and Gary V. Murray report: "WORCESTER-- The Rev. Paul Desilets, 78, now living in a Canadian rest home, was indicted by a Worcester County grand jury yesterday on charges that he sexually assaulted 18 young men and boys in Bellingham. Bellingham is part of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, but falls within the jurisdiction of the Worcester district attorney's office."

Losing faith
How the Catholic Church's stance on sexuality and scandal has shaped the paths of three current and former priests
CALIFORNIA: The San Francisco Chronicle's Don Lattin reports: "They were ordained as Roman Catholic priests in the 1960s and 1970s, amid the spiritual reforms of the Second Vatican Council and the social upheaval of the sexual revolution. Different voices called Bud Andre, Seamus Genovese and John Hules to commit themselves to Christ, but today, all three are deeply disillusioned with the state of the Catholic Church. Like thousands of American priests of that era, Andre left the fold to marry. Genovese remains in active ministry, but has lost his faith in the Catholic hierarchy. Hules resigned after a nervous breakdown and the realization that his repressed sexuality and Catholic faith were hopelessly intertwined. Each man offers a different perspective on the escalating sex and secrecy scandal in the Roman Catholic priesthood. These are their stories. "

posted by Bill Mitchell on 4/14/2002 08:20:14 AM