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More Pre-11/2002 Archives

Saturday, October 19, 2002

IRELAND
State to hold inquiry into clerical sex abuse
Irish Independent
THE Government is expected to set up an inquiry into allegations of clerical sex abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese.
Ministers have been shocked by the explosive revelations on the RTE TV 'Prime Time' documentary. And while Justice Minister Michael McDowell was adopting a cautious initial approach, senior Government sources gave firm indications that action would be forthcoming.
This emerged last night as the archdiocese apologised for its failure to inform the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire that concerns had been raised about the conduct of the late Fr Noel Reynolds who was appointed chaplain there in 1997.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 10:18:26 AM

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Vatican's response fuels debate
Holy See didn't endorse bishops' guidelines, but reform may go on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By TOM HEINEN
theinen@journalsentinel.com
Whether interpreted as a major rejection or a supportive call for fine-tuning, the Vatican's decision Friday not to approve the American bishops' new zero-tolerance policy on sexual abuse is fueling debate without immediately putting brakes on reform.
Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan repeated his support for the policy in a prepared release, saying, "Nothing the Vatican has asked us to do will result in any changes of the action taken during the last six months here in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, nor will it change our commitment to addressing this issue."
Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, took a similar stance at a news conference in Rome on Friday, saying that the Vatican position does not compel bishops who are already implementing the policy to stop.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 10:12:22 AM

DETROIT (MI)
Priests' rights issue splits area
Some tout protection for clerics; others side with victims
Detroit News
By Kim Kozlowski / The Detroit News
Local Catholics are divided over the Vatican's rejection of some parts of a new sex abuse policy because of concerns that it violated the due process of accused priests.
Some see the church as putting its own concerns ahead of those of victims, while others are pleased the rights of priests would be protected.
"The church, in its haste to correct these errors in judgment by the bishops, have placed all priests in the undesirable position of being guilty whether they are or not," said Lawrence Opalewski of Macomb Township. "A priest is also innocent until proven guilty. I believe the Vatican sees this, and they don't want to get caught up in the same rash judgments that is going on in the States."


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 10:04:30 AM

U.S. Catholics to maintain 'zero tolerance' policy for priests
Despite Vatican's rejection of key points, bishops vow to continue enforcement
Detroit News
By Larry B. Stammer and David Holley / Los Angeles Times
Leaders of the Roman Catholic church in America said Friday they will continue, at least for now, to enforce their controversial "zero tolerance" policy against sexually abusive priests despite rejection of key provisions by the Vatican.
At a news conference in Vatican City, Bishop Wilton T. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. bishops conference, said the bishops would not back away from enforcement of their policy, formally known as the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
"Will they stop," he asked rhetorically. "No." Vatican officials have "not asked the bishops to stop pursuing the charter." The Vatican's statement on the subject, "simply says let us sit down and talk together about issues that need to be clarified or modified."


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 10:02:51 AM

DETROIT (MI)
Michigan church officials endorse Vatican decision on abuse policy
Detroit News
By Bree Fowler / Associated Press
DETROIT -- Michigan Catholic leaders applauded the Vatican's decision to reject the U.S. Roman Catholic Church's new sexual abuse policy, saying that revising it will allow them to better protect the rights of both children and priests.
While supporting the U.S. bishops' efforts to stamp out clergy abuse of minors, the Vatican said Friday that the policy contained provisions that were "difficult to reconcile" with church law, were difficult to interpret and left open procedural questions that needed to be resolved.
The Vatican response, signed by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Congregation of Bishops, proposed the creation of a joint U.S.-Vatican commission to revise the policy.
Cardinal Adam Maida, archbishop of Detroit, welcomed the announcement and said the mixed commission will allow church officials to refine and clarify the policy.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 10:00:55 AM
DETROIT (MI)
Leaders defend Vatican move
U.S. officials say they'll revise sex-abuse policy
Detroit Free Press
BY DAVID CRUMM
AND PATRICIA MONTEMURRI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Catholic leaders around the United States tried their best Friday to recast a Vatican rejection of their zero-tolerance policy on the sexual abuse of minors as merely a month-long delay to fine-tune the guidelines.
But in Detroit, Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan warned the bishops against abandoning the policy they set in Dallas in June, saying, "I have a zero-tolerance policy.
"If they put priests they know abused children back on the altar -- and they abuse again -- you could have a bishop looking at aiding and abetting charges."



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 09:57:13 AM

DETROIT (MI)
New complaints on priests shown
Prosecutor's files detail additional accusations
Detroit Free Press
BY JIM SCHAEFER AND PATRICIA MONTEMURRI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
New sexual misconduct allegations against several Detroit area priests were revealed Friday after the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office released investigative documents involving 13 clergy.
The files also provide more details about allegations already known. For instance, church leaders removed the Rev. Walter Lezuchowski in May from St. Ronald parish in Clinton Township for alleged abuse of a girl. But they did not disclose that Lezuchowski had been accused of a 16-year sexual relationship with the unnamed girl, beginning when she was in the first grade.
In another removal this year, the Rev. Dennis Duggan resigned as pastor of St. Suzanne in Detroit in March after one allegation of sexual abuse, Archdiocese of Detroit leaders said at the time.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 09:54:04 AM

LOUISVILLE (KY)
Church concern for priests' rights draws fire, acceptance
The Courier-Journal
By Deborah Yetter
dyetter@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Mary C. Miller believes the Roman Catholic Church must stick to a ''zero tolerance'' policy of removing priests for a single act of child sexual abuse. And she worries about the preoccupation some church officials seem to have about due process for accused priests.
''Who gave due process to the victims?'' asked Miller, who is one of the people who have sued the Archdiocese of Louisville, alleging a priest abused her when she was a child.
But Frank Diebold, another alleged victim, said he thinks the new policy on sexual abuse, adopted by the nation's bishops in June, may have gone too far and could ruin the career of a priest who is falsely accused.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 09:50:38 AM
LOUISVILLE (KY)
Vatican withholds OK of priest abuse policy
Review sought; Kelly to keep using advisers
The Courier-Journal
By Deborah Yetter
dyetter@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Roman Catholic Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly of Louisville said he plans to continue operating under the U.S. bishops' new policy for dealing with priests who sexually abuse children -- even though the Vatican declined to approve it yesterday.
''We're moving right ahead,'' said Kelly, who has removed eight priests from the ministry for child sexual abuse since the nation's bishops adopted the tougher policy in June.
Under the policy, the archdiocese has created a board of lay people and clergy to advise Kelly on matters of sexual abuse, and Kelly said that group will continue its work.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 09:47:10 AM


Bishops vow to fine-tune abuse policy
Vatican's ruling upsets advocates for those abused
Chicago Tribune
By Julia Lieblich and Aamer Madhani, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporter Amy E. Nevala and Tribune news services contributed to this report
The Vatican on Friday told U.S. Catholic bishops to revise the strict new sex-abuse policy they approved in June, saying parts of the plan were "difficult to reconcile" with church law.
Advocates for victims of abuse called it a "tragic day" and said hard-won reforms now are threatened.
But church leaders minimized the impact of the decision, saying they are being asked not to overhaul the policy but to fine-tune it.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 09:43:16 AM

CHICAGO (IL)
Cardinal: Abuse policy still in flux
Chicago Sun-Times
BY CATHLEEN FALSANI AND GARY WISBY STAFF REPORTERS
A policy crafted earlier this year by U.S. Roman Catholic bishops to deal with priests who engage in sexual misconduct with minors "can be the source of confusion and ambiguity," the Vatican said Friday as it sent the document back for revision.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, told Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a cordial letter released Friday morning in Rome that the policy contains "provisions that are difficult to reconcile with the universal law of the church."
The policy was adopted by the American bishops at their June meeting in Dallas.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 09:40:06 AM

Bishops downplay gap on abuse policy
Rome withholds OK for further changes
Belleville News-Democrat
By Richard N. Ostling
ASSOCIATED PRESS
American bishops insisted their get-tough policy on sexual abusers in the priesthood was still fully workable Friday, despite the Vatican's demand that the plan be revamped and angry claims from victims that the church had failed them again.
The U.S. prelates hastened to downplay their differences with the Holy See over the policy they approved in June to stem the sex abuse crisis that has battered the Roman Catholic Church in America. Many said they would carry out the measures anyway.
But the Vatican said Friday it could not give the plan its approval without significant changes. Reaching agreement may prove difficult.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 09:37:10 AM

TAMPA (FL)
Bay Area Groups Criticize Vatican's Action On Abuse
The Tampa Tribune
By MICHELLE BEARDEN mbearden@tampatrib.com
TAMPA - Although their local bishop assures them nothing has changed, members of a Bay area victims' group and a Catholic lay movement agreed Friday the Vatican is undermining efforts to resolve the church's sexual abuse crisis.
``It's disheartening,'' said Melissa Price, 32, founder of the Tampa-St. Petersburg chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. ``They're more worried about canon law than protecting children.''
Price of New Port Richey has a personal interest in the church's response to victims. She says she was molested over an eight-year period beginning in the late 1970s by the Rev. Polienato Bernabe, who served in two parishes in the St. Petersburg diocese.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 09:33:32 AM Sex abuse victims see setback
North Jersey News
By JOHN CHADWICK
Staff Writer
Victims of clergy sex abuse said Friday was "a tragic day for American Catholics'' as the Vatican announced that it wants to revise a landmark policy aimed at removing sexually predatory priests.
"Without Vatican approval, we're now back at square one,'' said Barbara Blaine, a Chicago resident and founder of Survivor's Network of Those Abused by Priests. "Each bishop can decide for himself how to handle abusive priests.''
But Catholic leaders said they expect to reach an eventual compromise with the Vatican, and pointed out that the response from the Holy See appears supportive of the bishop's intentions to crack down on abusive priests.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 09:25:58 AM

PROVIDENCE (RI)
Victims, church officials expected Vatican response
But some say they are encouraged that Catholic authorities are willing to hash out a sexual-abuse policy that conforms to canon law.
Providence Journal
BY JENNIFER LEVITZ
Journal Staff Writer
Some Catholic church observers were not surprised when the Vatican, citing a conflict with canon law, rejected the U.S. Bishops Conference's new policy, which would ban priests from church duty after one credible allegation of sexual abuse.
James T. Murphy, a lawyer for the Diocese of Providence, which last month ended a decade of sexual-abuse litigation with a $13.5-million settlement, said yesterday that church lawyers in the United States believed that the bishops' policy defied canon law's requirement of due process for priests.
"If someone commits one of these offenses," Murphy said, "it is also an offense under canon law, but the approach is different. You want to protect the person who is harmed, prevent it from happening again. But at the same time you have to reconcile the sinner to his or her God.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 09:16:15 AM

NORWICH (CT)
Norwich bishop responds to Vatican's abuse stance
Norwich Bulletin
The Most Rev. Daniel A. Hart, bishop of Norwich, released the following statement in response to the establishment of the Vatican-U.S. Bishops' Mixed Commission related to the U.S. Bishops' Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
"I join Bishop Gregory and my brother bishops in welcoming the response of the Holy See in a letter dated Oct. 14, 2002, from the Congregation for Bishops.
That letter clearly states: 'The Holy See, above all, would like to convey full solidarity with the Bishops of the United States in the firm condemnation of sexual misdeeds against minors and is deeply concerned about the distressing situation that has arisen in recent months in the Church in the United States.'


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 09:11:24 AM Cover Story: Interview with America Editor Thomas Reese, SJ
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
BOB ABERNETHY: After four months of review, Vatican officials this week said they are unable to grant final approval to the U.S. Bishops' new sex abuse policy unless clarifications and changes are made. Kim Lawton has more.
KIM LAWTON: In a response made public on Friday, the Vatican supported the U.S. Bishops' efforts to deal with the clergy sex abuse crisis. But the Vatican added that certain provisions of the policy adopted in June appear to conflict with the Church's universal law.
At a news conference in Rome, Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Bishops Conference, said a joint U.S.-Vatican commission will be appointed to discuss possible revisions.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/19/2002 09:09:52 AM Cover Story: St. John's Abbey
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly
BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: One famous Catholic center that has tried to balance the rights of victims against the rights of accused priests is St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. As members of the Benedictine order, those there are not covered by the U.S. Bishops' rules, but are responsible to the Vatican. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on how St. John's has responded to sex abuse complaints.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: For one of Catholicism's most revered monastic communities, October first must rank as one of its most painful days -- as public as it was painful. Abbot John Klassen welcomed some of the victims who'd suffered sexual abuse in the '60s, '70s, and '80s by monks and priests.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/19/2002 09:07:03 AM

MANCHESTER (NH)
NH clergy welcome
new policy on abuse
The Union Leader
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
Union Leader Staff
While a special commission reviews the U.S. Catholic bishops’ new sexual abuse policy to ensure it conforms with universal church law, New Hampshire church leaders said their policy will remain in full effect.
The two documents already are largely in agreement, although Manchester diocesan officials yesterday said its “one-strike-you’re-out” policy complies with church law.
Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, yesterday announced a “mixed commission” with four U.S. bishops and representatives from four Vatican offices is being established to revise the sexual abuse charter and norms U.S. bishops adopted in Dallas in June.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 09:04:47 AM

METHUEN (MA)
Methuen victim: 'We're innocent until proven guilty'
The Eagle Tribune
By Kathie Neff Ragsdale
Staff Writer
Alleged victims of clergy molestation and their supporters say they are displeased -- but not surprised -- by the Vatican's rejection of the U.S. Roman Catholic Church's new sexual abuse policy calling for the immediate removal of accused priests.
"Their first reaction is to protect themselves, and not the children who have been abused," said Robert Morton, 48, of Newton, N.H., a man who said he had "a couple of brushes" with the late priest Joseph Birmingham, accused of molesting some 500 young men in six Massachusetts parishes, including Morton's former parish, St. James in Salem.
John Vellante, 58, of North Andover, who says he was abused by a priest while in junior seminary in 1958, said he is not surprised by the Vatican's rejection.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 09:01:01 AM

BOSTON (MA)
Moral high ground eludes priests, pols
Boston Herald
by Joe Fitzgerald
Saturday, October 19, 2002
How ironic that while Catholic priests are looking for ways to reclaim moral high ground, our front-running candidates for governor are avoiding it as if it were a toxic dump.
What has happened in the past year to innocent members of the priesthood has been unconscionable. For no other reason than the collective identity they shared with perverts who hid behind collars, they, too, have been vilified, condemned and found guilty in the court of public opinion.
The presumption of innocence? Not for them. Fueled by the contempt of dissidents and malcontents who've resented the Catholic Church for years, the witch hunt that evolved from a devastating scandal cast a collective guilt so pervasive and oppressive that scores of besieged clerics began wearing civvies in public.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 08:58:22 AM

BOSTON (MA)
Law backs abuse policy despite Vatican unease
Boston Herald
by Eric Convey and Tom Mashberg
Saturday, October 19, 2002
The Archdiocese of Boston will continue to enforce its strict new policy on clergy sexual abuse despite the Vatican's partial rejection of similar guidelines that would have applied nationwide, Bernard Cardinal Law said yesterday.
``The policy that we have in place, I am convinced, is a policy that is soundly based in canon law,'' Law told reporters at a rare news conference in Brighton.
In mandating revisions yesterday to the proposed U.S. guidelines, Vatican officials did not say what aspects were troublesome. A letter accompanying the decision indicated one concern is whether priests would be given due process before being ousted from ministry.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 08:55:08 AM

Many Leaders of U.S. Church Say Rome's Stance Is a Relief
The New York Times
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
While victims of sexually abusive priests expressed despair and outrage yesterday at the Vatican's refusal to endorse the American bishops' zero tolerance policy, many bishops, priests and even some laypeople privately breathed a sigh of relief.
They said they welcomed the Vatican's decision as a corrective measure that will put the brakes on a policy that many of them now say was adopted at the American Roman Catholic bishops meeting in Dallas in June with too much haste, with too much attention to the pain of victims and not enough to the rights of priests accused of abuse.
"As a matter of fact, I've been hoping that there would be a refinement of the Dallas charter and the norms, and I welcome what's been called for today," said Archbishop Thomas C. Kelley of Louisville, Ky., who said he had voted in favor of the policy but with "enormous misgivings."


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 08:51:17 AM

BOSTON (MA)
Advocates for Abuse Victims Urge Boston Archbishop to Adopt a Tough Policy Quickly
The New York Times
By PAM BELLUCK
BOSTON, Oct. 18 — Perhaps no city was more riled up today by the Vatican's decision to reject the American bishops' policy on sexual abuse than this one, where the priest scandal erupted nine months ago.
Advocates for victims said they were deeply disappointed and were especially worried about how the decision would affect a proposed new policy in the Boston Archdiocese.
The Massachusetts attorney general, Thomas F. Reilly, called on the archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, for immediate adoption of that policy, recommended two weeks ago by a commission the cardinal had appointed. Some of its proposals went beyond the American bishops' policy, among them a registry of priests accused of abuse and a system of monitoring accused priests after suspension from their ministry.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 08:48:12 AM
NEWTON (MA)
Bishops' policy flawed, priests say
Boston Globe
By Matt Carroll, Globe Staff, 10/19/2002
NEWTON - Boston Archdiocese priests, while deploring the sexual victimization of children, said yesterday the Vatican's refusal to fully approve the US bishops' sexual abuse policy is a necessary step to safeguard clergy rights.
While outraged by the crimes committed by fellow priests, the men said they worried that a false accusation by a malicious or misguided person could ruin their careers.
Some priests in the archdiocese have repeatedly complained that their rights under canon law have been ignored by church officials eager to forcefully address a crisis they have been accused of long ignoring.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 08:40:33 AM

Specialists say changes in canon law may follow
Boston Globe
By Sacha Pfeiffer, Globe Staff, 10/19/2002
Long before yesterday's cautious critique by the Vatican of the sex abuse policy approved by American bishops in June, canon law experts warned that the bishops' zero-tolerance policy against abusers was on a collision course with church law.
But yesterday, church law specialists had an optimistic new message: There is a way to avert the collision. And the solution may involve changes to canon law itself, not just to the Dallas policy.
As a commission of Vatican officials and US bishops begins the complex process of reconciling aspects of the bishops' policy with universal church law - commonly misunderstood as being a monolithic and unchanging body of precepts - canon law could be revised in the process, several specialists said.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 08:38:15 AM

Excerpts from letters
Boston Globe
By Associated Press, 10/19/2002
Following are excerpts of the Oct. 14 letter from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation of Bishops, to Bishop Wilton Gregory, head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the reply by Bishop Gregory the following day:


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 08:35:25 AM

BOSTON (MA)
AG says state law takes precedence
Urges cardinal to act quickly
Boston Globe
By Michael Rezendes, Globe Staff, 10/19/2002
The state's top law enforcement official yesterday urged Cardinal Bernard F. Law to brush aside the Vatican's initial rejection of the US bishops' proposed policy on clergy sexual abuse, asserting that the state's civil and criminal statutes override provisions in church law cited yesterday by officials in Rome.
''Canon law is irrelevant when it comes to crimes committed against children,'' said state Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly. ''By now everyone should recognize that - the Vatican as well as every bishop in this country.''
Reilly also called on Law to ''immediately implement'' the child protection recommendations delivered to him last week by a special commission Law formed earlier this year. ''Cardinal Law can send a very clear message that notwithstanding the Vatican's failing, change is necessary and that change will begin here with the implementation'' of the commission's recommendations, Reilly said. ''The time for action is now.''


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 08:30:22 AM

Bishops hopeful on abuse policy
They downplay Vatican demand for revisions
Boston Globe
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff, 10/19/2002
American Catholic bishops remained confident yesterday that their zero-tolerance policy on abusive priests will be sustained, even after the Vatican demanded a reexamination of what behavior constitutes sexual abuse by priests and how such behavior is punished.
Throwing into confusion the US bishops' promise to rid the priesthood of child molesters, the Vatican declined to provide blanket approval of the tough sanctions sought by the American prelates. Instead, the Vatican said it wanted to revise portions of the policy, including the definition of sexual abuse and the role of lay boards in determining what becomes of abusive priests.
But top American church officials downplayed the significance of the move, saying that the Vatican simply wants to set up a commission to refine some elements of the policy to make sure it not only protects children but also protects accused priests and is consistent with canon law.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 08:28:20 AM

BOSTON (MA)
Law confident Boston diocese rules will endure
Boston Globe
By Walter V. Robinson, Globe Staff, 10/19/2002
It was his first full news conference since Jan. 24, and the man facing the cameras was someone Boston hasn't seen in quite a while: an optimistic Cardinal Bernard F. Law.
Law made his surprise public appearance yesterday to comment on Vatican reservations about the tough policy toward sexually abusive priests that was adopted by US bishops in June - a policy necessitated in part by Law's own acknowledged failure to intervene early to remove abusers from parish work. And, where some expressed concerns that the Vatican might dilute the bishops' policy, Law said he was confident the policy would hold up.
''I don't see this as a repudiation of our efforts,'' he said, while acknowledging that the Vatican has raised questions that need to be resolved.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 08:25:38 AM

PORTLAND (ME)
Diocese will still observe abuse rules
Portland Press Herald
By JOHN RICHARDSON, Portland Press Herald Writer
Maine's Roman Catholic Church will continue to enforce a tough new policy against child sexual abuse despite reservations expressed Friday by the Vatican, a top church official said.
Monsignor Marc Caron, co-chancellor of the Portland Diocese, said the pope and a Vatican review board generally support the policy that was proposed by American bishops and has already been implemented in Maine. A core element of the proposal calls for removing men from the priesthood based on a single credible allegation of abuse.
Caron said the Vatican's questions could be resolved by next month and that the overall proposal was in no way rejected. "I don't read it that way in any way," he said. "It's going to be a bit more work."



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/19/2002 08:20:11 AM

Friday, October 18, 2002



BOSTON (MA)
One survivor tells a tale of triumph
Boston Herald
by Margery Eagan
Phil Saviano still remembers ``the coolness of the dark church basement; the smell of his sickly, sweet cologne; the beads of sweat on his forehead; the force of his hands around my skinny wrist, the sense of being completely trapped.''
He remembers delivering the evening Worcester newspaper to the old Victorian rectory where Father David Holley, with those thick horn-rims, would joke with him. Sometimes he'd visit Sunday school and thrill the children by making fun of the nun behind her back.
``He'd show us card tricks and give us 50 cents - this was when an ice cream only cost a dime - to move boxes after Sunday school.'' From the sacristy to the rectory, from the rectory to that cool, dark church basement.
``One day the deck of cards he pulled from his pocket had pornographic pictures on them. That was the beginning,'' Saviano said. Then his confessor became his abuser. Then on Saturday afternoons he'd kneel before the screen and say to Holley, ``Bless me Father for I have sinned. I yelled at my mother. I lied to my brother. . . And you know the rest.''


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 09:08:28 PM
BOSTON (MA)
Law: Vatican Decision Won't Delay Archdiocese Policy
Vatican Rejects Parts Of U.S. Bishops' Reforms
thebostonchannel.com
BOSTON -- The Vatican's rejection of the U.S. bishop's policy against priest sex abuse won't delay the Boston Archdiocese's own reforms, Cardinal Bernard Law said Friday.
The Vatican reportedly does not agree with some of the elements of the sex abuse policy adopted by U.S. bishops. Do you agree with the Vatican?
Law said the reforms remain on track for full implementation by Dec. 1, though they have provisions similar to the bishop's policy the Vatican turned away.
For example, both Boston's and the bishops' policies require the removal from active ministry of priests who face a "credible" accusation of abuse. The Vatican said Friday it was concerned the bishop's policy conflicted with church law by not sufficiently protecting the due process rights of priests


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 05:07:25 PM

Victims angered by Vatican rejection of bishops' sex abuse policy
Priests see boost for their right
Boston.com
By Rachel Zoll, Associated Press, 10/17/02
Victims of clerical sex abuse said Friday that the Vatican rejection of a policy American bishops adopted to punish guilty priests shows the church is still resisting reform.
But some church observers argued the Holy See was simply trying to develop a policy that protected children while also preserving the rights of accused priests.
Mark Serrano, a national board member of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, called the Vatican response "a victory for Vatican bureaucrats and recalcitrant bishops." He said victims should lobby for changes in U.S. law that would make it easier to prosecute offenders.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 05:00:45 PM

VATICAN
Hopes for immediate compromise fell to insistence that church law be respected
Boston.com
By Victor L. Simpson, Associated Press, 10/18/02
VATICAN CITY -- America's Roman Catholic bishops had hoped the Vatican would endorse their sweeping policy against clerical sex abuse, or at least give it a temporary pass.
And the Holy See seriously considered accepting the American plan as an experiment, despite Rome's deep misgivings. But in the end, Vatican officials felt the U.S. policy conflicted with church law followed around the rest of the world -- and that doomed the plan.
Now a joint American-Vatican commission will revise the policy, likely working on such major points as how to handle guilty priests and the definition of sex abuse.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 04:58:16 PM
Texts of letters from the Vatican's Congregation of Bishops and the U.S. bishops' conference
Boston.com
The following are the texts of the Oct. 14 letter from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Vatican's Congregation of Bishops, to Bishop Wilton Gregory, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the reply by Bishop Gregory the following day:


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 04:53:31 PM

BOSTON (MA)
Cardinal Law says Vatican decision won't delay archdiocese policy
Boston.com
By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press, 10/18/02
BOSTON -- The Vatican's rejection of the U.S. bishop's policy against priest sex abuse won't delay the Boston archdiocese's own reforms, Cardinal Bernard Law said Friday.
Law said the reforms remain on track for full implementation by Dec. 1, though they have provisions similar to the bishop's policy the Vatican turned away.
For example, both Boston's and the bishops' policies require the removal from active ministry of priests who face a "credible" accusation of abuse. The Vatican said Friday it was concerned the bishop's policy conflicted with church law by not sufficiently protecting the due process rights of priests


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 04:52:02 PM

VATICAN
Vatican Rejects U.S. Church Policy on Sexually Abusive Priests
The New York Times
By FRANK BRUNI
ROME, Oct. 18 — The Vatican today rejected an aggressive American policy for dealing with sexually abusive priests, saying that elements in the new "zero-tolerance" approach presented conflicts with established, universal church law and needed to be changed.
The Vatican's negative response to the policy in its current form came in a letter to Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The letter was made public here today.
The carefully worded letter applauded those bishops' efforts to stamp out child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests, which plunged the church in the United States into crisis this year, but said that "further reflection on and revision of" the American policy were necessary.
It made clear that the Vatican was not endorsing the policy. American church leaders had been looking for such an endorsement in order to bind all American bishops to follow the policy. Without that approval, bishops cannot be compelled to do so.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 11:37:50 AM

VATICAN
Vatican Withholds Full Endorsement on Abuse Policy
The New York Times
By FRANK BRUNI with LAURIE GOODSTEIN
ROME, Oct. 17 — The Vatican is not fully backing some of the American bishops' stricter prescriptions for punishing sexually abusive priests and has expressed deep concern that the bishops went too far in devising their abuse policy in Dallas last summer, according to Roman Catholic officials familiar with a formal Vatican response to be released on Friday.
Those officials said that the Vatican had reservations about several aspects of the bishops' zero-tolerance policy, which mandated the removal from active ministry of any priest who sexually abused a child, including its lack of a statute of limitations and its broad definition of child sexual abuse.
In addition, the officials said, the Vatican believes the policy may lead to the removal of some priests without due process. They said the Vatican also had qualms about the policy's requirement that American bishops report all sexual abuse claims to the police.





posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 09:48:30 AM

VATICAN
Bishops' pact worries Vatican
Pope concerned sexual abuse policy goes too far, sources say
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
New York Times, Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: Oct. 17, 2002
Rome - The Vatican is not fully backing some of the American bishops' stricter prescriptions for punishing sexually abusive priests, and has expressed deep concern that the bishops went too far in devising their abuse policy in Dallas last summer, according to Roman Catholic officials familiar with a formal Vatican response to be released today.
Those officials said that the Vatican has reservations about several aspects of the bishops' zero-tolerance policy, which mandated the removal from active ministry of any priest who sexually abuses a child, including the policy's lack of a statute of limitations, and its broad definition of child sexual abuse.
In addition, the officials said, the Vatican believed the policy might lead to the removal of some priests without due process.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 09:22:45 AM

MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL (MN)
Woman seeks sex-abuse settlement with Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
Star Tribune
Pam Louwagie
Star Tribune
Published Oct 18, 2002 ABUS18
The lawsuit is detailed on paper and ready to go, but lawyers for a woman who claims that a priest sexually abused her as a child are asking the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to negotiate a broad settlement before they file the suit.
Sent to the chancery Thursday morning, the suit claims that archdiocese leaders were unresponsive 2 1/2 years ago when Anne Bonse of Glenwood City, Wis., went to the archdiocese after seeing something on television that sparked her memory of abuse. She said the Rev. Gilbert Gustafson abused her from 1977 to 1982, when she was 5 to 10 years old, at her Catholic school in White Bear Lake, in her family's home and while on vacation.
Bonse, now 30, said in a news conference that she felt "revictimized" by how archdiocese leaders reacted when she told them of the abuse that occurred at St. Mary of the Lake parish.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 09:07:49 AM

BALTIMORE (MD)
Man found competent to stand trial in shooting of priest
Stokes' lawyer seeks time to review evaluation; court date moved to Dec. 10
Baltimore Sun
By Allison Klein
Sun Staff
Originally published October 18, 2002
Dontee D. Stokes, who is accused of shooting a city priest over alleged sexual abuse, has been found competent to stand trial by state psychiatrists, Stokes' lawyer said yesterday.
His lawyer, Warren A. Brown, asked for a postponement of his trial, which was scheduled to begin next week in Baltimore Circuit Court, saying he needed time to review the evaluation. The trial is set to begin Dec. 10.
"We don't necessarily agree with these conclusions," Brown said of the evaluation performed by state psychiatrists.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 09:01:02 AM

VATICAN
Vatican balks at policy on sex abuse
Rome says U.S. bishops override rights of priests as stated in church law; Pope outlines concerns in letter
Baltimore Sun
By John Rivera
Sun Staff
Originally published October 18, 2002
The Vatican has rejected at least part of a proposed policy on child sexual abuse adopted by the U.S. Catholic bishops in June because it conflicts with the rights of priests protected by church law, according to church sources.
Vatican officials are expected to announce today that they have refused to approve parts of the policy that infringe on the rights of priests to due process contained in the Code of Canon Law, the regulations that govern the billion-member Roman Catholic Church, according to reports by the Associated Press and The New York Times.
Pope John Paul II met with officials from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops yesterday in Rome and handed Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the conference, a two-page letter outlining his concerns, sources told the news outlets.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 08:59:08 AM

VATICAN
Vatican disagrees with U.S. reforms
Portland Press-Herald
From staff and wire reports
VATICAN CITY - Elements of the toughened sex abuse policy approved by U.S. Roman Catholic bishops have been rejected at the Vatican, which has warned American prelates about going ahead with some reforms, church sources familiar with the Holy See's response said Thursday.
The Vatican is particularly concerned that some parts of the policy would violate the individual rights of accused clerics now protected under church law, the sources said.
Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and other American prelates met Thursday with Pope John Paul II to discuss the abuse crisis. The Vatican response will be made public today.
Victims' groups in the United States were outraged, and said this shows the church - despite being wracked by scandal - is still more concerned about sheltering molester priests than helping children. But an organization representing American clerics said priests deserve every right to defend themselves against abuse claims.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 08:55:07 AM LOUISVILLE (KY)
Church lawyers saw trouble, expert says
The Courier-Journal
By Deborah Yetter
dyetter@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Church lawyers throughout the country suspected the Vatican may have trouble with several areas of the U.S. Catholic Church's get-tough policy on priests who sexually abuse children, according to a local expert on church law.
A key issue is the area of canon law known as prescriptions -- also described as a statute of limitations -- for punishing priests for offenses, said the Very Rev. J. Mark Spalding, head of the canon law office of the Archdiocese of Louisville.
Spalding just returned from a national conference on canon law where he said lawyers from around the country raised questions about prescriptions under the new policy as well as other due process rights church law affords priests.
"For these reasons it has been judged appropriate that before the 'recognitio' (Vatican approval) can be granted, a further reflection on and revision of the `Norms' and the `Charter' are necessary," the Vatican response said.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 08:51:45 AM

CHICAGO
Vatican riles victims groups
Chicago Sun-Times
October 18, 2002
BY VICTOR L. SIMPSON
The Vatican on Friday rejected the U.S. Roman Catholic Church's new sexual abuse policy, saying the sweeping zero-tolerance crackdown needed to be revised because elements conflict with universal church law.
While supporting the U.S. bishops' efforts to stamp out clergy abuse, the Vatican said the policy contained provisions that were "difficult to reconcile" with church law, were difficult to interpret and left open procedural questions that needed to be resolved.
"For these reasons it has been judged appropriate that before the 'recognitio' (Vatican approval) can be granted, a further reflection on and revision of the 'Norms' and the 'Charter' are necessary," the Vatican response said.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 08:40:39 AM

ATLANTA (GA)
Judge pleads for compliance from subdued Allen
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By JILL YOUNG MILLER
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
The Rev. Arthur Allen Jr. sat at the defense table Thursday looking stunned.
He had just been convicted of cruelty to children and sentenced to 10 years, with 90 days in jail and the rest on probation.
Court was adjourned. The room, which House of Prayer members had packed for the verdict, was emptying.
It's unusual for a judge to seek out a defendant after he has been sentenced. But Judge T. Jackson Bedford walked across the courtroom to the 70-year-old pastor and bent to talk to him in a soft voice.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 08:37:38 AM

ATLANTA (GA)
Church members sent to jail for whipping kids
House of Prayer pastor says he'll follow the Bible
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By STEVE VISSER and JILL YOUNG MILLER
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writers
The outspoken Rev. Arthur Allen Jr. was noncommittal Thursday after a jury convicted him and four followers of cruelty to children for whippings at his church.
Asked if he would follow a judge's order to stop advising parents to whip disobedient children, Allen said, "I'm going to follow the Ten Commandments," and would say no more.
The 70-year-old House of Prayer pastor -- who has often quoted the Bible to justify the whippings -- faced the possibility of up to 20 years in prison. He stood with hunched shoulders as Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford sentenced him to 90 days in jail and 10 years of probation.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 08:34:58 AM

VATICAN
Pope expected to tell bishops to ease sex-abuse policy
The Washington Times
By Larry Witham
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Vatican is expected today to tell the U.S. Catholic bishops to revise their tough new norms against sexual misconduct by priests to give more protection to accused clerics, as required in the church's canon law. Top Stories
Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. bishops, will announce Pope John Paul II's decision at a news conference today at the North American College outside the Vatican.
Vatican sources are telling news organizations that John Paul will, in effect, reject or delay official sanction of the policy the U.S. bishops approved at the June meeting in Dallas until they guarantee that priests will not be railroaded or wrongly disgraced in the rush to stop the sexual-abuse crisis.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 08:27:14 AM

US Catholics need answers on sex abuse
Boston Globe
By John L. Allen, Jr., 10/18/2002
BISHOPS WILTON Gregory and William Skylstad, president and vice president of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops, are in Rome this week making the rounds of Vatican offices. At the top of the agenda is Vatican reaction to the ''zero tolerance'' norms for sex abuse adopted in Dallas by the American bishops.
Some details of the Vatican's reaction to the US bishops have already been reported, and the full response will be released this morning in Rome.
As reporters and analysts begin to digest the response, the Vatican and the US bishops owe American Catholics detailed and clear answers as to what exactly it means and where we go from here. This is not an abstract theological debate that can be permitted to ''mature,'' to use a favorite Vatican phrase, before definitive answers are given. The rights of both victims and accused are at stake.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 08:15:16 AM

HARTFORD (CT)
Archdiocese Questioned On Priest
New Britain Cleric Accused Of Molestation Kept His Ministry, Disappeared
Hartford Courant
October 18, 2002
By ELIZABETH HAMILTON And HELEN UBINAS, Courant Staff Writers
New information suggests that church and law enforcement officials in Connecticut were told in August that a New Britain priest was wanted in Costa Rica on molestation charges, yet allowed him to continue ministering until his disappearance last week.
The Rev. Enrique Vasquez, who fled Costa Rica in 1998 as prosecutors there were putting together a criminal case against him, disappeared from St. Mary Parish in New Britain on Oct. 10, seven weeks after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford first learned of the outstanding arrest warrant, according to a diocesan source.
The source also said the archdiocese allowed Vasquez to leave on a previously scheduled monthlong vacation to Mexico on Sept. 4 after receiving a copy of the warrant a week earlier. In addition, Vasquez was allowed to celebrate Mass several times upon returning from his vacation this month.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 07:42:20 AM

BOSTON (MA)
Priests welcome news of Vatican's concerns
Springfield Union-News
By RON DePASQUALE
The Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) -- Catholic priests, claiming their rights have been trampled in the rush to remove predatory clerics, welcomed the news that the Vatican would reject part of the U.S. Bishops' new sex abuse policy out of concern for them.
Victims' advocates, however, said the decision would only further erode survivors' trust in the church.
The Boston Priests Forum, to which less than half of the archdiocese's 600 priests belong, gathered Friday in preparation for long-awaited meetings with Cardinal Bernard F. Law on Tuesday and Wednesday. Civil and church lawyers were invited to teach priests their legal rights.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 07:30:09 AM

VATICAN
Vatican objects to many rules on 'zero tolerance'
Boston Globe
By Daniel Williams and Alan Cooperman, Washington Post, 10/18/2002
ROME - The Vatican opposes many of the ''zero tolerance'' rules that US bishops fashioned in an effort to quickly remove priests who are accused of sexually abusing minors, Vatican officials said yesterday. The rules need revision to achieve ''harmonization'' with church law and practices, one official said.
While the Holy See strongly supports firm action against sexual misconduct, officials said, it is concerned that the bishops' policy might allow priests to fall prey to false accusations and that internal canon law about due process was being summarily thrown out.
The Vatican decision was contained in a two-page letter handed out by Pope John Paul II yesterday to three top Roman Catholic leaders in the United States: Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop William Skylstad, the conference's vice president, and Monsignor William Fay, secretary general.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 07:23:17 AM
VATICAN
Vatican rejects US clerical abuse policy, saying revisions necessary
Boston.com
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, 10/18/02
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican on Friday rejected the U.S. Roman Catholic Church's new sexual abuse policy, saying the sweeping zero-tolerance crackdown needed to be revised because elements conflict with universal church law.
While supporting the U.S. bishops' efforts to stamp out clergy abuse, the Vatican said the policy contained provisions that were "difficult to reconcile" with church law, were difficult to interpret and left open procedural questions that needed to be resolved.
"For these reasons it has been judged appropriate that before the 'recognitio' (Vatican approval) can be granted, a further reflection on and revision of the `Norms' and the `Charter' are necessary," the Vatican response said.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 07:19:49 AM US Catholics need answers on sex abuse
Boston Globe
By John L. Allen, Jr.
Bishop Wilton Gregory and William Skylstad, president and vice president of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops, are in Rome this week making the rounds of Vatican offices. At the top of the agenda is Vatican reaction to the ''zero tolerance'' norms for sex abuse adopted in Dallas by the American bishops.
Some details of the Vatican's reaction to the US bishops have already been reported, and the full response will be released this morning in Rome.
As reporters and analysts begin to digest the response, the Vatican and the US bishops owe American Catholics detailed and clear answers as to what exactly it means and where we go from here. This is not an abstract theological debate that can be permitted to ''mature,'' to use a favorite Vatican phrase, before definitive answers are given. The rights of both victims and accused are at stake.

posted by Tom Fox on 10/18/2002 06:55:59 AM

BOSTON (MA)
Proposed change of policy draws mixed reviews
Boston Herald
by Robin Washington
The Vatican's likely altering of the American bishops' proposed clergy sex abuse policy sparked mixed reactions yesterday, with victims' advocates expressing disapproval while supporters of priests favored it.
Yet few observers said they were surprised by the predicted ruling, including Bill Gately, local co-coordinator of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, who said he was more frustrated than disappointed by it.
``I'm frustrated because I'm curious whether or not the bishops consulted a canon lawyer before announcing their plans,'' he said. ``If they (did), why did they suggest they would implement something that couldn't be permitted by Rome?''




posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 04:44:40 AM

U.S. bishops' guidelines sweeping, controversial
Boston Herald
After days of sometimes intense meetings in the ballroom of a Dallas hotel this June, U.S. bishops agreed on guidelines for dealing with priests accused of sexual abuse. Those guidelines, some of which have been shot down by the Vatican, call on dioceses to:
Provide counseling and other social services for victims.
Establish mechanisms to respond quickly to allegations.
Set up boards of lay people to review allegations.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 04:42:47 AM
VATICAN
Vatican expected to frown on plan
Boston Herald
by Eric Convey and Robin Washington
Friday, October 18, 2002
An expected move by the Vatican today to shoot down important components of the U.S. sex abuse policy crafted by bishops at a landmark June meeting in Dallas has angered and frustrated victim advocates.
``We're almost back to square one,'' said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
``Every bishop will decide for himself how to handle abuse allegations,'' Clohessy said. ``For 12 or 15 years, we've been told there is no national policy, there can be no national policy, and our fear is that we're seeing that in fact that's true - which will mean that all of the grandiose promises of Dallas ring pretty hollow.''



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 04:40:44 AM
One survivor tells a tale of triumph
Boston Herald
by Margery Eagan
Thursday, October 17, 2002
Phil Saviano still remembers ``the coolness of the dark church basement; the smell of his sickly, sweet cologne; the beads of sweat on his forehead; the force of his hands around my skinny wrist, the sense of being completely trapped.''
He remembers delivering the evening Worcester newspaper to the old Victorian rectory where Father David Holley, with those thick horn-rims, would joke with him. Sometimes he'd visit Sunday school and thrill the children by making fun of the nun behind her back.


posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/18/2002 04:23:23 AM

SOUTHBRIDGE (MA)
Bishop asks public support for priests
The Catholic Free Press
By Tanya Connor
SOUTHBRIDGE – “Don’t treat your priests and your bishop like they’re things,” Bishop Reilly implored at a dinner aimed at showing solidarity with clergy Friday.
“What difference does it make?” he asked, imitating what some people say. “We can knock them down.” But, he said, the world would be a lot more empty without them.
Apparently addressing issues raised by the clergy sexual abuse scandal, he spoke of the authority of Christ and the bishop and of his own humanity. He urged public support for priests.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 04:23:06 AM

A theology of the laity, and the future of ministry
By Rev. Thomas P. Rausch, SJ
The Tidings
One of the most significant accomplishments of the Second Vatican Council was its articulation of a theology of the laity.
In the centuries since the Council of Trent, the clericalizing and centralizing of the church reduced the laity for all intensive purposes to passive members. A movement in the decades prior to Vatican II described the "lay apostolate" as "the collaboration of the laity in the apostolic tasks proper to the hierarchy," language which suggested that the mission or apostolate of the church really belonged to the hierarchy. Or as the old joke had it, if the bishops' role was to "teach, rule and sanctify," that of the laity was to "pray, pay and obey."


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 04:20:16 AM

IRELAND
Cardinal under pressure to answer questions on sex abuse allegations
Irish Independent
CARDINAL Desmond Connell is under severe pressure today to answer further questions about allegations that he concealed details of sex abuse cases.
A Canon lawyer specialising in dealing with abuse by clergy has dubbed Dublin one of the worst cities in the world for the covering-up of clerical child abuse.
A diocese spokesman said there would be no comment until after the Cardinal had seen the 'Prime Time' documentary in which the allegations were made. The programme screened last night detailed the abuses committed by eight priests in the Dublin diocese over a period of four decades. 'Cardinal Secrets' accused Dublin Archbishop Connell of:
Initially covering up the defrocking of two priests after internal inquiries had found them guilty of sexual abuse.
Failing to give information he had about them when allegations were being investigated.
Writing a "clean" reference for a priest accused of child sex abuse.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/18/2002 04:14:51 AM

Thursday, October 17, 2002

BELLEVUE (WA)
' A Real Charmer '
How a priest accused of pedophilia became a Bellevue psychotherapist.
Seattle Weekly
BY NINA SHAPIRO
JIM BITEMAN recalls that he was an eighth-grader at St. Paul's parish school in South Seattle when Father Patrick O'Donnell pulled him out of class and brought him down to the church's basement cafeteria to ask a few questions. According to Biteman, the young priest said he was conducting research for his psychology studies at the University of Washington--research that would be ruined if Biteman disclosed the conversation to classmates, who also were to be questioned.
Biteman says he faced a bank of windows while the priest sat behind him and proceeded to ask questions. O'Donnell asked him to picture himself naked in a mirror, then touching himself, then touching another boy in class. "This would go on for about 15 minutes," Biteman says. In one of the two or three such sessions he had with O'Donnell, Biteman says, he happened to look back and see that the priest's legs were apart, his hand between them.


posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/17/2002 04:42:32 PM VATICAN
Sources: Vatican Nixes Abuse Policy
Yahoo! News
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer
VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican (news - web sites) has rejected some elements of the U.S. Catholic Church's new sex abuse policy and cautioned the American bishops from going ahead with them, Church sources familiar with the response said Thursday.
In particular, the Vatican expressed concern over elements of the proposed policy that would violate the individual rights of accused clerics now protected under universal church law, the sources said.


posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/17/2002 04:30:01 PM

VATICAN
Vatican: Bishops' sex abuse policy needs more work
CNN.com
VATICAN CITY (CNN) -- The Vatican will not approve an agreement reached by U.S. bishops on how to deal with priests accused of pedophilia because of conflicts with canon law, sources said Thursday.
But Vatican officials will work with bishops to come up with a resolution that satisfies calls for changes in church policy on the issue and remains true to church law, sources said.
The sources said Pope John Paul II spelled out his objections to the American agreement in a two-page letter given to Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, during a Thursday meeting between the two men.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/17/2002 04:29:36 PM
BOSTON (MA)
Archdiocese loses appeal to keep records on priests from plaintiffs
Boston Herald
by Tom Mashberg and Robin Washington
Thursday, October 17, 2002
On the last day of Bernard Cardinal Law's sworn deposition in the Rev. Paul R. Shanley civil case, the state Appeals Court dealt a further blow to the Archdiocese of Boston yesterday by rejecting its bid to withhold documents on 85 priests accused of child sexual abuse.
In response, the lawyer for the plaintiffs said he would ask a judge today to order the records surrendered to him immediately. ``It is a simple matter for the church to produce this material,'' said Roderick MacLeish Jr., lead counsel for six alleged victims of Shanley suing the archdiocese.
Church lawyers said they would not appeal. ``We will start bringing out the documents one day at a time,'' said J. Owen Todd, Law's personal attorney.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/17/2002 01:35:40 PM

VATICAN
Vatican Rejects Parts Of Sex Abuse Policy
Concerns Raised Over Rights Of Priests
TheBostonChannel.com
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican has rejected some elements of the U.S. Catholic Church's new sex abuse policy and cautioned the American bishops from going ahead with them, church sources familiar with the response said Thursday.
In particular, the Vatican expressed concern over the proposed policy that would violate the individual rights of accused clerics now protected under universal church law, the sources said.
The response will be made public Friday, a day after top American prelates met with Pope John Paul II to discuss the scandal that has rocked the American Church.
All along, Vatican officials and U.S. church lawyers have raised objections to the proposals, arguing that they may violate the due process rights of priests.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/17/2002 01:29:31 PM

ATLANTA (GA)
House of Prayer jury says it's 'fairly close'
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By JILL YOUNG MILLER
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Jurors in the House of Prayer case will continue their deliberations Thursday morning after telling the judge Wednesday afternoon that they were "fairly close" to reaching a verdict in the case.
Shortly after 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Fulton Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford asked the jurors to come into the courtroom and report on the progress of their deliberation, which was in its third day.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/17/2002 08:24:56 AM
WORCESTER
Diocese to depose former Sime lawyer
Telegram & Gazette
By Richard Nangle
Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER-- The Catholic Diocese of Worcester will be taking the deposition next week of a lawyer who once represented a man who claims he was molested by Auxiliary Bishop George E. Rueger.
James J. Gribouski, of Worcester, will be deposed on Oct. 25 at the offices of diocesan lawyer James G. Reardon.
Mr. Gribouski represented Sime Braio, of Shrewsbury, prior to Mr. Braio's decision to file a lawsuit against both the diocese and Bishop Rueger because of the alleged sexual abuse.


posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/17/2002 08:00:06 AM

BOSTON (MA)
Archdiocese loses appeal on documents
Boston Globe
By Ralph Ranalli and Matt Carroll, Globe Staff, 10/17/2002
A lawyer for the Archdiocese of Boston said the church will soon begin turning over more than 50 years worth of church records, files that contain all ''credible claims'' of sexual misconduct by priests, after a state appellate judge yesterday rejected the church's bid to keep the records secret.
Appeals Court Judge Kenneth Laurence denied an appeal of a Superior Court judge's order last month that the church give lawyers for alleged victims of the Rev. Paul R. Shanley documents showing how the archdiocese handled claims against about 87 other priests, 15 of whom are now dead.
J. Owen Todd, a Boston attorney representing the archdiocese, said that Laurence suggested in his order that some documents could be deemed privileged under rules governing civil cases in state court. ''We will begin going through them and figuring out which ones are privileged,'' Todd said. ''Then we will start turning over documents.''



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/17/2002 07:51:21 AM
BOSTON (MA)
In suit, three ex-alter boys allege sex abuse
Boston Globe
By Kathleen Burge, Globe Staff, 10/17/2002
Three more former altar boys are suing former Charlestown priest Robert M. Burns and the Archdiocese of Boston, saying they were sexually abused by Burns after church officials had been warned that he was a pedophile.
Despite that warning from an Ohio bishop, and ignoring their own promise to keep Burns away from young boys, officials in the Boston Archdiocese assigned Burns in about 1986 to teach a class to prospective altar boys, the lawsuit charges.
And while Ohio church officials refused to give Burns another assignment, Boston officials sent him to two parishes: St. Thomas Aquinas in Jamaica Plain and St. Mary's in Charlestown.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/17/2002 07:49:34 AM
BOSTON (MA)
Concerned priests try to rediscover voice
Boston Globe
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff, 10/17/2002
They are demoralized and fearful after 10 months of headlines about clergy sex abuse, but Boston's priests are also, increasingly, regaining their voice.
At a series of gatherings over the next week, they said, they plan to vent their concerns and discuss how to protect their rights, even as they mourn for the victims of some of their fellow priests and fume at the mishandling of the scandal by church leaders.
Tomorrow, the Boston Priests Forum, which said it represents about 300 priests, or more than half the active priests in the archdiocese, will bring in canon and civil lawyers to offer tips to local priests about how to respond if accused of abusing minors.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/17/2002 07:46:27 AM

Wednesday, October 16, 2002



BOSTON (MA)
Judge rules archdiocese must turn over internal documents, denies appeal
Boston.com
By Ron DePasquale, Associated Press, 10/16/02
BOSTON -- A state Appeals Court judge ruled Wednesday that the Archdiocese of Boston must turn over the internal records of 85 priests facing allegations of sexual abuse.
The ruling by Appeals Court Justice Kenneth Laurence came on the same day that the archdiocese appealed the three-week-old order. Attorneys for the plaintiffs and the archdiocese said they were informed of the ruling by phone on Wednesday.
J. Owen Todd, Cardinal Bernard Law's attorney, said he hadn't seen the court order yet, but said he could comply with it.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/16/2002 11:43:11 PM

BROCKTON (MA)
Priest pleads innocent to child rape charge
Boston Herald
Associated Press
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
BROCKTON, Mass. - A priest accused of raping an 8-year-old boy in the 1980s pleaded innocent at his arraignment Wednesday.
The Rev. John P. Lyons, 74, is charged with one count of rape of a child and four counts of possession of a firearm or ammunition without a proper identification card.
Prosecutors allege that Lyons raped the boy between 1987 and 1989 at the St. Rose Lima Church in Rochester.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/16/2002 06:34:39 PM

CANADA
Ex-nun's fate rests with judge
Canada.com
The Ottawa Citizen
CHARLOTTETOWN -- The fate of 78-year-old Lucille Poulin rests with a Prince Edward Island judge who must decide whether the former nun crossed the line from religious fanatic to criminal child abuser.
Defence and prosecution lawyers summed up their cases before Justice David Jenkins of the P.E.I. Supreme Court yesterday, ending a sensational trial that has probed the boundaries of religious freedom and corporal punishment of children.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/16/2002 11:09:58 AM

BOSTON (MA)
Judge rips archdiocese delay on Shanley case documents
Boston Herald
by Tom Mashberg
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
A Superior Court judge chided the Archdiocese of Boston yesterday for dilly-dallying over the production of documents in a lawsuit stemming from the Rev. Paul R. Shanley sexual abuse case, saying she ``will not be part of what I perceive as an effort to delay discovery.''
Judge Constance M. Sweeney grudgingly granted lawyers for the church a brief stay, until today, while they appealed her 3-week-old order that they deliver internal records on some 85 priests to Shanley's accusers. The church said yesterday it would bring the matter before a single justice of the state Appeals Court by today.
But in granting the delay, Sweeney sternly rapped the knuckles of the archdiocese and its counsel for what she described as a pattern of stalling until the last minute before appealing her adverse rulings.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/16/2002 10:07:15 AM

NEW YORK
Priest-sex suit
seeks $300M
Diocese of B'klyn hit
Daily News
By BARBARA ROSS and DAVE GOLDINER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
A new $300 million lawsuit accuses top Brooklyn Diocese church leaders of "aiding and abetting" priests who allegedly molested 42 children over four decades.
The suit - filed yesterday in Queens Supreme Court - claims that Bishop Thomas Daily, his predecessor and a top aide covered up child-sex charges and shuffled accused priests from parish to parish without warning parents.
One Queens priest allegedly fondled dozens of boys and girls on the steps of the altar, in a parish school and even in a luxury box at Shea Stadium, the suit claims.





posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/16/2002 09:50:20 AM

NEW YORK
Brooklyn Diocese Sued
Group alleges sexual abuse, seeks $300M
Newsday
By Stephanie Saul
STAFF WRITER
October 16, 2002
The leaders of the Brooklyn Diocese covered up widespread sexual abuse for three decades, according to a massive lawsuit filed yesterday by 43 men and women who say they were abused by Catholic clergy as children growing up in Queens and Brooklyn.
The suit names 12 priests and a religious brother as perpetrators of the abuse, which the plaintiffs say ranged from kissing and fondling to violent rape.
No place was too holy for the sexual predators, the suit claims, alleging the abuse took place on altars as well as in sacristies, bell towers, rectories, unused stairwells and church basements.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/16/2002 09:45:30 AM

BOSTON (MA)
Mental health advocates to lead priest abuse survivor group
Boston Herald
by Tom Mashberg
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Two veteran mental health advocates are set to take the reins of a New England group that has won national recognition for its work aiding clergy abuse victims, the group's director said yesterday.
Phil Saviano, who has headed the regional chapter of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests since its founding in 1997, said he was leaving his post to pursue other interests.
Ann Hagan Webb of Wellesley and William Gately of Plymouth will direct the group as regional coordinators. As with Saviano, both are victims of clergy abuse.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/16/2002 09:37:40 AM

BOSTON (MA)
Funds offered to cardinal, on condition
Boston Globe
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff, 10/16/2002
Voice of the Faithful said yesterday it has offered $56,000 to Cardinal Bernard F. Law, with the provision that the money be spent on local Catholic ministries, and not on Law's own administration.
Law has previously said he would not accept money raised by Voice of the Faithful, but his spokeswoman, Donna M. Morrissey, said yesterday that she would not comment on the actual offer until the cardinal has received and reviewed it.
The money is being offered to Law through the National Catholic Community Foundation, a Maryland-based organization that helps philanthropists route money to Catholic causes. Voice of the Faithful, a Newton-based lay group formed by Catholics upset over the clergy sex abuse crisis, raised the money from Catholics unwilling to give directly to Law, and asked the foundation to disburse the money.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/16/2002 09:33:23 AM

BOSTON (MA)
Judge chides church for delays in Shanley documents
Boston.com
By Associated Press, 10/16/02
BOSTON -- A Superior Court judge chided the Archdiocese of Boston for delays in turning over documents in a civil sex abuse lawsuit against the Rev. Paul Shanley.
Judge Constance Sweeney gave church lawyers until Wednesday to appeal her three-week-old order to turn over the internal records of 85 priests to Shanley's accusers, saying she "will not be part of what I perceive as an effort to delay discovery."
The archdiocese said it would bring its appeal before a single justice of the Appeals Court by Wednesday.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/16/2002 09:30:04 AM

BROOKLYN (NY)
Suit Says 42 Were Abused by Clergymen
The New York Times
By ANTHONY DePALMA
A lawyer representing 42 adults who say Roman Catholic clergy members in Brooklyn groped, raped and abused them when they were children filed a civil complaint in State Supreme Court yesterday.
The suit, against 12 priests, one religious brother and the Diocese of Brooklyn, is thought to be one of the largest clergy sex abuse cases brought in the state in the number of victims and clergy members.
The plaintiffs, most of them former altar boys, relate a litany of sexual abuse that they say took place over decades in churches and rectories and on weekend retreats.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/16/2002 09:20:52 AM MILWAUKEE
Priests' victims will have their say
Dolan, advocates to be on panel at 2 sessions
Milwaukee Journal
By TOM HEINEN
theinen@journalsentinel.com
Oct. 14, 2002
Local survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests will get what are being termed unprecedented opportunities next week to tell their stories and question a panel that will include Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann, two nationally known victims' advocates and other experts.
Two sessions will be held for victims, their families and supporters: one, closed to the general public but open to the news media, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Oct. 22, and a private session from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Oct. 26. Both sessions will include the panel and will be at the Midwest Express Center in downtown Milwaukee.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/16/2002 05:00:59 AM

Tuesday, October 15, 2002



NEW YORK
Dozens sue Brooklyn Diocese, alleging decades of sex abuse
Boston.com
By Sara Kugler, Associated Press, 10/15/02
NEW YORK -- More than 40 adults who say they were sexually abused as children sued 13 priests and the Brooklyn diocese on Tuesday, and accused top clergy of a massive coverup dating back more than 50 years.
The $300 million lawsuit, filed by lawyer Michael Dowd in state Supreme Court in Queens, alleges that the diocesan priests abused at least 43 children from 1960 to 1984, and that the diocese tried to hide the attacks by transferring priests from parish to parish.
The alleged attacks ranged from fondling to sodomy and occurred on church altars, in rectories, school stairwells, priests' homes and -- in one alleged case -- at Shea Stadium during a Mets game. Several of the alleged victims said priests also forced them to look at pornography.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/15/2002 09:22:56 PM

BOSTON (MA)
Head of New England chapter of SNAP steps down
Boston.com
By Associated Press, 10/15/02
BOSTON -- The director of the New England chapter of the Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests, an organization that has become the most prominent advocates for clergy abuse victims, resigned Tuesday.
Phil Saviano, who has headed the regional chapter since its founding in 1997, said he was leaving to pursue other professional and personal interests and to give others a chance to get involved.
The national support and advocacy group for victims of clergy abuse was founded in Chicago in 1990, and now has over 30 volunteer-staffed chapters across the United States and Canada.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/15/2002 09:20:21 PM

BOSTON (MA)
Catholic lay group, church at odds over donation
Boston.com
By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press, 10/15/02
BOSTON -- Tensions between Cardinal Bernard Law and a Catholic reform organization could come to a head this week when the group formally offers $56,000 in donations that Law has indicated he will reject.
Voice of the Faithful, a lay group formed in response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis, has collected the money over the last three months from parishioners who, because of the scandal, have decided to withhold donations from the Cardinal's Appeal, an annual fund-raising drive.
But Law, who has had a strained relationship with the group since it started in a Wellesley church basement in February, has indicated he will turn down the money.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/15/2002 09:17:52 PM

WORCESTER (MA)
Bishop Reilly plans council of laity, clergy
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Tuesday, October 15, 2002
By Kathleen A. Shaw
Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER-- Bishop Daniel P. Reilly is proposing a 25-member Diocesan Pastoral Council of laity, clergy and religious leaders to advise him on issues of concern to the diocese.
All members will be chosen by diocesan workers and will be approved by him, according to The Catholic Free Press.
Raymond L. Delisle, diocesan spokesman, said the plans are still taking shape and a lot of the details must be worked out.
Meanwhile, Mary Keville, spokeswoman for Voice of the Faithful, said she will be meeting with Bishop Reilly Thursday to discuss her organization and how members believe they can be of help to the diocese.
She said she was pleased that Bishop Reilly has a plan for more lay involvement in the diocese. “We in Voice of the Faithful would like to serve on the planning committee for the council,” she said. “We fully support all efforts at more lay involvement.”
Ms. Keville said Voice of the Faithful envisions a pastoral council to which representatives are “elected or selected” by their parishes or deaneries. Full representation would probably require more than 25 members, although the council should not be too large, she said.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/15/2002 09:15:19 AM

NORTH ANDOVER (MA)
Reversal of ban praised
The Eagle Tribune
By Kathie Neff-Ragsdale
Staff Writer
NORTH ANDOVER -- The prospect of renewed Voice of the Faithful meetings at St. Michael's Church drew pleased responses as well as brusque "no comments" from parishioners entering the church for yesterday's 6 p.m. Mass.
"I think it's great," said Frank Terranova of North Andover, a church member since 1958, referring to Cardinal Bernard F. Law's announcement Saturday that the reformist group can start meeting at the church again. "Who owns the church? We own the church."
Law's action came two weeks after the Most Rev. Emilio Allue, bishop of the Merrimack Valley, ordered the church's pastor, Rev. Paul Keyes, to stop allowing Voice of the Faithful to meet on church premises. Some 50 parishioners had complained to Allue that the group's presence was dividing the parish.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/15/2002 09:11:21 AM

WALTHAM (MA)
Waltham priest suspended over child sex abuse charge
Boston Herald
Herald staff
Tuesday, October 15, 2002
The Archdiocese of Boston last night suspended a Waltham parish priest from active ministry while officials review an allegation that he sexually abused a minor.
The Rev. Roger N. Jacques, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Waltham, was placed on administrative leave after archdiocesan officials received a complaint of a sexual assault on a minor that allegedly happened approximately 20 years ago, according to a statement released by the archdiocese.
The statement said the accusation was ``recently reported for the first time.''
``Pastoral and counseling support has been offered to both the person making the allegation and the accused priest,'' the statement said.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/15/2002 09:08:14 AM

WALTHAM (MA)
Waltham priest faces allegation
Boston Globe
By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff, 10/15/2002
Church officials for the Archdiocese of Boston yesterday announced that they have placed the pastor of a Waltham church on administrative leave while they investigate a 20-year-old allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor that surfaced recently.
The Rev. Roger N. Jacques, pastor of St. Joseph Parish on Main Street, was removed ''from all assignments'' pending the results of an investigation by the archdiocese, spokeswoman Donna M. Morrissey said in a written statement last night.
Church officials said they will turn details of the allegation over to the state attorney general's office within 48 hours, in accordance with an agreement reached between the archdiocese and law enforcement officials earlier this year.
''Our obligation as representatives of the Church and as a community, legally and morally, is to fully investigate all allegations of abuse of a minor,'' Morrissey said.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/15/2002 09:06:07 AM
BOSTON (MA)
Accused priests pose dilemma for church and public
Boston Globe
By Sacha Pfeiffer, Globe Staff, 10/15/2002
Until Paul W. Hurley was indicted on two counts of child rape in August, few of his neighbors on Old Fields Road in Sandwich knew that he is a priest, much less a priest on health leave facing allegations of sex abuse.
Nor were police in the Cape Cod town aware of Hurley until Boston police told them he was under investigation for allegedly paying a teenager for sex in the 1980s.
But Hurley, at least, was subject to prosecution.
Scores of priests in the Boston Archdiocese, and hundreds more nationwide, have been quietly forced out of ministry by church officials who feared they might pose a threat to parish children. Yet most of them, their crimes too old to prosecute, now live anonymously and unsupervised in communities where, according to experts, they may be at risk of reoffending.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/15/2002 09:04:06 AM
SAVERNA PARK (MD)
Archdiocese hosts forum about sexual abuse policy
The Capital
By MIKE UNGER, Staff Writer
They came to learn, to listen and to speak their mind.
A small but passionate group of about 15 Catholics gathered at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Severna Park last week for the Archdiocese of Baltimore's second of 10 "listening sessions" held across the state on its policy for priests accused of sexual abuse.
Opinions regarding the archdiocese's handling of the scandal ran the gamut.


posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/15/2002 08:05:26 AM
CATONSVILLE (MD)
In Catonsville, a parish copes with disclosures from its past
Archdiocese list named 56 accused of sex abuse; 6 had served at St. Mark
Baltimore Sun
By Gail Gibson and Laura Vozzella
Sun Staff
October 13, 2002
When Baltimore church officials released the long, detailed list last month, naming 56 priests accused of molesting children, the toll appeared greatest for a century-old parish in Catonsville that has been a bedrock in the region's Catholic community.
Of the priests named by the Baltimore Archdiocese, six had served at St. Mark Church - the greatest number with ties to a single parish.
The list of the accused brought the church scandal that erupted in Boston more than eight months ago uncomfortably close for a community so close-knit and so enduring that some church members refer to their home not as Catonsville, but as St. Mark's parish.


posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/15/2002 07:29:59 AM
SPOKANE
Prosecutor feels misled by allegations about priest
Seattle Times
By The Associated Press
SPOKANE — Former Spokane County Prosecutor Don Brockett wants to know why he wasn't informed about the alleged sexual predations of former Roman Catholic priest Patrick O'Donnell.
Brockett was prosecutor when Spokane Catholic bishops sent O'Donnell to treatment, rather than alerting law-enforcement agencies, for allegedly molesting boys in the 1970s and '80s.
Brockett feels doubly misled because his children spent time with O'Donnell when the priest was assigned to Spokane's Assumption of the Blessed Virgin parish.


posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/15/2002 07:19:17 AM
RICHMOND (CA)
Kiesle pleads not guilty to molestation
Pinole resident is accused of assaulting an altar boy, one of a string of charges against the former priest
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
By Karl Fischer
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Oct. 11, 2002
RICHMOND - A former Catholic priest has pleaded not guilty in Contra Costa Superior Court to charges he molested an altar boy in Pinole during the 1970s.
Pinole resident Stephen Kiesle was arraigned on two molestation charges Wednesday afternoon at the Richmond courthouse. The charges stem from an alleged assault on an 11- or 12-year-old who served at St. Joseph Church in 1975 and 1976.
The charges were the latest in a string of legal problems for the 55-year-old, whom Contra Costa authorities arrested in August.


posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/15/2002 07:17:33 AM

Monday, October 14, 2002

BOSTON
Child protection commission issues final report
The Pilot
By Meghan Dorney
After months of work, the Cardinal’s Commission for the Protection of Children confidently and enthusiastically submitted its final report to Cardinal Bernard Law on Oct. 7. The 52-page report calls for substantial policy and structural changes to promote the prevention of child abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston. (see full report in PDF format here).
“Our mission, from the point of view of our policy, is complete,” said Maureen Bateman, commission chair. “Today we delivered to the cardinal our final draft policy and he received it with great pleasure.”

Editorial: Another step in the right direction
The Pilot
This week, the Cardinal’s Commission for the Protection of Children submitted its final recommendations to our archbishop. After seven months of intense work, the commission’s efforts have resulted in a comprehensive response that will ultimately aid Cardinal Law in creating a new policy for the handling the allegations of sexual abuse of minors by clergy, which will replace the current policy enacted in 1993.
The commission was made up of 12 lay members, from a variety of fields and with expertise in issues related to sexual abuse of minors, including: social workers, educators, medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists and law enforcement officials.
Recognizing that there was no time to be wasted in addressing this issue, the archdiocese has already begun to implement some of the panel’s preliminary recommendations, in coordination with the commission.



posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/14/2002 09:02:39 PM

INDIANA
'We're still waiting'
It was more than 50 years ago that Michelle Locke says she was molested by Rev. William J. Ehrman.
The News Sentinel
By Kevin Leininger
of The News-Sentinel
On Sept. 28, 1963, Michelle Bennett and Bill Locke were married in the rectory of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in New Haven. But what should have been a joyous day was haunted by ghosts of the past for the bride, who claims to have been molested in the same room a decade earlier - by the very priest performing the ceremony.
Father William J. Ehrman died in 1983; the marriage, three years later. And if that were the end of Bennett's story, she would not be so determined to tell it today. But Bennett's ordeal lives on, she says, not only because of what one priest did 50 years ago, but because of what the church continues to do - or fails to do.
Included in Bennett's criticism is Bishop John D'Arcy of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese, who has received national praise for his efforts to stop sexual abuse by priests.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/14/2002 02:54:08 PM

BOSTON (MA)
Voice of Faithful defends its mission
Metrowest Daily News
By Tom Mashberg / Boston Herald
Monday, October 14, 2002
BOSTON - Responding to comments by Cardinal Bernard Law, the lay reform group Voice of the Faithful will send letters to Law and other U.S. bishops this week explaining its use of the phrase "to shape structural change in the Catholic Church" in its mission statement.
"We're amazed at the negative reaction by the hierarchy to that phrase," said Margaret Roylance of Newton, a chief organizer for VOTF's nine-person committee on the structural-change question.
"Our goal is meaningful engagement of the laity in the operations of the church," she said, "but always respecting those structures that are established by divine law."

posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/14/2002 08:48:38 AM

NEW BRITAIN (CT)
Accused Priest Leaves Church In New Britain
Removal By Archdiocese Follows Word Of Allegation In Costa Rica
Hartford Courant
October 14, 2002
Staff And Wire Reports
A Roman Catholic priest from Costa Rica has been removed from a New Britain church after the Archdiocese of Hartford learned in recent weeks of an allegation of sexual misconduct dating back several years in his native country, the archdiocese announced Sunday.
Authorities in Costa Rica have been searching for the Rev. Enrique Vasquez since 1999, when he disappeared amid allegations that he had molested a 10-year-old boy, the Associated Press reported.
Vasquez denied the charge when questioned about it by a Hartford archdiocese official in recent days.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/14/2002 08:15:21 AM

NORTH ANDOVER (MA)
Law reverses Voice of Faithful ban
The Eagle Tribune
By O'Ryan Johnson
Staff Writer
NORTH ANDOVER -- In his first direct acknowledgement of the Catholic lay group Voice of the Faithful, Cardinal Bernard F. Law yesterday regretted a lower bishop's decision barring the group from St. Michael's Parish, reopening church doors to the group.
"It was not my intent that the policy be applied to already existing chapters of Voice of the Faithful," he wrote in a letter to parishioners placed in a church bulletin at yesterday's 4 p.m. Mass. "In retrospect, I see now that the lack of sufficient clarity on my part is what led to the situation at St. Michael's Parish. I regret the ensuing difficulty St. Michael's Parish experienced receiving Bishop Allue's letter and the unfortunate reaction that has been directed towards Bishop Allue."
The Most Rev. Emilio Allue, bishop of the Merrimack Valley, had ordered the church's pastor, the Rev. Paul Keyes, to stop the group from using St. Michael's facilities for their meetings on Sept. 29, after 50 members of an opposition group -- Faithful Voice -- complained that Voice of the Faithful had divided the parish.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/14/2002 08:00:21 AM
WORCESTER
Newspaper to challenge church subpoena
Boston Globe
By Michael S. Rosenwald, Globe Staff, 10/14/2002
A lawyer for The New York Times Co. yesterday said the publisher will quickly move to quash a subpoena issued last week to a Worcester Telegram & Gazette reporter by the Worcester Diocese.
Kathleen A. Shaw, a religion reporter with the newspaper, which is owned by The New York Times Co., is scheduled to be deposed Nov. 11 in connection with sexual abuse allegations against Auxiliary Bishop George Rueger.




posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/14/2002 07:55:42 AM AUSTRALIA
Pell cleared of sex allegations
The Age
Sydney Catholic Archbishop George Pell has been cleared of allegations he molested a boy during a camp at Phillip Island, in Victoria, in 1961.
An inquiry by former judge Alec Southwell, QC, dismissed a complaint by a man who claimed he had been sexually abused on several occasions by Dr Pell.
Mr Southwell's report, posted on the Australian Catholic Church's website today, said he was "not satisfied that the complaint has been established" against Dr Pell.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/14/2002 07:13:35 AM
NEWARK
Members say lay group not anti-Catholic
NorthJersey.com
Saturday, October 12, 2002
By JOHN CHADWICK
Staff Writer
Newark Archbishop John J. Myers describes them as a group with a decidedly anti-Catholic agenda.
But members of the national lay group, Voice of the Faithful, say they're devoted Catholics who want to help the church in its time of crisis.
Spurred on by the church sexual-abuse scandal, a fledgling North Jersey chapter of VOTF has met twice in Morris County.
"We're not looking to tear anything down,'' said Ann Zouvelekis, a co-founder of the chapter, and a former religion instructor for six years in her parish in Hanover. "We want to build the church back up.''


posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/14/2002 07:04:38 AM
DuPAGE COUNTY (IL)
Second grand jury resumes church probe
Birkett: Criminal charges against Imesch unfeasible
Daily Southtown
Friday, October 11, 2002
By Allison Hantschel
Staff writer
Joliet Bishop Joseph Imesch cannot be held accountable in a criminal court for any crimes his priests may have committed, according to DuPage County authorities investigating clerical misconduct in the Joliet diocese.
"Bishop Imesch cannot be charged with anything, and he's not a target" of any investigation, DuPage State's Attorney Joe Birkett said Thursday. "There's not an allegation that he committed a crime."
Imesch has been under fire for more than six months after allegations surfaced that he transferred several priests accused of misconduct to new ministries where they again had access to children. Two of those priests were accused of molesting more children at their new assignments.


posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/14/2002 06:59:17 AM
AMARILLO (TX)
Ranger gathers allegations against priest
Amarillo Globe-News
By Greg Cunningham
gcunningham@amarillonet.com
SILVERTON - The investigation of a 73-year-old priest arrested last week in connection with the alleged molestation of a child has yielded new allegations of sexual impropriety, some dating back decades.
Texas Ranger Jay Foster said Friday that he has received calls over the past few days from people who claim that Edward R. Graff engaged in sexual contact with them as early as the late 1950s when he was a priest in Allentown, Pa.


posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/14/2002 06:57:53 AM
LOS ANGELES
Accused Ex-Priest Is Denied Cut in Bail
LOS ANGLES TIMES
October 10, 2002
By ANNA GORMAN
A Superior Court commissioner refused to lower the $1-million bail Wednesday for a former Roman Catholic priest accused of molesting seven girls between 1947 and 1976.
G. Neville Rucker, 82, appeared in a wheelchair in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom to be arraigned on the charges, but the hearing was postponed until Nov. 6. Commissioner Jeffrey M. Harkavy said he would consider bail again next week once he had more information about the former priest's finances.

posted by Bill Mitchell on 10/14/2002 06:54:43 AM

Sunday, October 13, 2002

WORCESTER (MA)
Church subpoenas Worcester reporter
Boston.com
By Associated Press, 10/13/2002 21:16
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) The Worcester Diocese has subpoenaed a local reporter to answer questions about sexual abuse allegations against a auxiliary bishop in the Catholic church.
Kathleen A. Shaw, a religion reporter for the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, is scheduled to be deposed Nov. 11 in the case of auxiliary Bishop George Rueger.
Harry T. Whitin, editor of the Telegram & Gazette, told the publication that lawyers for the newspaper are working to quash the subpoena.
''We object strenuously to this obvious `fishing expedition' for information gathered by our reporter,'' he said, ''and we intend to challenge it fully.''


posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/13/2002 10:13:41 PM

VATICAN
Cardinal expects Vatican will grant US church waiver to enact hard-line sex abuse policy
Boston Herald
Associated Press
Sunday, October 13, 2002
ROME - An American cardinal said Sunday he expects Pope John Paul II will grant the U.S. Church a waiver from church law so it can implement its new clerical abuse policy without conflicting with canon code.
The comments by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who was in Rome on Church business this weekend, bolster suggestions by senior Vatican officials that the Holy See was leaning toward accepting the policy on an experimental basis.
George made the comments in an interview with The Associated Press.
American bishops adopted the policy in June after a wave of sexual abuse allegations against priests that followed revelations that the Archdiocese of Boston moved accused priests from parish to parish.

posted by Kathy Shaw on 10/13/2002 04:49:39 PM

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