Saturday, June 29, 2002

Saturday Evening Update

SCRANTON (PA)
9 Priests Removed
Scranton Times Tribune
06/27/2002
Nine Scranton Diocese priests have been permanently removed from any possible ministerial assignments, have been forbidden to wear clerical garb, forbidden to present themselves as priests and forbidden to celebrate Mass unless they are only doing it for themselves.
The bans meet the requirements set forth by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops regarding sexual abuse of children, according to a statement issued by the diocese.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/29/2002 10:46:14 PM

SAN JOSE (CA)
Priest sent to prison for abuse
JESUIT, 81, PLEADED GUILTY TO MOLESTING RETARDED MAN
San Jose Mercury News
Posted on Fri, Jun. 28, 2002
By Glennda Chui
Mercury News
An 81-year-old retired priest was sentenced to two years in prison on Friday for repeatedly molesting a retarded man at a Jesuit center in Los Gatos.
The Rev. Edward Thomas Burke became the first South Bay priest sentenced since a national sex abuse scandal enveloped the Roman Catholic church, and the sentence he received was more severe than the punishments given to three other Santa Clara County clerics whose past convictions have come to light.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/29/2002 10:39:51 PM

BOSTON (Mass.)
Judge: mediators in church abuse settlement to answer questions
Boston Herald
Associated Press
BOSTON - Two mediators who helped broker a deal between the Archdiocese of Boston and alleged victims of defrocked priest John Geoghan have been ordered to answer questions about the case under oath.
The order, issued Friday by Superior Court Judge Constance Sweeney, does not address whether a settlement agreement between the alleged victims and the archdiocese was actually reached.
A deal between the Archdiocese and Mitchell Garabedian, attorney for 86 plaintiffs in the case, worth between $15 million and $30 million dollars, was reached in March.
But the archdiocese backed out in May after its Finance Council voted against Law's request to approve the agreement, saying it couldn't pay the 86 plaintiffs and others who have come forward claiming they were abused by priests.
Garabedian is asking the court to enforce the terms of the settlement.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/29/2002 07:33:12 PM

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
FROM SAINTS TO SINNERS
Scandals are making their mark on the image of priests in movies and TV
San Francisco Chronicle
Edward Guthmann, Chronicle Staff Writer
Not so long ago, Catholic priests enjoyed a popular image that was benign and unsullied. They were jolly and lighthearted, like Bing Crosby in "Going My Way," conflicted like Richard Chamberlain in "The Thorn Birds," or advocates for social justice, like Karl Malden's dockside cleric in "On the Waterfront."
Given the current climate of fear and distrust and the indelible stain it's left on a once-revered institution, it's doubtful that film, television and other media are ready to buck the prevailing sentiment and depict a priest as heroic and kindhearted.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/29/2002 03:54:14 PM

SPRINGFIELD (Mass.)
Probation over for Lavigne
Springfield Union-News
By MARLA A. GOLDBERGand BILL ZAJAC
SPRINGFIELD — A decade on probation officially came to an end yesterday for the Rev. Richard R. Lavigne, a priest who pleaded guilty in 1992 to molesting two boys while he was pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Shelburne Falls.
Lavigne had received a seven-month sentence to a Maryland rehabilitation facility and 10 years' probation instead of a direct jail sentence under his 1992 plea bargain.
Judge Peter A. Velis declared Lavigne's probation officially terminated yesterday after a brief hearing in Hampden Superior Court. Lavigne's presence was not required, and he did not appear, nor did any lawyer representing him.
Constraints of Lavigne's probation are lifted, including conditions that legally barred him from living, working or spending time unsupervised with children under 16. Lavigne, who lives in Chicopee, is said to be suffering from a heart condition.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/29/2002 09:11:12 AM

NAPLES (FL)
Abuse warning signs overlooked by diocese leaders
Naples Daily News
By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER
Five years before a Fort Myers priest went to jail for repeated sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl, the Catholic Church's top two officials in Southwest Florida received numerous complaints about the reverend's conduct from parents, students and teachers at St. Francis Xavier School — including reports he took young girls on cruises and shared hotel rooms on unauthorized overnight trips.
The misconduct led St. Francis Xavier's principal to bar the Rev. Charles Michael Cikovic from school property, and to keep him away from children without other adults present — a prohibition he subsequently ignored.
Despite the ample warning signs, the Rev. Thomas Anglim, Cikovic's boss at St. Francis Xavier as well as the Diocese of Venice's vicar general, or second-in-command under Bishop John Nevins, downplayed Cikovic's conduct as "immaturity" and "imprudent" decision-making, according to sworn testimony in a 1995 Lee County civil lawsuit.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/29/2002 09:01:18 AM

LOUISVILLE (KY)
Justice in the open
Louisville Courier-Journal
THERE'S NOT much wiggle room legally for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville in its quest to seal court records. Not if you read the position of Kentucky's attorney general in the case.
The statement does not carry the force of law, but does bear the weight of the office. Even more, it conveys the power of good sense.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/29/2002 08:27:14 AM

AMARILLO (TX)
Farris: Bishops need to be held accountable
Amarillo Globe News
Opinion By JEFF FARRIS
David Holley and Xavier Ortiz-Dietz are in prison. They should be.
Holley sodomized and molested at least eight boys from 1972 to 1974 in Alamogordo, N.M., and is serving a 275-year prison sentence. Ortiz-Dietz sexually abused seven boys in two parishes in the San Antonio area and is serving three concurrent 20-year prison sentences.
Yet, incredibly, Ortiz-Dietz still is a priest. Archbishop Patrick Flores, in an Associated Press story, said he plans to ask that inmate Ortiz-Dietz be defrocked.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/29/2002 08:25:38 AM

DETROIT (MI)
Beverly Hills priest fired
Allegations against pastor go back 40 years
June 28, 2002
BY DAVID CRUMM AND PATRICIA MONTEMURRI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
The continuing stream of new allegations against Catholic priests led to the firing of an Oakland County pastor, announced Thursday, and has caused Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan to consider delaying a planned announcement about his progress in investigating the claims.
At Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Beverly Hills, parishioners were stunned to learn this week that their pastor, the Rev. Robert Wyzgoski, was fired because of recently discovered allegations about sexual misconduct in the 1960s in Wayne County.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/29/2002 08:18:27 AM

BALTIMORE (MD)
Stokes’ claims to get review
Prosecutors investigate allegations against priest; Decision follows lawyer's tirade; City police to question accuser on alleged abuse
Baltimore Sun
By Allison Klein
Sun Staff
Originally published June 28, 2002
Baltimore prosecutors have opened an investigation into the Rev. Maurice J. Blackwell after a renewed allegation that the clergyman sexually molested Dontee Stokes, the man accused of shooting him last month.
The decision by the city state's attorney's office to investigate the allegation comes on the heels of a public tirade this week by Stokes' attorney, Warren A. Brown, who yelled insults at prosecutors through a bullhorn as he stood in front of the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/29/2002 08:16:47 AM

BALTIMORE (MD)
O'Malley spokesman takes job with Archdiocese of Baltimore
Kearney a specialist in crisis management
Baltimore Sun
By Johnathon E. Briggs
Sun Staff
Originally published June 27, 2002
The head of Mayor Martin O'Malley's communications department has been named director of communications for the Archdiocese Of Baltimore, replacing Raymond P. Kempisty, who resigned June 13.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/29/2002 08:15:09 AM

BOSTON (MA)
Court revisits settlement agreement of Geoghan victims
Mediators ordered to answer questions
Boston Globe
By Shelley Murphy and Stephen Kurkjian, Globe Staff, 6/29/2002
Two mediators who brokered a deal between the Archdiocese of Boston and 86 alleged victims of pedophile priest John J. Geoghan that was later rescinded were ordered by a judge yesterday to answer questions under oath from attorneys representing the victims.
But Suffolk Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney has yet to rule on whether the mediators will be forced to answer a critical question during the depositions: ''Was a settlement agreement reached?''
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/29/2002 07:57:13 AM

MIAMI (FL)
Fourth lawsuit filed against suspended priest
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Noaki Schwartz
Staff Writer
Miami · A fourth former altar boy has filed suit against suspended TV evangelist Rev. Ricardo Castellanos.
The suit filed Friday in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court by a John Doe also names suspended priest Rev. Jose Nickse and the Miami Archdiocese. The man, now in his mid-30s, alleges that the two priests molested him at St. Brendan Catholic Church in Miami.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/29/2002 07:54:45 AM

VATICAN CITY
A Doctor-Spokesman Attends to Papal Image
New York Times
By JOHN TAGLIABUE
ROME — "These cardinals," said Joaquín Navarro-Valls with mock chagrin as he swept a visitor into his office just off St. Peter's Square. "They come by without any appointment. You cannot say no. So it's, `Yes, your eminence, just have a seat.' "
Nineteen years into his career as papal spokesman, Dr. Navarro-Valls, now 65, still has occasional headaches with the centuries-old papal bureaucracy, the Roman Curia.
Last year, when the Curia decided to alter the norms for reporting sexual abuse committed by priests, it neatly buried the change in a document distributed without publicity, under a cover letter in Latin.
The norms did not become generally known until a reporter for the Catholic News Service stumbled across them in a conversation with a bishop.
Why do things like this still happen?
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/29/2002 04:55:31 AM

MINNEAPOLIS-ST.PAUL (MN)
Keeping the faith in the wake of scandal
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
Paul Levy
Star Tribune
Published Jun 29, 2002
No parishioners had threatened to quit St. Olaf Catholic Church. Donations exceeded projections. But as the 4 p.m. Sunday mass at the downtown Minneapolis parish concluded two weeks ago, the congregation stirred with the unexpected urgency of the Rev. John Klockeman's impassioned words.
"I refuse to be ashamed of being a Catholic priest, despite the grave sins of a . . . few of my brother priests," he said. Then, triggering a standing ovation: "I refuse not to wear my collar in public."
Months of revelations of priestly pedophilia have caused many Twin Cities priests to address the issue aggressively.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/29/2002 04:49:27 AM

BOSTON
Archdiocese, victims' attorney say settlement talks moving forward
Boston Globe
By Ron DePasquale, Associated Press
BOSTON -- Settlement talks between the Boston Archdiocese and attorneys representing about 250 alleged sexual abuse victims are moving forward, the sides said Friday.
"The meetings and discussions were positive, candid and comprehensive," archdiocese spokeswoman Donna M. Morrissey said.
Roderick MacLeish, who represents alleged victims of retired priest Paul Shanley and others, said he has been encouraged by positive gestures he has never before seen from the archdiocese.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/29/2002 04:42:07 AM

MANCHESTER (NH)
4 more people accuse
priests of sex abuse
New Hampshire Union Leader & Sunday News
Union Leader News
Four more people who say they are victims have joined one of the lawsuits alleging the Roman Catholic Bishop of Manchester failed to protect young parishioners from being sexually molested by priests.
Going by the names John Doe 9, 10, 11 and 12, the new plaintiffs have signed onto the case brought earlier by eight anonymous individuals claiming they were psychologically harmed by sexual encounters with priests when they were children.
The Union Leader is withholding the names of the accused priests unless they have been accused in previous accounts by plaintiffs whose names are on the record.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/29/2002 04:17:40 AM

FREEHOLD (NJ)
Rabbi convicted of endangerment
Asbury Park Press
By ELAINE SILVESTRINI,
DAVID P. WILLIS
and RODNEY POINT-DU-JOUR
STAFF WRITERS
FREEHOLD -- A jury convicted a rabbi yesterday of endangering the welfare of two teen-aged girls and touching one of them sexually when he was principal of their religious school in Ocean Township several years ago.
Rabbi Baruch Lanner, 52, of Fair Lawn faces up to 10 years in state prison, and a presumption of seven years behind bars, on each of the two most serious endangering charges. Sentences for the lesser offenses of aggravated criminal sexual contact and sexual contact, as well as harassment, would likely be merged with or ordered served concurrently with the endangering terms.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/29/2002 04:11:20 AM

Sexual Abuse Scandal Hits Orthodox Jews
Washington Post
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 29, 2002
FREEHOLD, N.J. -- While sexual abuse of minors by priests has shaken the Roman Catholic Church this year, a smaller-scale but still painful scandal over sexual abuse by a charismatic rabbi has reverberated through the nation's Orthodox Jewish community.
The Jewish scandal came to a head Thursday, when a jury of six men and six women here in central New Jersey found Rabbi Baruch Lanner, 52, guilty of abusing two teenage girls. Once a rising star among Jewish educators, Lanner had been principal of a private religious high school as well as a full-time, high-ranking official in the youth movement of the Orthodox Union, an association of more than 1,000 synagogues.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/29/2002 04:06:03 AM

Friday, June 28, 2002

THE VATICAN
And now, a good word for clerical culture;
more papal handicapping; ordination of women scheduled
National Catholic Reporter Online
By John Allen
Vatican Correspondent
COLUMN: In the wake of the sex abuse scandals in the United States, it is fashionable to calumniate “clerical culture,” as if the only thing the Catholic priesthood ever produced is pedophiles and the bishops who cover up for them. I think if I have to hear someone accuse priests as a class of “stunted psycho-sexual development” once more, I’ll run screaming into the night.
This is not to say that some priests haven’t committed horrible acts of abuse, or that other priests don’t have their own problems. God knows living in Rome I see plenty of clericalism, the irritating superiority complex that infects some of the ordained. (I recently heard a priest who works in the Roman curia, for example, explain that nuns in his residence “cook, clean, and deal with the help — you know, the stuff nuns are good at.”)
Yet like most Catholics, I know too many humble, mature priests to believe that there is anything inherent to “clerical culture” that produces either sexual predators or jerks. If anything, the miracle is that so many priests come out not merely normal, but far above average in intelligence, idealism, and work ethic.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/28/2002 11:05:08 AM Published Earlier:

Breaking the silence
Monk's seduction of Santa Catalina student led to an affair and shattered her faith
Monterey Herald
Posted on Sun, Jun. 23, 2002
By ALEX FRIEDRICH
She was a 15-year-old sophomore at Santa Catalina School. He was a 40-year-old Trappist monk from Massachusetts leading a spiritual retreat. Their on-again, off-again affair, which ended when she was 28, shattered her faith. He went on to national prominence.
The case of Sarah Wilgress and Vincent Dwyer was one of nine that the Diocese of Monterey turned over to the Monterey County District Attorney's Office this month. It's a tale of seduction that Wilgress has come forward to tell 33 years after it began.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/28/2002 10:33:34 AM

Church can't blame media for its own sins
Chicago Sun-Times
BY ANDREW GREELEY
June 28, 2002
You can't go wrong blaming the media. The American media have blackmailed the bishops into depriving priests of their rights, says Cardinal Dario Castrillion Hoyas. According to Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, the American media are persecuting the church. They are worse than the Nazis, the Communists, Nero and Diocletian.
Well, that's pretty strong stuff, especially because John Allen, bureau chief of the National Catholic Reporter, in his wonderful new book Conclave, lists them among the front-runners to be the next pope.
Too bad they're clueless.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/28/2002 09:13:27 AM

BALTIMORE (MD)
Dozens picket archdiocese over priest's resignation
They want Malia reinstated as pastor of two city churches
Orlando Sentinel
By Laurie Willis | Baltimore Sun Staff
Posted June 27, 2002
About 70 people stood peacefully outside the Archdiocese Of Baltimore's headquarters at Mulberry and Cathedral streets yesterday. Though they weren't chanting or making impassioned speeches, their signs conveyed a clear message:
They want the Rev. Thomas R. Malia reinstated as pastor of Holy Cross and St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic churches. Malia was asked to resign last week by the archdiocese after he informed officials that in 1999 he hired Robert Gee, a friend he met when he attended seminary in Milwaukee, as interim music director of Holy Cross. Malia told church officials that he knew Gee had been convicted two years earlier of child sexual abuse.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/28/2002 08:25:37 AM

PALM BEACH (FL)
Palm Beach diocese creates team to investigate charges against priests
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Nicole Sterghos Brochu
Staff Writer
Posted June 28 2002
The Diocese of Palm Beach is in the process of creating a response team, made up mostly of women, to review allegations of sex abuse by priests and will begin interviewing candidates next week for a new program coordinator who will lead a series of sex education workshops.
The new steps are being taken by interim leader the Rev. James Murtagh to better protect the diocese against the problem of abusive priests. It comes in response to an edict passed by U.S. bishops two weeks ago and to recommendations handed down three weeks ago by a diocesan lay panel.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/28/2002 08:15:09 AM

After Dallas, media rushed to judgment?
Florida Catholic
By Tom Tracy
When Miami Auxiliary Bishop Thomas G. Wenski opened The New York Times and other newspapers following the U.S. bishops' meeting in Dallas, he wondered if those reporters were even at the same gathering.
"I think they had written their story before the end of the conference," Bishop Wenski said. "The media's coverage of the scandal itself has been, in many cases, well reported; however, the media, at the end of the conference, didn't expect or want to hear (what we actually did). When we did go with zero tolerance plan they did not hear that clearly."
The issues are very complex, and unfortunately most of the secular media outlets do not have good religion reporters, nor an understanding of the theology and some of the concepts the bishops are dealing with and of religious culture of the church overall, Bishop Wenski added.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/28/2002 08:08:57 AM

The bishops act
The Tidings
By Rev. Richard P. McBrien
It is clear why the U.S. Catholic bishops adopted a more severe zero-tolerance policy than they had originally intended toward priests who have sexually abused minors even once in the past: the pressure of public opinion within the Catholic community itself.
While it is true that the bishops had not hesitated in previous years to adopt unpopular positions on such issues as capital punishment, immigration policy, the Persian Gulf war and abortion, none of those stands provoked nearly as much anger and outrage as their initial reactions to the sex-abuse crisis did.
The penitential tone as well as the underlying ambivalence of the Dallas meeting was evident in Bishop Wilton Gregory's often moving presidential address on June 13.
As important as forgiveness is, it only absolves the sin and heals the rupture of fraternal love. It does not address the consequences of one's actions.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/28/2002 07:43:04 AM

LOUISVILLE (KY)
Free therapy available through U of L program
The Courier-Journal
By Deborah Yetter
People who say they have been sexually abused by priests can get free counseling by calling the University of Louisville's Kent School of Social Work, starting Monday. All calls will be confidential and handled by faculty members with the Kent School's Marriage and Family Therapy program, who will refer callers to local therapists, according to an announcement yesterday from the Kent School and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville.
The archdiocese won't be involved in the program, other than to pay the bills.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/28/2002 07:14:04 AM

LOUISVILLE (KY)
Law on sealing cases debated
The Courier-Journal
By Gregory A. Hall
Lawyers argued in Jefferson Circuit Court yesterday whether a Kentucky law that calls for sealing dozens of lawsuits alleging child abuse by priests would protect parishes or result in ''secret justice.''
The two-hour hearing before Circuit Judge James M. Shake centered on the constitutionality of the 1998 state law, which requires that civil complaints be sealed if they contain allegations of child sexual abuse that occurred more than five years ago.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/28/2002 07:11:24 AM

LOUISVILLE (KY)
Priest pleads innocent
Miller arraigned in sex-abuse case
The Courier-Journal
By Gregory A. Hall
Retired priest Louis E. Miller appeared in court yesterday to face 42 charges of sexually molesting children -- the largest such criminal case in recent memory brought against a priest in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville.
Dressed in casual clothes, rather than the clerical garb he is now forbidden to wear, Miller did not speak at an earlymorning arraignment, held just moments after he turned himself in at Jefferson Circuit Court.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/28/2002 07:08:48 AM

INDIANAPOLIS (Ind.)
Church investigating Indiana priests
Indianapolis Archdiocese puts 2 on leave after separate claims of decades-old sexual improprieties.
Indianapolis Star
By Bonnie Harris and Judith Cebula
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis is investigating two of its priests in response to allegations of sexual misconduct decades ago, church officials disclosed Thursday.
The Rev. Jack Okon, 58, has been accused of fondling a teen-age boy nearly 30 years ago. The archdiocese has placed Okon on administrative leave. Last week, Cathedral High School officials suspended him from his maintenance job and banned him from the campus of the Northside school.
The Rev. John B. Schoettelkotte, 68, of Bristow in southern Indiana was placed on administrative leave June 18 after church officials said they substantiated an allegation that he had inappropriately touched a teen-age girl more than 30 years ago.
posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/28/2002 07:03:14 AM NEW JERSEY
Accused priest to turn in collar
Bergen-Hackensack Record
By JOHN CHADWICK
Staff Writer
After months of silence in the face of accusations he sexually abused boys years ago in a Morris County parish, a retired Catholic priest on Wednesday asked Paterson Bishop Frank J. Rodimer to take the most severe step possible and remove him from the clergy.
The Rev. James T. Hanley's request to be defrocked stunned his accusers, and signaled perhaps the final act of one of the worst abuse cases in the Diocese of Paterson.
Hanley, his alleged victims say, employed a gentle and paternal manner in seducing young and vulnerable boys into performing lurid sex acts in the rectory of St. Joseph's Church in Mendham.
posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/28/2002 06:47:20 AM BOSTON (Mass.)
Archdiocese slashes budget, jobs: Scandal, recession force cutbacks
Boston Herald
by Tom Mashberg and Robin Washington
Citing a range of economic ills, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston cut 15 chancery jobs yesterday and reduced its $24 million central operating budget by about $8 million for the 2003 fiscal year.
The cuts include 15 percent reductions in grants and other aid to some parishes or schools. The full archdiocesan workforce, officials said, is now down to about 290.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/28/2002 06:36:51 AM

PORTLAND (ME)
Charges dropped against former Sunday school teacher
Portland Press Herald
PORTLAND -- Prosecutors have dropped charges against a former Sunday school teacher who was accused of sexually molesting a 7-year-old boy four years ago.
Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson announced Thursday that the charges were dropped against Thomas Wright, 43, of Gorham, because of insufficient credible evidence.
Anderson said investigators uncovered a "distressing pattern" of allegations by members of Faith Baptist Church in North Yarmouth based on memories recovered during counseling with the church's pastor, Wes Harris.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/28/2002 06:33:07 AM

ALBANY (N.Y.)
Clerics' Sex Reporting Bill Proves Unexpectedly Complicated
New York Times
By SHAILA K. DEWAN
ALBANY — What seemed last week to be nothing more than a seed of doubt over a bill that would require priests to report suspected sexual abuse has grown into a thorny legal question about how to avoid discouraging sexually active teenagers from seeking health care or counseling.
Last Thursday, Albany leaders agreed to pass the reporting bill as soon as they ironed out a minor objection from the New York Civil Liberties Union. A week later, lawyers are still puzzling over how to make the language say just enough, and not more, than they intended.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/28/2002 06:28:36 AM

IRELAND
Truth will out, even it it hurts, insists archbishop
Irish Independent
WHEN it came to the crunch, they looked uneasy - but determined.
The media briefing about the new Catholic Church Commission on Child Sexual Abuse was a relatively tense encounter yesterday and for understandable reasons.
For Archbishop Sean Brady, CORI secretary Sister Elizabeth Maxwell and Fr Joe Cantwell, representing the missionaries, this is a very difficult time.
To be the voice of the Church in crisis at the beginning of a process to establish the truth, when people still have many unanswered questions, is a brave undertaking. The knowledge that this is part of a crucial drive to salvage the trust of the people makes it even more of a challenge.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/28/2002 06:22:52 AM

IRELAND
Top judge to chair Church child sex abuse inquiry
Irish Independent
THE Catholic Church has announced the long-awaited terms of reference of its new independent Commission on Child Sex Abuse and appointed Judge Gillian Hussey as chairman.
The Commission will trawl through documents relating to sexual abuse complaints held by every diocese and religious order in the country.
Set up jointly by the Irish Bishops' Conference, the Conference of Religious of Ireland and the Irish Missionary Union, it will begin work in September, publish an interim report by February 28 next year and its final report by February 29, 2004.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/28/2002 06:19:40 AM

LONG ISLAND (NY)
Five Priests Retiring With Abuse Accusations
Long Island Newsday
By Carol Eisenberg
Staff Writer
Five of the 10 priests listed as retiring this year from the Diocese of Rockville Centre had their priestly faculties removed recently because of allegations of sexual misconduct.
The priests were listed in an article about new priest assignments, including retirements, in the Long Island Catholic, a weekly newspaper published by the Roman Catholic diocese.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/28/2002 01:45:14 AM

BOSTON
Magazine details accusations on Shanley
Boston Globe
By Sacha Pfeiffer, Globe Staff, 6/26/2002
In the latest accusation of sexual abuse against the Rev. Paul R. Shanley, a 30-year-old California man has alleged that Shanley repeatedly raped him over several years, beginning in 1990 when he was 17 years old.
The accusations were made by Kevin English of Big Bear Lake, Calif., Shanley's first known alleged West Coast victim, and involve alleged abuse that falls within the criminal statute of limitations, unlike many of the complaints against Shanley dating back to the 1960s and 1970s.
English also alleges that Shanley encouraged him to watch pornograpy and have sex with other men at a gay motel Shanley co-owned in Palm Springs, Calif., with the Rev. John J. White, another Boston priest on leave in California at the time.
English also charges that after Shanley's alleged history of abuse received wide publicity this year, Shanley called him and and said, ''Don't talk to anyone and don't believe these stories you are seeing about me. They are all a bunch of lies made up by the media.''
English's allegations are detailed in an 8,000-word story in the August issue of Vanity Fair, due on newsstands next week.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/28/2002 12:32:43 AM

BOSTON
Archdiocese announces budget cuts; economy blamed
Boston Globe
By Ron DePasquale, Associated Press
BOSTON — The Archdiocese of Boston, citing a weak economy, announced on Thursday it will cut its budget by a third, cutting 15 positions as well as aid to parishes, schools and hospitals.
Chancellor David Smith said the cuts had been planned since last November and were to be implemented over the next two years, but were condensed into one year instead.
"I've just been through the worst day of my life," Smith said. "The people we let go were some of the finest I've ever known."
Smith blamed the struggling economy for the cuts and downplayed any effect from the church's sexual abuse crisis.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/28/2002 12:28:44 AM

PALM SPRINGS (CA)
Lawyer: Priest created his own pool of victims
Palm Springs Desert Sun
By Ben Holden
PALM SPRINGS -- The mother and the lawyer of the only known Californian claiming to have been sexually abused by the Rev. Paul R. Shanley say the former priest was a manipulative predator who serially raped the young man over a period of years.
Kevin English says Shanley encouraged him to view pornography and have sex with other men at a gay motel Shanley co-owned in the Warm Sands area of Palm Springs, according to the Boston Globe. The Rev. John J. White, another Boston priest on leave in California at the time, was also a co-owner of the motel.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/28/2002 12:26:15 AM

SAN BERNADINO (CA)
Boston's cardinal formally apologizes
San Bernadino Sun
WILL MATTHEWS
Staff Writer
Cardinal Bernard Law of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston issued a formal apology Wednesday to the Diocese of San Bernardino for transferring a priest accused of pedophilia to the area in 1990.
San Bernardino Diocese officials said they were pleased with the apology, but critics Wednesday charged it falls well short of the standards of accountability the nation's Catholic bishops should be held to for shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish.
``Please accept my profound apology for the fact that a priest of this archdiocese has been the cause of bewilderment, scandal and anger among the faithful of San Bernardino,'' Law wrote in a letter addressed to San Bernardino Bishop Gerald Barnes. ``Had I or my colleagues been aware of his history, never would we have recommended him for priestly work.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/28/2002 12:19:37 AM

SAN BERNADINO (CA)
Shanley's local accuser goes public
San Bernadino Sun
SELICIA KENNEDY-ROSS
Staff Writer
A 30-year-old Big Bear Lake man claims that the Rev. Paul Shanley, who is under indictment in Massachusetts on rape charges, abused him for three years beginning in 1990 while Shanley served at St. Anne Catholic Church in San Bernardino.
Kevin English, who makes the allegations in a Vanity Fair article to be published July 3, contends the abuse began in 1990 when he was 17 and continued for the next three years.
He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
English, who says he was raped repeatedly by Shanley, a Roman Catholic priest who has advocated sex between men and boys, is the first alleged victim of Shanley during the priest's years in San Bernardino to come forward.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/28/2002 12:17:23 AM

ONTARIO (Calif.)
Shanley accuser's name revealed
Big Bear Lake man says he was abused at age 17
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
From staff and wire reports
In the latest accusation of sexual abuse against the Rev. Paul R. Shanley, a 30-year-old California man has alleged that Shanley repeatedly raped him over several years, beginning in 1990 when he was 17 years old.
The accusations were made by Kevin English of Big Bear Lake, Shanley's first known alleged West Coast victim, and involve alleged abuse that falls within the criminal statute of limitations, unlike many of the complaints against Shanley dating back to the 1960s and 1970s.
Shanley was a fill-in priest at St. Anne Catholic Church in San Bernardino from 1990 to 1993.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/28/2002 12:14:57 AM

PHOENIX (AZ)
Grand jury subpoenas diocese sex misconduct records
The Arizona Republic
Kelly Ettenborough and Joseph A. Reaves
June 27, 2002
A grand jury Thursday subpoenaed all church records of any criminal sexual misconduct by any clergy or agents of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix.
The records request had been anticipated since last week when Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien pledged full cooperation with an investigation being conducted by Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley.
"The bishop has said to go back as far as we have records," Michael Manning, O'Brien's attorney, said Thursday.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/28/2002 12:02:58 AM

Published Earlier:

JACKSONVILLE (FL)
ABUSE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: Bishop Victor Galeone responds
Florida Times-Union
Sunday, June 23, 2002
By Bishop Victor Galeone
Special to the Times-Union
...A few bishops, for reasons unknown, were negligent in applying the guidelines, and hence we have the wave of more recent cases. Personally, I am embarrassed and angry at such gross negligence. How does one explain it? A warped sense of compassion? Fear that the scandalous conduct might be reported in the press? Whatever the motives of these bishops, irreparable damage was visited on other innocent children.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/28/2002 12:01:49 AM

Thursday, June 27, 2002

WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
Waiting on Rome
Local Catholics consider qualifications
needed for the next bishop of Palm Beach
Florida Catholic
By Tom Tracy
The man appointed fourth bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach will have to face the hard work of rebuilding trust and fostering leadership, according to a sampling of lay Catholics, officials and clergy.
"Whoever is looking at this job has to realize that this diocese is not an Ancient-Mariner, Irish-Catholic, out-on-the-golf course retirement colony of New Yorkers and Bostonians," said Carolyn Fazio, a member of St. Lucy Parish in Highland Beach and past president of the London-based International Public Relations Association.
"We have racial issues, ethnic issues, health issues, and there is so much good the church can do on these (matters)" said Fazio, who owns her own public relations firm. "But if the new bishop thinks he is going to be on easy street…"
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/27/2002 08:17:40 PM

SAN BERNADINO (CA)
Boston cardinal offers apology to San Bernardino
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
By WILL MATTHEWS
STAFF WRITER
Critics say it's not enough to excuse transfer of accused priest
SAN BERNARDINO -- Boston Cardinal Bernard Law issued a formal apology Wednesday to the Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino for transferring a priest accused of pedophilia to the area in 1990.
Diocesan officials in San Bernardino said they were pleased with the apology, but critics charged it falls well short of the standards of accountability the nation's Catholic bishops should be held to for shuffling abusive priests from parish to parish.
''Please accept my profound apology for the fact that a priest of this Archdiocese has been the cause of bewilderment, scandal and anger among the faithful of San Bernardino,'' Law wrote.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/27/2002 02:07:31 PM

Bishops sink me to new low
National Catholic Reporter
By Arthur Jones
I can speak only for myself, not the half a dozen other Catholics in the room. But the American bishops have lately succeeded in inflicting something on me I have not previously experienced. They made me feel ashamed of being a Catholic.
It was a horrible experience.
I’ve always been a very public Catholic. Quite pious for a so-called liberal. Rosary, so many holy pictures and RIP cards in my Jerusalem Bible, I can no longer lift it with one hand. Jesus is on the wall above the computer, along with an icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa. And a framed page from a Catholic prayer book in Japanese.
posted by Tom Fox on 6/27/2002 01:25:40 PM

Sexual abuse and Catholic Church's civil liability
ReligionLink
By Diane Connolly
As victims and the church debate the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' new child sexual abuse policy, civil litigators are looking at how the policy will affect the church's liability. Legal experts say that while the new policy will not affect criminal cases, it will likely have an impact on the church's civil liability because it represents an effort to keep abusive priests away from children. How much the church's liability in the hundreds of lawsuits it is facing will be affected, though, remains to be seen. Will the new policy shield bishops and the church from abuse that took place in the past? How will the policy affect current lawsuits? Will the policy limit the church's liability in future cases of abuse, or has it opened it up to more exposure because priests will not be automatically defrocked?
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/27/2002 09:00:16 AM

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Archdiocese to list priests who abused
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The Milwaukee Catholic Archdiocese will publish a list of all priests who sexually abused minors in the past and list all the parishes they served in, a spokesman told those who attended a listening session Tuesday night at All Saints Parish.
Only one priest accused of misconduct remains in the active ministry. The validity of the accusations are being examined, according to a spokesman.
Several church officials came to the church at 4060 N. 26th St. to listen to people upset by the abuse allegations and coverup by top officials. The 75 attending were not as outwardly angry as those at earlier meetings, but their outrage was evident.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/27/2002 08:58:12 AM

JOHNSTOWN (PA)
10 local priests tied to cases
The Tribune-Democrat
By SUSAN EVANS, THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRATJune 23, 2002
Copyright 2002, The Tribune-Democrat
Officials of Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese have known of at least 10 priests implicated in sex abuse cases involving hundreds of young boys, according to public records reviewed by The Tribune-Democrat.
But the offenders remained in the priesthood, and the diocese meted out such mild punishments as transfers, therapy or “rest and recreation.”
Not one criminal report was made.
Not one priest was arrested.
Only one offender was defrocked – Francis Luddy – and that came only after a trial and a $2 million-plus assessment against the church.

JOHNSTOWN (PA)
Time bishop comes clean
The Tribune-Democrat
June 23, 2002
EDITORIAL: It’s hard to say what has been more disturbing: The number of incidents in which Roman Catholic priests have been accused of sexual abuse of children, including newly released records disclosing how hundreds of young boys have been exploited in the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese. The number of times bishops in our region and throughout the U.S. have covered up those incidents.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/27/2002 08:40:02 AM

SILVER SPRING (MD)
Review Upgrades Status of Hospital for Priests
Washington Post
By Avram Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 27, 2002; Page B02
St. Luke Institute, the Catholic Church-sponsored psychiatric hospital in Silver Spring that treats pedophile priests, withstood an emergency review by a hospital accreditation panel in the wake of the May 16 suicide of a patient.
The Chicago-based Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations gave the hospital conditional accreditation, which is given to facilities that fail to comply with multiple standards.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/27/2002 08:17:41 AM
GAITHERSBURG (Md.)
Georgia Priest Held, Charged With Abuse Of Md. Boy in 1970s
Suspect Worked at Gaithersburg Church
Washington Post
By Annie Gowen
Washington Post Staff Writer
A priest in Georgia was arrested there yesterday on charges that he sexually abused a 12-year-old Gaithersburg boy during the 1970s while the man worked at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Gaithersburg as a seminary student, Montgomery County police reported.
The Rev. Wayland Y. Brown, 58, is being held in Savannah pending a court hearing today. He is charged in a warrant with one count of child abuse and two counts of "perverted practice" in connection with the alleged abuse of the boy from 1973 to 1975, police said. All of the charges are felonies and therefore have no statute of limitations.
posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/27/2002 08:12:41 AM

PALM BEACH (FL)
Former Palm Beach County priest loses job
South Florida Sun Sentinel
By Nicole Sterghos Brochu
Staff Writer
Posted June 27 2002
The Catholic bishops' resolve to rid the church of sexually abusive priests has affected at least one former Palm Beach County priest.
Thomas DeVita, who served for five months in parishes in Royal Palm Beach and Wellington before the scandal of his past sexual relationship with a New York teen forced him out of the Diocese of Palm Beach, is losing his job in Kalamazoo, Mich.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/27/2002 08:11:27 AM

PALM BEACH (FL)
Alleged Diocese Embezzlement Scandal Deepens
Ex-Wife Points To Second Embezzlement
WPBF-TV West Palm Beach
Posted: 7:09 p.m. EDT June 26, 2002
PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The ex-wife of Robert Schattie, the man accused of embezzling from the Diocese of Palm Beach, claims that the diocese has not prosecuted Schattie in order to cover up a second alleged embezzlement by a bishop.
Schattie (pictured, left), 39, has been accused by Ed Ricci, a Catholic Church fund-raiser, of embezzling $400,000 six years ago when Schattie was the finance director of the diocese. Schatti has never been prosecuted.
Darlene Kott, Schattie's ex-wife, claims to know the reason why he was never prosecuted.
"His comment to me was that he knew he would not be prosecuted due to the fact that Bishop Symons had also been taking money too for a nephew in Miami who had a drug problem there," she told Eyewitness News 25.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/27/2002 07:59:38 AM

NEW YORK (N.Y.)
'BEACH GROPE' REV SAYS 12-YEAR-OLD ACCUSER IS LYING
New York Post
By JESSIE GRAHAM and DAN MANGAN
June 27, 2002 -- The lawyer for a Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy on Father's Day suggested the child is lying, as a judge ordered the cleric held on $50,000 bond yesterday.
The Rev. Peter Kiare's lawyer, Michael Gaffey, questioned why the boy did not shout out if the 41-year-old Kenyan missionary actually molested him during a June 16 outing to Rockaway Beach.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/27/2002 07:39:08 AM

ALBANY (N.Y.)
Abuses cost diocese millions
Albany Times Union
By ANDREW TILGHMAN, Staff writer
The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese revealed Wednesday it has paid out more than $2.3 million to sexual abuse victims during the past 25 years, including a nearly $1 million payment to a single victim in 1997.
The largest payment was $997,500 that went to a man who was abused when he was a teenager by former priest Mark Haight, the diocese said. The abuse took place in the 1970s and 1980s in the Capital Region, and a confidential settlement with the diocese was reached in 1997. The settlement is one of the largest of its kind in New York state.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/27/2002 07:32:21 AM

AUGUSTA (ME)
State will not pursue charges against diocese
Bangor Daily News
AUGUSTA — State prosecutors have no plans to file criminal charges against the Diocese of Portland for its handling of sexual abuse allegations against priests, a top official said Monday.
“From our review to date of files, we did not see the basis for any criminal action against the diocese,” said Leanne Robbin, who heads the financial and civil rights divisions of the Attorney General’s Office.
Prosecutors in several states, including Massachusetts, have convened grand juries to consider possible criminal charges against church leaders.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/27/2002 07:25:19 AM

BOSTON (Mass.)
Two priests suspended over abuse allegations
Boston Herald
by Robin Washington
A day after receiving a decades-old child sex allegation involving a Billerica priest, the Archdiocese of Boston announced that the cleric and another similarly accused were put on administrative leave yesterday.
In a statement, archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Morrissey said the Rev. W. James Nyhan was removed from St. Mary's in Billerica. His ejection follows an allegation he molested 38-year-old Dennis LaCort at Dorchester's St. Ambrose Parish in 1974 when the Quincy man was 10.
Also, the Rev. Ronald Bourgault was placed on leave and removed from St. Zepherin's Parish in Wayland, due to an allegation of sexual contact with a child more than 30 years ago, the statement said.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/27/2002 07:18:10 AM BOSTON (Mass.)
Judge: Church scandal lawyers may have polluted jury pool
Boston Herald
by Tom Mashberg
The judge overseeing sex-abuse suits against the Archdiocese of Boston yesterday scolded plaintiffs' lawyers for a raft of public statements she said might pollute jury pools if cases go to trial.
While not specifying any attorneys, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney said she was ``taken aback'' and ``gravely concerned'' by how a ``show'' was made of the release of church files on problem priests, particularly in the Rev. Paul R. Shanley case.
``There is a high risk the jury pool will be tainted,'' said Sweeney, whose decision to make public secret church papers in the John J. Geoghan sexual abuse case in January was a crucial ruling in blowing the lid off the scandal.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/27/2002 07:14:15 AM

BOSTON (Mass.)
DA seeks to lift time limit on rape cases
Boston Globe
By Sacha Pfeiffer and Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff
Troubled by the large number of clergy sex abuse cases that are too old to be prosecuted, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley today will propose legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations for rape.
If the bill becomes law, Massachusetts would join a growing number of states, including Maine, that have removed the time limit on law enforcement officials' ability to prosecute rapists.
The proposed legislation covers rape and attempted rape of children or adults, and does not specifically target offenses committed by clergy.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/27/2002 07:08:40 AM

NEW YORK (N.Y.)
Charges Against Foreign Priests Raise Issue of Supervision
The New York Times
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
The missionary priest had traveled from Kenya for a summerlong journey through some of America's wealthy and generous parishes to raise money for the church's work in Africa.
Priests from his worldwide order, the Holy Ghost Fathers, took him in at a church they run in Woodside, Queens — Blessed Virgin Mary Help of Christians — while he prepared for the trip. Within days the priest, the Rev. Peter Kiare, had befriended a divorced employee of the parish and taken her 12-year-old son on a Father's Day trip to Rockaway Beach. Yesterday, he was in jail on charges of sexually abusing the boy.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/27/2002 07:01:03 AM

ENID (OK)
Enid priest removed after abuse allegation
Oklahoma City Oklahoman
By Bobby Ross Jr.
ENID — The pastor of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church has been removed from ministry duties amid an allegation that he sexually abused a minor about 20 years ago, Oklahoma City Archbishop Eusebius Beltran said Wednesday night.
Beltran met with about 100 parishioners to inform them he suspended the Rev. James Mickus, who served as their pastor the past nine years. Parishioners choked back tears and consoled each other with hugs during the meeting held at the parish’s Leven Center.
Mickus, who recently celebrated 30 years in the priesthood, was removed after a man called the archdiocese’s pastoral response telephone hot line, Beltran said.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/27/2002 02:07:59 AM

ALBANY (NY)
Albany Diocese Settled Abuse Case for Almost $1 Million
New York Times
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany paid a confidential settlement of nearly $1 million in 1997 to a man who said he had been sexually abused for six years starting at age 12 by a priest who regularly plied him with drugs and alcohol.
The settlement of $997,500 was just short of the $1 million ceiling above which the diocese is required under its own rules to seek the consent of its finance council, an eight-member oversight board that includes seven lay people.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/27/2002 01:56:47 AM

LOUISVILLE (KY)
Rev. Miller indicted by grand jury for sexually abusing youths
Louisville Courier-Journal
By Deborah Yetter
dyetter@courier-journal.com
The Rev. Louis E. Miller, a Roman Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Louisville for 46 years, was indicted yesterday by a Jefferson County grand jury on 42 felony counts, involving alleged sexual contact with 15 children.
Miller, 71, who retired in March amid allegations he had sexually abused a youth, is charged with 36 counts of indecent or immoral practices and six counts of sexual abuse.
The indictment alleges Miller had sexual contact with 13 boys and two girls between 1960 and 1982. The alleged offenses occurred at Holy Spirit, St. Athanasius and St. Elizabeth of Hungary parishes, at SS. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital and in his car, the indictment said.
All of the children were younger than 15 and some had multiple sexual encounters with the priest, the indictment states.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/27/2002 01:24:10 AM

BOSTON
Boston Archdiocese suspends two more priests
Boston Globe
By Associated Press
Two more Roman Catholic priests were suspended by the Boston Archdiocese Wednesday after church officials learned of past allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor.
Cardinal Bernard Law received a standing ovation from parishioners while celebrating a special Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Wednesday, although he did not mention the latest allegations.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/27/2002 01:17:07 AM

SAVANNAH (GA)
Priest jailed in Savannah in child sex case
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Associated Press
A Roman Catholic priest once assigned in Maryland was arrested in Savannah on Wednesday on charges that he abused a 12-year-old boy in the early 1970s while a seminary student in Washington.
The Rev. Wayland Y. Brown, 58, was taken into custody by police in Savannah on child abuse and other charges filed in Montgomery County, Md. He is accused of abusing the boy from January 1973 to December 1975.
Brown was a seminarian at the Washington Theological College in the District of Columbia at the time and was assigned on a temporary basis to the St. Rose of Lima Church in Gaithersburg, according to Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the Washington archdiocese.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/27/2002 01:03:28 AM

Wednesday, June 26, 2002

DOVER (N.H.)
McCormack listed online as one of nine ‘worst bishops’
Foster's Democrat
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A religion-themed Internet site has included Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and New Hampshire Bishop John B. McCormack on a list of the country’s nine "worst bishops" for their handling of clergy sexual abuse cases...
Aside from Mahony and McCormack, the site named as the "worst bishops": Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, Bishop Charles Grahmann of Dallas, Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien of Phoenix, Archbishop Manuel Moreno of Tucson, Ariz., Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger of Evansville, Ind., Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., and Bishop Elden Curtiss of Nebraska.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 03:51:40 PM

BOSTON (Mass.)
Judge says lawyers' actions could taint jury pool for priest
Boston Globe
By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press
BOSTON -- The judge assigned to oversee the cases involving priest sex abuse in the Boston archdiocese on Wednesday railed against lawyers for alleged victims for actions she said could taint a potential jury pool.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Constance Sweeney did not mention lawyers by name but she said she was "deeply troubled" by what she has seen in the media in the case of retired priest Paul Shanley. She said one of the lawyers, whom she did not name, had made a "show" out of releasing documents in the lawsuits.
"Each day I see the erosion of what I see will be the ability to get a fair and neutral jury pool," Sweeney said.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 03:42:03 PM NEW YORK (N.Y.)
Priest Arraigned in Queens Abuse Case
The New York Times
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
A priest who had been visiting a Roman Catholic parish in Queens was arraigned today on charges that he sexually abused a 12-year-boy during a Father's Day excursion to Rockaway Beach.
The priest, Rev. Peter Kiare, 41, a native of Kenya, was charged with five counts of second degree sexual abuse, five counts of forcible touching and one count of endangering the welfare of a child. Bail was set at $50,000 cash and he was ordered to surrender his passport.
"There's really no proof whatsoever that any of these allegations ever happened," Michael Gaffey, Father Kiare's lawyer, said.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 02:47:15 PM

LOUISVILLE (KY)
Roman Catholic priest indicted
The Courier-Journal
By Lori Burling
Associated Press
A grand jury indicted a retired Roman Catholic priest on six counts of sexual abuse and 36 counts of indecent and immoral practices today after dozens of victims came forward saying they were sexually abused when they were children.
A Jefferson County grand jury handed down the indictment against the Rev. Louis E. Miller, 71, who served in several churches and schools in the Louisville Archdiocese. The indictment followed an investigation by the commonwealth's attorney's office and the Louisville Police Department's Crimes Against Children Unit.
Miller, who retired in March, is accused of abuse in more than 50 of 133 lawsuits pending against the Archdiocese of Louisville. The plaintiffs allege the church was aware of Miller's conduct but did not take appropriate disciplinary action.
Miller had worked at seven different parishes since 1956 before retiring after allegations became public recently. He has denied the accusations.
posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 02:11:13 PM

ONEIDA (N.Y.)
Oneida priest admits affair, resigns
William Lorenz says he had relationship with Oswego high school girl in 1970s.
The Post Standard
By Renee K. Gadoua
Staff writer
An Oneida priest has resigned from his parish because he had a sexual relationship with a female teen-ager 30 years ago.
"It was the most difficult thing I had to do in my life," said the Rev. William Lorenz, 64, who told his parishioners last weekend he was stepping down after seven years as pastor at St. Joseph Church, Oneida.
Bishop James M. Moynihan summoned Lorenz to his office June 18 and asked him to resign from the parish, Lorenz said.
Lorenz was a guidance counselor at the former Oswego Catholic High School when he began the relationship with 16-year-old student Victoria Howard. Howard, now Victoria Love, said Tuesday she is relieved to hear Lorenz will no longer serve in public ministry.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 01:23:31 PM

TUPELO (Miss.)
Clergy sexual exploitation
Northeast Mississippi Journal
BY JOHN ARMISTEAD
As the media spotlight in recent months has focused on Catholic priests who abuse children, a problem of sexual abuse in some Protestant churches continues in the shadows, probably highly under-reported and widely misunderstood.
It is termed clergy sexual exploitation, and typically involves a male minister to whom a female parishioner has come for counseling or spiritual or religious guidance. While not a criminal activity, as is the case when clergy abuse minors, it nevertheless can have devastating effects upon the victim.
Data is sketchy as to how widespread clergy sexual exploitation is, but growing concern has prompted some denominations to establish study groups and task forces to deal with the problem.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 01:13:03 PM

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Bishop here is named to top post in Milwaukee
St. Louis Dispatch
By Patricia Rice
Post-Dispatch Religion Writer
St. Louis Bishop Timothy M. Dolan was named Tuesday as the new archbishop for the Milwaukee Archdiocese.
Dolan follows Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland, 75, who resigned last month after acknowledging that he paid a $450,000 settlement to a man who said Weakland sexually assaulted him in 1979.
Dolan, 54, who grew up in Ballwin, has served as an auxiliary bishop in St. Louis since last August, and for the past four months has been in charge of handling allegations of sexual misconduct by priests.
Dolan and a committee reviewed old allegations and new police reports and advised St. Louis Archbishop Justin Rigali to remove nine priests — seven from St. Louis and two from Joliet, Ill. — from their public ministry because of allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 08:11:22 AM

LOS ANGELES (Calif.)
LA Cardinal Mahony listed online as one of nine 'worst bishops'
Minneapolis-St. Paul Pioneer Press
LOS ANGELES - A religion-themed Internet site has listed Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, as one of the country's nine "worst bishops" for his handling of clergy sexual abuse cases.
Beliefnet.com said that despite Mahony's recent efforts to adopt a "zero-tolerance" policy, he previously failed to promptly dismiss at least three priests who reportedly admitted to sexually abusing minors.
The Web site said plaintiffs, who have sued the nation's largest Catholic archdiocese, charged Mahony with "concealing information" on clergy sexual abuse from law enforcement officials and criticized the archdiocese's approach to victims as "potential litigants rather than wounded souls."

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 07:58:44 AM

LOUISVILLE (KY)
Sealing sex-abuse lawsuits opposed
Attorney general in Kentucky fights archdiocese effort
The Courier-Journal
By Andrew Wolfson
The Kentucky attorney general's office said yesterday that it opposes a move to seal lawsuits that accuse the Archdiocese of Louisville of mishandling past allegations of child sexual abuse by priests.
''The issue here is one of openness'' and ''the public's meaningful access to these cases,'' Assistant Attorney General Scott White wrote in a motion opposing the Roman Catholic archdiocese's position.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 07:51:28 AM NEWARK (N.J.)
Sex probe won't cost priest's job
The Star-Ledger
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY AND ROBERT SCHWANEBERG
Star-Ledger Staff
The Rev. Bruno Ugliano will remain a chaplain at Rider University in Lawrenceville and retain all his priestly responsibilities there while prosecutors probe allegations that he and two other priests sexually abused a teenage girl they met through a church youth group 20 years ago. Abbot Thomas Confroy of St. Mary's Abbey in Mendham, where Ugliano is a member of the Order of Saint Benedict, announced yesterday that no action will be taken against the accused cleric by the religious order until an internal review of the charges is complete.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 07:37:24 AM

NEW YORK (N.Y.)
PRIEST MOLESTED BOY, 12, AT ROCKAWAY BEACH: DA
New York Post
By CLEMENTE LISI
A Catholic priest was arrested yesterday on charges of abusing a 12-year-old Queens boy he had taken on an outing to Rockaway Beach.
Peter Kiare, 41, a missionary priest visiting from Kenya, was charged with sexual abuse, forcible touching and endangering the welfare of a minor after he molested the boy on the afternoon of June 16, said Patrick Clark, a spokesman for the Queens District Attorney's Office.
The alleged abuse took place where the boardwalk meets Beach 116th Street in Rockaway Park, police said.
The boy told his parents, who then alerted church leaders.
Church officials promptly notified the Queens DA.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 07:12:53 AM

NEW YORK (N.Y.)
Nab Priest in Abuse
Cops: Visitor fondled boy
on beach trip
Daily News
By MAKI BECKER
Daily News Staff Writer
A visiting priest at a Queens church was charged yesterday with sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy on a trip to Rockaway Beach, authorities said.
The Rev. Peter Kiare, 41, arrived from his home country of Kenya on June 11 to preach at St. Mary's Help of Christian Church in Sunnyside Gardens and raise money for his ministry back in Africa, sources said.
Kiare, a member of the Holy Ghost Fathers religious order of missionary priests, quickly befriended the boy, whose family attends the church, sources said.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 07:04:18 AM

PORTLAND (ME)
Prosecution of diocese not planned
Portland Press Herald
By JOSIE HUANG, Portland Press Herald Writer
The state attorney general's office does not plan to prosecute the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland following an initial review of sexual allegations against priests and church employees.
"To date, we saw no basis for criminal charges against the diocese," Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin said on Tuesday.
But she said "this case is far from over," noting that the position of the attorney general's office is subject to change and that any of the state's eight district attorneys can independently pursue criminal charges against the diocese or its employees.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 06:46:04 AM

BALTIMORE (MD)
Parishioners ask officials to give priest another chance
Hundreds attend meeting about Malia; rally planned
Orlando Sentinel
By Johnathon E. Briggs | Baltimore Sun Staff
Posted June 25, 2002
Voicing anger, frustration and disappointment over the forced resignation of their pastor, more than 400 parishioners filled the pews of Holy Cross Church in Federal Hill last night to urge church officials to give the Rev. Thomas R. Malia a second chance.
The heated, nearly three-hour meeting was filled with impassioned pleas from dozens of parishioners who recounted Malia's many pastoral deeds: He restored their faith in Catholicism, he saved their marriages, he attracted young people, he renovated the historic buildings and renewed the spiritual lives of the people inside them.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/26/2002 06:39:27 AM

BOSTON (Mass.)
Lawyers in abuse case want priest removed
Boston Herald
by Robin Washington
Lawyers representing an alleged molestation victim yesterday demanded a priest who once served as a chaplain at Matignon and Bishop Fenwick high schools be removed from a Billerica parish.
The Rev. W. James Nyhan, now of St. Mary's in Billerica, allegedly molested 38-year-old Dennis LaCort at Dorchester's St. Ambrose Parish in 1974 when the Quincy man was 10, said attorney Robert Sherman.
``The issue is that this priest is still serving as a pastor,'' Sherman said, detailing the alleged abuse as including oral sex. ``What (LaCort) is interested in is seeing that he is removed from a position with access to children.''

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 06:35:17 AM

There's another aspect to the Catholic Church crisis
Orlando Sentinel
Column By Jane Eisner | Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted June 25, 2002
The Roman Catholic Church is facing two sexual abuse scandals. One, concerning children and young adults, was confronted with painful directness as three hundred of the nation's bishops met in Dallas recently.
The other largely was and remains ignored.
"When will the nun stories surface again?" Allan Wolper asked recently in the monthly column he writes on ethics for Editor & Publisher.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/26/2002 06:33:41 AM

NEW YORK (N.Y.)
Pope Chooses a Successor to Prelate in Milwaukee
The New York Times
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Pope John Paul II yesterday named Bishop Timothy M. Dolan, who formerly headed an American seminary in Rome and has most recently served as auxiliary bishop in St. Louis, to succeed Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland of Milwaukee.
Archbishop Weakland retired in May after he acknowledged having paid a confidential $450,000 settlement to a man who said the archbishop sexually assaulted him in 1979, when the accuser was in his 30's.
Archbishop Weakland, one of the last outspoken liberals among the American bishops, is being succeeded by a traditionalist who has long had the confidence of Vatican officials.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 06:29:18 AM

NEW YORK (N.Y.)
Priest Charged in Rape Case Faced Accusations in Texas
The New York Times
By ANDY NEWMAN
A Roman Catholic priest who was arrested last week on charges that he raped a woman in a Brooklyn rectory in 2000 was dismissed by a Texas diocese in 2001 because of complaints that he had groped women there, a law enforcement official in New York said yesterday.
The priest, the Rev. Cyriacus Udegbulem, 38, was accused of touching women against their will and was dismissed by the Diocese of Laredo, Tex., said the official. The Laredo diocese refused to discuss Father Udegbulem's dismissal yesterday.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/26/2002 06:25:49 AM

PORTLAND (OR)
12 join suit against former Oregon priest
Portland Oregonian
BY ASHBEL S. GREEN
Twelve men have joined a lawsuit against the Diocese of Baker accusing a former Eastern Oregon priest of sexually abusing them between the late 1950s and the late 1970s.
The Rev. David Hazen, who served in at least a dozen parishes during his nearly 30-year career, died in 1983.
With 16 total plaintiffs, Hazen now ranks second among accused abusive priests in Oregon, behind Maurice Grammond, who's accused of molesting more than 40 boys when he was a priest in Seaside, Oakridge and elsewhere.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/26/2002 04:40:01 AM

MILWAUKEE (WI)
New leader eager to meet stalwarts of the archdiocese
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By TOM HEINEN and MEG KISSINGER
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Blending expressions of faith with Irish wit, Milwaukee's gregarious new archbishop-elect let it be known Tuesday that his top priority would be to get out among the "meat and potato" Catholics who are the heart of the church.
"My first major challenge is to get to know the folks," said Dolan, who quipped that in St. Louis he visited so many school events, fish fries and bingo games that he nearly had to be chained to his desk.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/26/2002 04:25:46 AM

DETROIT (MI)
Popular priest removed
Trenton parish shocked; past allegations are cited
Detroit Free Press
BY DAVID CRUMM
FREE PRESS RELIGION WRITER
The crisis over the sexual abuse of minors that is rocking the Catholic Church led to the removal of a popular Trenton priest this week, though his misconduct involved adults, church officials said Tuesday.
When the Rev. James Vedro moved to Michigan in 1991, Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida was told by Vedro's religious order, the Crosier Fathers and Brothers, that he had violated his vows of celibacy once in the past with an adult.
"We were informed that there was a single indiscretion" and that it did not involve criminal activity, said Ned McGrath, Maida's spokesman.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/26/2002 04:13:24 AM

CHICAGO
Scandals draw attention to obscure condition: ephebophilia
Chicago Tribune
By Lou Carlozo
Tribune staff reporter
The child pornography charges against R. Kelly have touched off a discussion, sometimes contentious, about a little-known condition that medical experts say is often connected with sexual activity involving teens: ephebophilia.
Just as it has been connected with Kelly, the obscure term is also coming into increasing use with the recent Catholic sex abuse scandals. Church leaders across the United States have invoked it to justify reinstating some child-abusing priests.
That is what church officials did in the archdiocese of Cincinnati with the Rev. Thomas Hopp. In May, church leaders argued that Hopp, 61, wasn't a pedophile but an ephebophile -- and therefore less disturbed. He was placed on administrative leave in April after admitting he fondled a Fort Loramie altar boy in 1980. That decision angered many area parishioners.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/26/2002 03:51:30 AM

Stockton minister arrested on charge of sex with teen inmate
Sacramento Bee
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) - A Stockton minister has been arrested on a charge he had unlawful sexual contact with a 17-year-old male inmate at the California Youth Authority.
Henry Lee Ingram, 56, a senior pastor and co-founder of Lifeseed Community Fellowship, was arrested Monday at his home by members of the San Joaquin County sheriff's sexual abuse unit after a week-long investigation.
Ingram works at the CYA's Karl Holton School as a speech therapist. A 17-year-old inmate there lodged a complaint with the sheriff's department alleging Ingram and he had sexual conduct, sheriff's spokesman Nelida Stone said.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/26/2002 03:21:02 AM

LOS ANGELES
Star-Crossed Cathedral
Controversy has surrounded Our Lady of the Angels, and its scheduled opening threatens to increase the focus on larger problems in the Catholic Church
Los Angeles Times
By REED JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer
Even under the best of circumstances, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels looked as if it might be a tough sell. Rising above the Hollywood Freeway in downtown Los Angeles, the nearly $200-million edifice is an imposing mass of modern design, a resolutely 21st century building wedded to the tenets of an old and tradition-minded faith. Though some observers have praised the spare elegance of architect Jose Rafael Moneo's work, others have derided the cathedral's high price tag and lamented an austere, abstract style that has put some observers in mind of an industrial plant.
To its most persistent critics, the cathedral-in-progress epitomizes the egotism and arrogance of Cardinal Roger M. Mahony.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/26/2002 03:03:26 AM

Tuesday, June 25, 2002

A courtroom warrior tackles the energy industry in Capitol (as well as Catholic clerics)
Sacramento Bee
By Dorothy Korber -- Bee Staff Writer
Monday, June 24, 2002
With a Jolly Roger as his symbol and a swashbuckler's bravado, attorney Larry Drivon wrings juror's hearts and racks up million-dollar judgments against carmakers and Catholic clerics.
He's at the forefront of the state Senate's investigation of energy manipulators, bringing courtroom drama to the Capitol's marble halls where he's donating his time as special legal counsel.
"I'm just a cowboy lawyer from Stockton," says Drivon, a college dropout who believes the contingency fee is a bulwark of American justice.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/25/2002 01:25:17 PM

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Pope names St. Louis bishop Timothy Dolan to become archbishop in Milwaukee
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Timothy M. Dolan, an auxiliary bishop in St. Louis who had headed the American seminary in Rome, was named by the pope Tuesday to succeed Rembert Weakland as Milwaukee archbishop.
Pope John Paul II accepted Weakland's resignation May 24 -- a day after he acknowledged paying a $450,000 settlement to Paul Marcoux, a former Marquette University student who said Weakland sexually assaulted him in 1979.
Dolan, 52, served five years as secretary to two papal delegates to the United States in Washington, D.C. From 1994 to 2001, he served as rector of the Pontifical North American College, an elite seminary in Rome for men selected by their bishops.
He left that post upon his appointment to St. Louis.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/25/2002 11:49:34 AM KANSAS CITY (MO)
Retired Missouri priest accused of sexually abusing boy in 1950s
The Kansas City Star
By JUDY L. THOMAS and MATT STEARNS
A California man is suing a retired Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph over sexual abuse allegations dating back 50 years.
Thomas Dorrell alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday that the Rev. Sylvester Hoppe molested him repeatedly from 1951 through 1954, starting when Dorrell was about 12. Hoppe is now 90 and lives with relatives in St. Joseph.
Hoppe could not be reached for comment.
But his attorney, James Wyrsch, said that "Father Hoppe denies the allegations....He's been a priest for more than 50 years and never had similar complaints against him.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/25/2002 11:45:34 AM

KANSAS CITY (MO)
KC bishop seeks forgiveness, vows vigilance in sex abuse scandal
The Kansas City Star
By MATT STEARNS
Bishop Raymond J. Boland on Monday sought forgiveness for the past and pledged vigilance in the future, and said he's leaning toward exceeding the church's new standards by seeking removal of sexual abusers from the priesthood.
"If in the past...either I or my predecessors have made mistakes, either willfully or inadvertently, then I want to apologize publicly for all of these wrongs," said Boland, who leads the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. "These were inexcusable."
Boland said he would "strongly, consistently and effectively" implement the standards adopted in Dallas this month by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The standards are expected to be approved by the Vatican.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/25/2002 11:42:02 AM PORTLAND (ME)
Catholic reformers gaining some ground
Portland Press Herald
By DAVID CONNERTY-MARIN, Portland Press Herald Writer
When reform-minded Catholics approached the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland about plans to hold an organizational meeting, the diocese shut its doors to them. More recently, some parishes also have closed their doors to them.
But the newly formed group Voice of the Faithful is increasingly finding support among parishioners throughout the state, and support from some priests, too.
This week, the second parish-based chapter of the group will meet at St. Joseph Church in Ellsworth with the blessing of the pastor. A group already has begun meeting at St. Francis of Assisi in Belfast.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/25/2002 09:28:55 AM

LOUISVILLE (KY)
Priest-abuse support group planned
The Courier-Journal
By Deborah Yetter
An Owensboro man plans to announce today the formation of a Kentucky-based chapter of the national support group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Gerald Payne, 45, of Owensboro, said he is forming the group for people in Kentucky, Southern Indiana and southern Illinois.
Payne, a business recruiter, has filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Owensboro alleging he was abused at age 11 in the 1960s by a priest at Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Owensboro. The lawsuit, filed March 28 in Daviess Circuit Court, is pending.
posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/25/2002 09:23:52 AM CHICAGO (Ill.)
Clergy can't hide abuse, Devine says
Chicago Tribune
By Todd Lighty and Monica Davey
Tribune staff reporters
In a room filled with members of religious organizations, Cook County State's Atty. Richard Devine on Monday told priests and other church figures they were "mandated by their conscience and heart" to report any sexual abuse of a child.
Noting that clergy are exempt from a state law that requires certain professions to notify civil authorities of suspected abuse, Devine said religious personnel had a moral obligation to protect children.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/25/2002 07:36:29 AM

CHICAGO (Ill.)
Church has faith giving won't decline
Chicago Tribune
By Monica Davey and Todd Lighty
Tribune staff reporters
Church offerings appear to have stayed on track in the archdiocese of Chicago despite a national sex abuse crisis that has led some U.S. Roman Catholics to say they would give less, church officials say.
With a new fiscal year's budget set to begin in a few days, the archdiocese is making no plans for a drop in revenue or spending cuts, problems some dioceses are facing.
Although the archdiocese's finance director, Tom Brennan, acknowledges that he has not yet seen hard numbers from the past six months, he bases his upbeat forecast on conversations he regularly has with leaders in each of the archdiocese's six vicariates, or districts.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/25/2002 07:34:03 AM CHICAGO (Ill.)
Cardinal discusses effects of abuse
Chicago Sun-Times
BY GARY WISBY STAFF REPORTER
Victims of sexual abuse by priests lose their hearts, souls and, in a way, their sense of time.
"It could have been 30 years ago, but it's as if it happened yesterday," Cardinal Francis George said Monday. "It stays with them for life."
The cardinal spoke at a daylong seminar sponsored by DePaul University's Center for Church/State Studies and the Cook County state's attorney's office.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/25/2002 07:28:53 AM

WASHINGTON, D.C.
The Healing Has Not Yet Begun
Washington Post
By Mark Vincent Serrano
Tuesday, June 25, 2002; Page A19
Many times in my life I have been told to "get over it" -- get over the childhood sexual abuse committed against me by my Catholic priest.
Sometimes the appeal was more implicit than explicit. The people in my life couldn't understand the effects of the abuse and the vast damage it has caused, so they wanted me to get past it and move on.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/25/2002 07:28:05 AM

MIAMI (FL)
`Great sorrow and regret'
U.S.BISHOPS' NEW CHARTER
Miami Herald
Posted on Mon, Jun. 24, 2002
bY JOHN C. FAVALORA (The Most Rev. John C. Favalora is the archbishop of Miami.)
The sexual abuse of children and young people by some priests and bishops has caused great pain, anger and confusion, and these feelings have been compounded by the inadequate ways in which some Catholic Church leaders have dealt with these terrible acts.
The abuse of a child stands in complete contradiction to everything our Savior teaches us and everything His church is called to be. I join my brother bishops in expressing great sorrow and regret, from the depths of my heart, for the suffering of victims of sexual abuse, their families and our Catholic community.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/25/2002 07:23:34 AM

ATLANTA (GA)
House of Prayer defendants waive right to counsel, refuse prosecution deal
The Atlanta-Journal Constitution
By JILL YOUNG MILLER
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
The state made an offer 11 members of the House of Prayer church immediately refused on Monday:
Accept a sentence of five years -- to be served outside of prison, on probation -- instead of going to trial and facing perhaps many more years behind bars on charges of cruelty to children and aggravated assault.
One by one, the defendants from the small, northwest Atlanta church rose in court and refused the offer from Fulton County Assistant District Attorney Pat Jackson. When Jackson asked the Rev. Arthur Allen Jr., 70, if he needed more time to think, he retorted, "Yes, if you give me a thousand years."

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/25/2002 07:21:58 AM
MIAMI (FL)
Judge: Priest's accuser must reveal her name
Miami Herald
Posted on Sat, Jun. 22, 2002
An unidentified woman who filed a sex-battery suit against a Catholic priest will have to disclose her real name if she wants to go forward with her complaint, a Miami judge ruled Friday.
Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey said ''Jane Doe II'' must disclose her name because she was an adult employee when she alleges she was sexually assaulted by the Rev. Jan Malicki at St. David Catholic Church in Davie.
But the judge allowed a second accuser, ''Jane Doe I,'' to remain anonymous because she was a teenager when Malicki allegedly molested her.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/25/2002 07:19:37 AM
MIAMI (FL)
A priest accused, a life in limbo
Abuse claims cast unseemly light on gloried past
Miami Herald
Posted on Sun, Jun. 23, 2002
BY LISA ARTHUR AND JAY WEAVER
The Rev. Ricardo Castellanos has a talent for turning humble beginnings into brilliant outcomes.
He arrived in South Florida from communist Cuba alone, a teenage refugee, educated and cared for by local clergy -- role models who would shape his decision to become a priest. He entered the seminary, excelled and cut a path to the Vatican, where he became a distinguished student...
But four men who have now accused the priest of molesting them as boys charge Castellanos abused his gifts of magnetism and charisma to draw them close and exploit them.
Castellanos, 56, denies the accusations. The Archdiocese of Miami suspended him in May, while it investigates.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/25/2002 07:17:59 AM

ST. PETERSBURG (FL)
Church is sued over molestation
St. Petersburg Times
By CARY DAVIS, Times Staff Writer
NEW PORT RICHEY -- The mother of a 5-year-old girl has filed a lawsuit against the Gospel Outreach Church of New Port Richey, alleging that her daughter was molested because church officials failed to screen the background of a church volunteer.
Alfonso Morales, 54, pleaded guilty last month to molesting the girl on a church bus in May 2001. He also pleaded guilty to molesting a second 5-year-old girl in the church parking lot in November 2000. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Morales was previously convicted in New York of sexual battery on a child. He was released from prison in 1992 after serving five years.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Pasco-Pinellas Circuit Court, alleges that the church, at 6427 U.S. 19, should have learned of Morales' New York conviction by searching public records. A background check should have been conducted before allowing Morales to have contact with children at the church, the lawsuit says.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/25/2002 07:12:16 AM

WASHINGTON (D.C.)
One priest defends, another apologizes for chat-room
The Washington Times
By George Archibald
A South African bishop has defended his writings at a pornographic homosexual Internet chat room in which he expressed "hope" the pope would die, while a Dallas priest apologized to his congregation Sunday for stating his interest in Hispanic men at the same site.
Auxiliary Bishop Reginald Cawcutt, Cape Town's second-most-powerful Catholic priest, said he was "disciplined by the Vatican for my involvement" with the Web site, known as "St. Sebastian's Angels," in a Sunday story by the Cape Argus newspaper, arguing that his comments were "taken out of context."
"It was the work of a hacker, a cut- and-paste job, and a lot of what was said was taken out of context, such as the remark about the pope which referred to his going to Poland — his homeland and perhaps the place where he would like to die," Bishop Cawcutt told the South African paper.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/25/2002 06:55:36 AM

WORCESTER (Mass.)
Archdiocese pushed to honor settlement
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
By Jennifer Peter
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON-- As lawyers for 275 alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse head to the negotiating table, lawyer Mitchell Garabedian is pressing ahead with plans to try to force the Archdiocese of Boston to honor a settlement agreement it backed out of last month.
Garabedian is scheduled to depose a half dozen church officials over the next week, including Cardinal Bernard F. Law, in lawsuits he's filed on behalf of people who claim they were sexually abused by defrocked priest John J. Geoghan.
Some legal experts say he may have a shot at persuading a judge to order the archdiocese to stick to the original $15 million to $30 million deal. A hearing is scheduled for July 31 before Judge Constance Sweeney on whether 86 Geoghan accusers have a binding settlement deal with the archdiocese.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/25/2002 06:39:53 AM BOSTON (Mass.)
Ex-Bruin deposed in church abuse case
Boston Herald
by Robin Washington and Tom Mashberg
A former Boston Bruins player who reportedly received a child abuse confession from Monsignor Frederick Ryan testified under oath yesterday in a suit against the priest and the Archdiocese of Boston.
Chris Nilan, who played two seasons for the Bruins in a 13-year NHL career, was deposed by Daniel J. Shea, attorney for one-time Catholic Memorial High School hockey player David Carney.
In his suit, Carney claims Ryan, then the vice chancellor of the archdiocese, plied him with alcohol, had him tattooed with a cartoon devil and molested him in Rhode Island two decades ago.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 6/25/2002 06:09:42 AM

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Archbishop pick likely today
St. Louis' Dolan may be named to post, priests say
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By TOM HEINEN
of the Journal Sentinel staff
The Vatican is expected to announce a successor to retired Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland today, with rising expectations that Auxiliary Bishop Timothy M. Dolan of St. Louis could be named.
Two retired priests who closely follow episcopal appointments heard from friends in chancery offices in other parts of the country that Dolan is going to get an appointment today, and that it likely will be Milwaukee. But that could not be confirmed late Monday night with archdiocesan officials in Milwaukee.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/25/2002 04:07:37 AM

HOUSTON (TX)
Fugitive priest kept allegations from past secret
Houston Chronicle
By JOHN W. GONZALEZ
The Roman Catholic priest arrested in Laredo last week on New York sexual assault charges apparently kept the allegations secret from employers during the two years he lived in the Texas border city, but what church officials in Laredo knew about the priest's past remained unclear Monday.
Many Laredoans knew the Rev. Cyriacus Udegbulem, 38, as an older college student and youth counselor who happened to be a priest visiting from Africa. His arrest in Laredo on Friday stunned the community, and some people who dealt with him said he gave no clues of a troubled past.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/25/2002 03:54:55 AM

DAYTON (OH)
Ousted pastor replaced
Cincinnati Enquirer
The Associated Press
DAYTON, Ohio — A Roman Catholic parish whose pastor resigned following allegations of sexual abuse will be getting a new pastor.
Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, said today that the Rev. P. Del Staigers will take over at Queen of Martyrs Church later this summer. Staigers also will retain his duties as pastor of Our Lady of Mercy in Dayton.
Queen of Martyrs' former pastor, the Rev. Thomas Hopp, resigned as pastor in April after being accused of sexually abusing a boy in 1980 in another parish. Archdiocese officials said Hopp, 61, acknowledged that the report was substantially true when he was confronted with the accusation.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/25/2002 03:32:20 AM

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Retired Missouri priest accused of sexually abusing boy in 1950's
Kansas City Star
By JUDY L. THOMAS and MATT STEARNS
A California man is suing a retired Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph over sexual abuse allegations dating back 50 years.
Thomas Dorrell alleges in a lawsuit filed Monday that the Rev. Sylvester Hoppe molested him repeatedly from 1951 through 1954, starting when Dorrell was about 12. Hoppe is now 90 and lives with relatives in St. Joseph.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/25/2002 03:08:39 AM

DETROIT (MI)
Maida briefs priests on new abuse policy
Detroit Free Press
BY PATRICIA MONTEMURRI, JIM SCHAEFER AND DAVID CRUMM
Free Press Staff Writers
Detroit Catholic Cardinal Adam Maida on Monday met with more than 200 priests from across metro Detroit and laid out new rules the church will follow to combat sexual abuse.
Again and again, the cardinal stressed: "Children, children, children -- we have to protect children," said the Rev. Kenneth Kaucheck, pastor of St. Anastasia parish in Troy.
In addition to outlining the zero-tolerance policy for any sexual involvement with a minor, Maida stressed a longstanding rule that Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Duggan asked him to emphasize: Priests are forbidden to have minors stay overnight in their rectories.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/25/2002 02:57:49 AM

Excerpt from 'Betrayal'
Boston Globe
A Boston Globe book about the abuse scandal
The Boston Globe broke the story, and throughout the crisis in the Catholic Church, the Globe continues to lead the media in reporting major developments. Betrayal delivers the full findings of the investigation with new, never-before-disclosed details and continues the effort to provide insight into this important story. Betrayal also paints a vivid picture of the struggle ahead as Catholics confront the serious issues facing their church.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/25/2002 02:49:21 AM

LOUISVILLE (KY)
A priest's troubled path
Abuse allegations followed Rev. Louis Miller through career
Louisville Courier-Journal
By Andrew Wolfson
To adults like Anna Dale Ernest, ''Father Lou'' was a super priest who could get things done.
''He worked like a dog and always seemed to have a smile on his face,'' said Ernest, a former parish council president at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church, the fourth and final church where Miller was a pastor or associate.
Seven years after Miller left St. Elizabeth, he was still so admired in the parish's working-class Louisville neighborhood that in 1997 he was named Schnitzelburg's ''No. 1 Citizen.''
His reputation with certain children was something very different.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/25/2002 02:33:53 AM

CHICAGO
Cardinal asks Vatican for help in removing priests
Chicago Tribune
By Don Babwin
Associated Press Writer
The Archdiocese of Chicago is asking the Vatican for advice on how to proceed with the removal of five priests from ministry over sexual misconduct allegations, Cardinal Francis George said Monday.
George announced Sunday he was removing eight priests to conform to stringent polices adopted earlier this month by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Five of the priests are appealing the decision to the Vatican, a process George said he expects will begin this week.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/25/2002 02:22:49 AM

Monday, June 24, 2002

Bishops' appointment of Keating draws criticism
Catholics Against Capital Punishment
The selection of a pro-death penalty Catholic politician to head a national review board set up by the U.S. bishops to monitor compliance with their new sexual abuse policy has drawn sharp criticism from Catholics who subscribe to their church's views on capital punishment.
The review board chair, Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, has frequently disagreed with such views, most noticeably in a 1999 statement saying that Pope John Paul II was "wrong" and had misinterpreted church teaching when he called for an end to the death penalty. This prompted Oklahoma City Archbishop Eusebius J. Beltran to issue a public letter strongly objecting to Keating's views and saying that "by incorrectly stating the church's teaching on capital punishment, he does a great disservice to all people." The letter cited the U.S. bishops' 1998 call to U.S. Catholics in positions of leadership "to be leaders in the renewal of American respect for the sanctity of life."
posted by Tom Fox on 6/24/2002 07:10:52 PM

NAPLES (FL)
A priest's betrayal
A generation later, St. Ann graduates struggle with legacy of abuse
Naples Daily News
Sunday, June 23, 2002
By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER, aszagier@naplesnews.com
Around St. Ann Catholic School in Naples, priests weren't any cooler than the Rev. William Romero.
As youth pastor during the 1975-76 school year, the sandal-wearing, straight-talking yet colorful Father Romero quickly won over his pre-teen charges. Kids lucky enough to be in his inner circle went to the beach and on sailing trips, with not a parent or other authority figure in sight. No one was safe from his wisecracks, especially the strict nuns who otherwise ruled the school with iron fists.
Amid the swirling emotions and raging hormonal roller coaster that is adolescence, here was an adult who finally seemed to understand.
But to a select few St. Ann students, Romero's friendliness and personal attention veered into protracted abuse that melded his own sexual perversities with church ritual. According to several former students and St. Ann parents interviewed by the Daily News, Romero would force both boys and girls to undress in his rectory bedroom, saying prayers while dedicating their body to Father Romero.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/24/2002 04:29:40 PM

Healing the Victims and Healing the Church
Let us go forward together to repair what is broken.
Los Angeles Times
By ROGER MAHONY and RICHARD KIRBY
(Cardinal Roger Mahony is archbishop of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Richard Kirby is a victim-survivor of sexual abuse by a priest. He spoke to a meeting of cardinals during the bishops' conference in Dallas.)
As victim-survivors in Dallas spoke from the heart to the bishops assembled there this month, they were again able to pull back the dark veil that had too long obscured the truth. Bishops listened and were astounded at what they heard. All were moved by the enduring pain and suffering caused by the sexual abuse of minors by clergy and by the policy of denial by some church leaders.
Those honest but grim stories helped shape a "Charter and Norms" for the Catholic Church across the country. What is now the policy of the church in the U.S. has been endorsed by virtually all the bishops and is now the agenda for the coming months and years. It is up to everyone--victims groups, parishioners and church leaders--to demand change within the church, leading to tangible results that will help establish accountability and restore the trust that has been so damaged in this scandal.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/24/2002 03:05:35 PM

LAFAYETTE (LA)
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.
Times of Acadiana
Louis Rom, Political Writer
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.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 6/24/2002 02:59:38 PM LOUISVILLE (KY)
COURT DEPOSITION
In 2000, Kelly wouldn't say if Miller had been accused previously
Courier-Journal
By Andrew Wolfson
The Courier-Journal
America's Roman Catholic bishops treated sex-abuse victims as adversaries at times rather than as ''suffering members of the church,'' Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, acknowledged at its historic meeting this month in Dallas.
Court records show that could describe how the Archdiocese of Louisville responded to a suit filed against the Rev. Louis E. Miller by one of his nieces in 1999. The case was settled last year.
''They were incredibly protective of everything in church files and any prior knowledge they had of complaints'' against Miller, recalled Will Driscoll, the lawyer for plaintiff Mary C. Miller.
Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly, testifying in a deposition on March 3, 2000, refused to say if Miller had been previously accused of touching a child inappropriately.
posted by Bill Mitchell on 6/24/2002 02:43:51 PM

NASHVILLE (TN)
Catholics must focus their efforts on change
Nashville Tennessean
By Tim Chavez
From where such courage comes, I do not know.
But I thank God for it. And I pray it will descend on the rest of us.
Wednesday evening, before 120 Midstate Catholics, the appearance of several victims of sexual abuse by priests kept minds focused on who has been hurt most in this scandal and who must be protected in the future.
The tearful but powerful words of the victims left no question about the permanent damage done by those with power, not to mention