• Straight Guy with the Catholic Eye: A follow-up on St. Colman's [2004 Hubbard] -- Roman Catholic Church.
Renew America,
www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/040515 m ,
by Matt C. Abbott, May 15, 2004
WATERVLIET (NY): The following ... I received regarding my column on St. Colman's Home for boys and girls, located in Watervliet, New York.
From "Jane Doe":
"In your May 12, 2004 article, you speak of St. Colman's Home for Children housing children with mental and emotional problems. While it is certainly true that St. Colman's housed children with problems it more frequently created problems with children it housed. Children were placed there by social service agencies in the capital region.
My sister (adopted) was sent to St. Colman's with her many siblings after having been removed from their home for malnutrition and starvation which is neither a mental nor an emotional problem, albeit it can lead to such. Any emotional problems she endures stem from the abuse that she endured there and the emotional trauma of being separated from her siblings (the practice at St. Colman's was to house the children by age, not by family, and to refuse to let children see their siblings and to punish them if they attempted to see their siblings). [More]
(This is the first of the Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
for Sat May 15, 2004. )
INCOMPLETE LINKS: Refer back to "References 61" for methods of obtaining the URLs.
I respectfully ask that you reconsider your wording in the article as it lends credence to the hateful statements made by Bishop Howard Hubbard when he dismissed the victims of St. Colman's claiming that they were dysfunctional children who grew up to be dysfunctional adults.
Christianity is rooted in personal responsibility. We are all accountable for our sins and the taking of that responsibility is a mark that sets us apart from the world. Sadly, Hubbard seems disinterested [uninterested would be better - Webmaster.] in taking responsibility for the goings on at St. Colman's. His indifference would be tolerable; it is his insistence on denigrating the victims that is too heavy a load for many of them to bear." [And another e-mail was published.]
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:16 PM]
• Another Priest Resigns Over Old Abuse Allegations [McLaughlin] -- RCC.
TheBostonChannel.com ;
www.thebostonchannel.com/news/3309641/detail.html ,
May 15, 2004
BOSTON (MA): Another priest in the Boston archdiocese has stepped down because of an allegation of abuse.
The archdiocese announced Saturday that the Rev. John McLaughlin has agreed to accept a voluntary administrative leave during an investigation into an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor.
McLaughlin is pastor of Saint Benedict Parish in Somerville.
A statement from the archdiocese said that the allegation against McLaughlin was over an incident that occurred more than 20 years ago.
• Evangelist pastor preyed on women in his flock [CURRENT Goodman] -- Evangelist. Women.
Croydon Advertiser,
"Pastor preyed on women in his flock,"
http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0225croydon/tm_objectid=14238499 &method=full&siteid=53340&headline=pastor-preyed-on-women-in-his-flock-name_page.html ;
May 14 2004
BRITAIN: A Croydon schoolboy who grew up to become one Britain's leading Evangelist preachers has been jailed for three-and-half-years for sexually abusing and threatening young women in his flock.
Douglas Goodman, 47, amassed a £3m fortune from his adoring followers, but betrayed their trust by lavishing gifts and cars on the women he pursued, the Old Bailey heard.
The pastor, who was born in St Vincent in the Caribbean, and came to the borough as a child, was accused of preying on three women at the church he ran in Kilburn, north London.
He was convicted of two charges of indecent assault, one of attempted indecent assault and one of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The father-of-four was cleared of two other offences against members of the church, including the rape of a 32-year-old chorister who later admitted the affair was consensual.
Jailing Goodman, and placing him on the sex offenders' register for life, Judge Gerald Gordon said: "You have no doubt been a charismatic pastor to whom your flock were utterly devoted and blindingly loyal."
• Franklin police say New Shiloh Baptist pastor failed to surrender [2004 Dobson] -- Baptist. Girls.
The Tennessean,
"Franklin police say Lebanon pastor failed to surrender,"
www.tennessean.com/local/archives/04/05/51364004.shtml?Element_ID=51364004 ,
By BONNIE BURCH, Saturday, 05/15/04
FRANKLIN (TN): The senior pastor at New Shiloh Baptist Church in Lebanon is wanted by the Franklin Police Department on two counts of statutory rape after failing to surrender yesterday as promised to face the charges.
The Rev. Nathaniel Dobson, who has been a pastor at the church for 19 years, is wanted in connection with a March 21 incident at the Best Western Motel on Murfreesboro Road in Franklin.
Police Detective Charlie Warner said that Dobson admitted to having sexual contact with two girls, ages 14 and 15, early that morning after he picked them up in Nashville and drove them to the motel.
"They had a need for shelter and food. He offered it to them. And then he took advantage of the situation," Warner said.
A short time later, police picked up the teenagers and interviewed them as part of runaway proceedings. Both girls mentioned the incident with Dobson.
• Baptist pastor accused of statutory rape [2004 Dobson] -- Baptist. Girls.
Review Appeal,
http://reviewappeal.midsouthnews.com/news.ez?viewStory=21831 ,
By MELISSA N. WARREN, ? May 15, 2004
FRANKLIN (TN): Franklin Police Detective Charles Warner fields questions from the media yesterday regarding a Lebanon pastor who is wanted by police on two counts of statutory rape.
A Baptist church pastor wanted for two counts of statutory rape is considered a fugitive by the Franklin Police Department.
"He came into contact with two girls who needed food and shelter and he took advantage of them," said FPD Detective Charles Warner. "He met them on the street in Nashville and brought them to the hotel room."
The Rev. Nathaniel Dobson, a senior pastor at New Shiloh Baptist Church in Lebanon, had sex with two teenage girls at the Highway 96 East Best Western Motel during the early-morning hours of March 21, the detective said. The girls, identified as runaways from Nashville, are 14 and 15 years old.
Warner said he did not know why Dobson was in Nashville, nor could he comment as to how the man met the two victims, who have no affiliation with Dobson’s church. The detective did say that both girls admitted to having consensual sex.
• Panel opposes delay of abuse audit -- RCC.
The Press Democrat,
www.pressdemocrat.com/local/news/15abuse_b1b01_b1_empempireb.html ,
By GUY KOVNER, May 15, 2004
SANTA CLARA (CA): A national panel of lay Catholics charged with investigating the church's sex abuse crisis faces "significant obstacles" in pursuing its work, panel member and former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta said Friday.
Panetta, a former Monterey congressman, said the 12-member National Review Board is concerned about the move by more than two dozen bishops to postpone a second audit of how the nation's 195 Catholic dioceses are complying with overhauls adopted two years ago to weed out molester priests.
If the U.S. bishops decide not to proceed with an audit this year "it would be clearly seen all across the country as an additional sign of retreat," Panetta said in a keynote speech at a one-day conference at Santa Clara University.
Bishops were not in attendance at the conference, titled "Sin Against the Innocents," which was designed to shed light on the current status of the church's sex abuse scandal.
Panetta and others said the sex abuse crisis and the Catholic Church's effort to regain the trust of parishioners are not over and the effort to audit compliance must continue.
"I think we are at the beginning, just the beginning," Kathleen McChesney, executive director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told about 250 conference participants.
• High-profile actions by Roman Catholic Church show range of discipline -- RCC.
Centre Daily,
www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/8675670.htm ,
By JOE MANDAK, Associated Press, Sat, May. 15, 2004
PITTSBURGH (PA): Two Boston priests are defrocked for their role in a pedophilia scandal; a Pittsburgh priest is excommunicated when he leaves the church to start his own ecumenical congregation; and a panel of bishops debate denying communion to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and other politicians who don't oppose abortion.
Such terminology sends even experts leafing through the Roman Catholic Church's canon law, and leaves many lay believers and outside observers scratching their heads.
Among these three forms of church discipline are myriad shades of gray about what experts say church officials can and should do when highly visible members of the flock stray from church teaching.
"There's kind of a hierarchy of things that can happen if you're doing something gravely sinful - one is denial of the sacraments and the next step would be excommunication," said Jimmy Akin, director of apologetics and evangelization for Catholic Answers, a San Diego nonprofit that explains and defends church doctrine.
Excommunication is a declaration that someone is outside the church. It can be imposed privately and, in rare cases, after a church tribunal. But it usually happens automatically and publicly, as it did when the Rev. William Hausen broke with the church to establish his Christ Hope Ecumenical Catholic Church in a suburban Pittsburgh hotel banquet room this month.
• Diocese says guilty plea should end records case [Campobello; Rockford Diocese in contempt] -- RCC. Girls.
Chicago Sun-Times,
www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-priest15.html ,
BY DAN ROZEK, May 15, 2004
ILLINOIS: An Illinois appeals court shouldn't have to decide whether Catholic Church records are confidential now that former Kane County priest Mark Campobello has been convicted of sexually abusing two teenage girls, a church lawyer said Friday.
"I think Father Campobello's guilty plea has made it unnecessary for the court to decide the underlying issue of whether the records are privileged," said attorney Joshua Vincent, who represents the Rockford Catholic diocese.
Whether the Illinois 2nd District Appellate Court will drop the issue of how much access prosecutors should have to church records remains an open question, attorneys and legal scholars said.
Kane County prosecutors originally sought church personnel and transfer records on Campobello in 2003, after charging him with abuse while he worked as a priest at an Aurora Catholic school and lived at a Geneva Catholic church.
Arguing such documents are confidential, the Rockford diocese refused to turn over the records -- even after a Kane County judge found it in contempt of court.
• Action urged against church -- Remove bishops from power, says psychologist. RCC.
Oakland Tribune,
www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1726~2150791,00.html ,
By Rachel Konrad, Associated Press, Saturday, May 15, 2004
SANTA CLARA (CA): Roman Catholics should stop donating money to parishes and begin demanding elections of their bishops and even the pope, outspoken priests and psychologists urged Friday in a conference about the church's sexual abuse scandals.
"The only solution I can see is for the faithful to remove the current church hierarchy from power," said John Gonsiorek, psychologist at the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology and editor of "The Breach of Trust," a book about sexual exploitation.
"The faithful need to take decisive action -- otherwise, they're complicit," Gonsiorek said, pausing for rounds of applause and cheers from some of the 200 people who attended a daylong conference at Santa Clara University. "At a minimum, there needs to be direct election of bishops by the laity. ... Do not fund the church until it shapes up."
[Continues with similar wording to May 14 article in The Tribune.]
• Church officials talk to parents about priest in child-porn probe [2004 Holtey] -- RCC.
Union-Tribune,
www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20040514-9999-1n14priest.html ,
By Sandi Dolbee, May 14, 2004
CALIFORNIA: In what was described as a supportive, orderly meeting, concerned parents gathered at St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Academy in Loma Portal last night to talk with school and church officials about their parish priest, who has been caught up in an Internet child pornography investigation.
One mother afterward described the closed-door meeting as "wonderful" and said the school was handling the situation well.
Others echoed that sentiment - and praised the Rev. Gary Holtey, the pastor at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, who took a leave of absence May 6 after investigators seized at least one computer and files while serving a search warrant at the church.
"He's a wonderful priest," said Diane Silva-Martinez, who has two children at the school.
Rodrigo Valdivia, chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, estimated that about 200 people attended the meeting of parents, teachers, school officials and representatives from the diocese. The meeting lasted about 1½ hours and included advice from a counselor about how to discuss the issue with their children.
One parent said she explained it to her seventh-grade son this way: "There's a pending investigation, and that doesn't mean anything."
Valdivia said some parents expressed concern "as to how much information we have provided, and we continued to assure them that we have provided as much information as we possibly can, that is available to us."
• Petition asks bishop to apologize [2004 McDonnell] -- RCC.
Republican,
http://masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1084607354203810.xml?nnae ,
By BILL ZAJAC, wzajac@repub.com , Saturday, May 15, 2004
EAST LONGMEADOW (MA): A petition asking the bishop to apologize to their pastor, the Rev. James J. Scahill, will be circulated by St. Michael's parishioners at weekend Masses at their church today and tomorrow.
"We are outraged the bishop compared our pastor with (Richard R.) Lavigne," said John M. Bowen, a St. Michael's parishioner.
Scahill has been critical of the current and previous bishop over matters related to clergy sex abuse. Scahill said during a dispute Tuesday that the bishop said Scahill was as destructive to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield as defrocked priest Lavigne, a convicted child molester who has been accused by about 40 people of abusing them as minors.
Thursday the bishop, the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, apologized to alleged sex abuse victims and their families for making the comment, saying Scahill's "sniping" "has caused additional division in the church."
The failure of McDonnell to apologize to Scahill has angered alleged clergy sexual abuse victims, their supporters and Catholics who back Scahill's work with victims and his willingness to challenge church authority.
"We want the bishop to know that we at St. Michael's are not uneducated peasants comfortable in a feudal futile society," Bowen said.
• Dioceses differ on support -- RCC.
Republican,
http://masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1084607116203810.xml?nnae ,
By BILL ZAJAC,wzajac@repub.com , Saturday, May 15, 2004
SPRINGFIELD (MA): If sex offender Richard R. Lavigne were a defrocked priest in the Diocese of Belleville, Ill., he would not be considered a candidate for financial help.
The Diocese of Metuchen, N.J., the Archdiocese of Boston and some other dioceses would likely cut financial ties to him as well.
But he might get help in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.
In the Springfield Diocese, where Lavigne spent 25 years in ministry, it is uncertain whether he will receive the financial aid he is seeking.
Recently installed bishop the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell is weighing whether to sever the Springfield Diocese's last tie to the Chicopee man who has been accused by more than 40 people of sexually abusing them as minors when he was a priest.
Past and current financial help to Lavigne has created a firestorm of criticism from alleged clergy sexual abuse victims, their families and many lay people. The issue has pitted a East Longmeadow priest, the Rev. James J. Scahill, against past and current diocesan leaders.
McDonnell, who has stated that Lavigne has done much harm to the diocese, cited canon law as binding him to offer charity to Lavigne.
McDonnell and his predecessor the Most Rev. Thomas L. Dupre, who resigned amid allegations of sexual abuse of minors, point to canon law 1350, which states "the ordinary (bishop) is to take care to provide for a person dismissed from the clerical state who is truly in need because of the penalty."
• McManus to help heal abused [17 accused + 8] -- RCC.
Telegram & Gazette,
http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040515/NEWS/405150338/1052/NEWS01 ,
by Bronislaus B. Kush, bkush@telegram.com
WORCESTER (MA): Newly installed Bishop Robert J. McManus yesterday pledged to reach out to those who have been sexually abused by diocesan priests but cautioned that the process of healing is "a two-way street."
"I can't do it myself," Bishop McManus said at a news conference held shortly after his installation as the Diocese of Worcester's fifth bishop. "I'm just one person."
According to the office of District Attorney John J. Conte, 17 area clerics have been charged with criminal sexual abuse since 1985. Eight others were not charged but have been removed from ministry.
The bishop promised to make himself available to victims but explained individuals cannot be healed unless they want to be.
He said that neighbors and other acquaintances of victims can be conduits, leading victims to help that is available through the diocese and individual parishes.
Bishop McManus said that although the sexual abuse crisis is a serious one, it's but one chapter in the long history of the church.
He explained that the church has gone through tough times before and has managed to reform itself. Despite the scandal, he said bishops still wield moral authority, serving as shepherds of the church.
Bishop McManus' comments at the press conference about sexual abuse at the hands of priests reinforced statements he made about the issue during his installation.
• Installation ceremony picketed by clergy sex abuse protesters [1980s Szantyr] -- RCC.
Telegram & Gazette,
http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040515/NEWS/405150339/1052/NEWS01 ,
by Bronislaus B. Kush, T&G STAFF, bkush@telegram.com , May 15 2004
WORCESTER (MA): Alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse and their supporters yesterday picketed the installation of Bishop Robert J. McManus, calling on the new leader of the diocese's 350,000 Roman Catholics to be more forthcoming on the scandal that has rocked the local church.
"There's a change in leadership in the diocese but the issue of sexual abuse will still be kept under cover," said Richard Chesnis of Worcester, who said his son was abused by a priest.
The small band of protesters stood on a corner at High and Chatham streets, opposite the Cathedral of St. Paul where the installation took place.
Police reported no arrests or trouble but Mr. Chesnis received a citation after he attempted to use a bullhorn without a city permit.
Mr. Chesnis, minus the bullhorn, set up shop more than two hours before the ceremony started and loudly shouted his objections to the church's handling of the scandal.
He could occasionally be heard by those who were seated at the rear of the large church.
District Attorney John J. Conte has charged the Rev. John J. Szantyr, 72, with sexually abusing Mr. Chesnis' son.
Rev. Szantyr was assigned to Our Lady of Czestochowa parish in Worcester when the alleged incidents happened in the 1980s. He was a member of the Marian Order of the Immaculate Conception and was assigned to the local diocese in 1980, also serving at Our Lady Immaculate parish in Athol.
Mr. Chesnis said Rev. Szantyr has yet to be punished while his son still is forced to deal with the impact of the alleged assault.
Mr. Chesnis wanted to use a bullhorn to make his points but was told by a police sergeant assigned to the detail at the cathedral that he could not without a permit.
He said he went to the mayor's office where an assistant directed him to the Police Department.
Once there, police refused to issue him a permit.
Mr. Chesnis went back to the cathedral about 11:30 a.m. and was promptly given a ticket when he tried to use the bullhorn.
"I don't plan on paying the fine," he said, showing a reporter the citation.
As the afternoon wore on and as the ceremonies drew near, Mr. Chesnis was joined by other protesters.
One later said she spoke with the new bishop as he left the services, promising to formally contact him on Monday.
During the installation and at a subsequent press conference, Bishop McManus promised to reach out to sexual abuse victims.
• Greeley tells priests to focus on victims' pain -- holds clergy accountable. RCC.
Plain Dealer,
www.cleveland.com/living/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/living/1084613677244220.xml ,
by David Briggs, Plain Dealer Religion Reporter,
Saturday, May 15, 2004
CLEVELAND (OH): It's been an eventful half-century, and he was one of the most cantankerous figures in a period of rapid change, but the Rev. Andrew Greeley believes he and most of his priest colleagues are happy with their collars of choice.
On his own golden anniversary of ordination, the controversial best-selling author, sociologist and church provocateur is no less committed to the vocation he has pursued since boyhood.
"I'd do it over again," Greeley said in a recent interview. "I'm happier than I thought I'd be."
But the 76-year-old Irish priest, his harder edges untempered by time, cannot say the same thing about the health of the Catholic Church hierarchy. And he holds his colleagues accountable for what he says was their complicity in the code of silence that was part of the sin of clergy child sexual abuse.
The priest who would be a prophet stays true to a lifelong mission in three new books released around his 50th anniversary, puncturing liberal, conservative and secular stereotypes of a Catholic Church in the United States that has remained remarkably strong despite repeated attempts to bury it.
In Priests: A Calling in Crisis, he attempts to burst critics' bubbles that cellibacy leads to emotional disorder. He says that despite such speculation, research shows that priests are happier than many other professionals and overwhelmingly would choose their calling again.
• Priest who ran school for poor accused of sexual abuse [1982 onwards, Mitchell] -- RCC. Male.
PULLMAN (WA):
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/173488_priest15.html ,
By CLAUDIA ROWE, Saturday, May 15, 2004
A priest celebrated for his work running a school for impoverished boys in South America has been accused in a lawsuit of molesting one of his young charges and continuing the sexual abuse by taking him to a Vancouver, Wash., parish, purportedly as an adopted son.
Papers filed yesterday in King County Superior Court allege that Father James Mitchell of Pullman sexually abused Ariel Ariza for several years beginning in 1982 when Ariza was 17. Mitchell, the recipient of numerous testimonials about his good works as director of the El Camino school in rural Colombia, took Ariza there from his mother's home and later offered to rear the boy in the United States, Ariza said in an interview.
Only years later did Ariza learn from immigration officials that Mitchell had never actually adopted him. Two other boys were living in the priest's Vancouver home at the same time, the lawsuit says.
"There are so many things that come to your mind when it's happening -- you don't know what is right and what is wrong," the man said. "He was like my father."
Calls to a Pullman number listed under Mitchell's name were not returned.
In a soft voice, Ariza described life with the priest.
"We couldn't go out, couldn't have friendships. We were prohibited from doing anything that didn't have anything to do with him," Ariza said. "We were kind of intimidated and cut off from the outside world."
• Bishop Jenky rotates priests [Miller] -- RCC.
Pantagraph,
www.pantagraph.com/stories/051504/new_20040515049.shtml ,
by Steve Arney, sarney@pantagraph.com , May 15 2004
PEORIA (IL): Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky will move 40 priests, including both of those serving Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Bloomington, as part of a rotation system that isn't unusual to the diocese.
Recent events, though, have affected the rotation. Monsignor Thomas Miller was expected to be named as Trinity's new pastor until he was placed on leave earlier this month during investigation of sexual abuse allegations, according to The Associated Press.
Trinity's new leader hasn't yet been announced.
• Feds on the move against purveyors of child porn online Union-Tribune,
www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20040515-9999-1n15kidporn.html ,
By Onell R. Soto, May 15, 2004
CALIFORNIA: Child pornography is big business.
Pictures, movies and audio files of children being sexually abused are zapped around the world on the same Internet software that music fans use to trade songs. They are posted on Web sites that users pay to access. They are traded via e-mail, instant messages and chat rooms.
Billions of dollars change hands in an illicit trade that preys on innocent children from places such as Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Main Street USA.
As with other illegal activity, precise numbers are impossible to gauge, but some experts estimate it generates up to $2 billion a year.
"Individuals are trolling the back alleys and dark corners of the Internet," U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said yesterday. "They are leveraging its technology and anonymity to exploit the most innocent in our society."
Just as distributors of child pornography have moved to the Internet, so has law enforcement, Ashcroft said as he joined FBI Director Robert Mueller at a Washington, D.C., news conference to announce a crackdown on child porn in peer-to-peer networks, in which Internet users connect directly with each other's computers and trade computer files.
"The digital environment will not offer sanctity," [? sanctuary] Mueller warned those who trade obscene pictures of children. "We will identify you. We will pursue you. We will bring you to justice."
This week, federal officials confirmed an international investigation targeting 130 people in the San Diego area. They and hundreds of others across the nation are suspected of buying child pornography produced in the former Soviet Union. Investigators seized computers and files from at least 30 homes and businesses in San Diego.
Those under investigation include a Loma Portal priest, educators, medical professionals, a San Diego police officer and a Border Patrol agent in El Centro, said officials with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
• Bishop McManus installed -- 45 accused since 1950. RCC.
Telegram & Gazette,
http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040515/NEWS/405150390/1025 ,
by Kathleen A. Shaw, T&G STAFF, kshaw@telegram.com , May 15 2004
WORCESTER (MA): Bishop Robert J. McManus was installed yesterday as fifth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester in a ceremony filled with the time-honored rituals of the Church of Rome and witnessed by hundreds of the faithful.
Bishop McManus, auxiliary bishop of Providence, heard Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic nuncio to the United States, read the official letter from Pope John Paul II naming him bishop of Worcester.
The 52-year-old bishop looked toward the Bishop's Chair, swallowed and then walked toward it where he was seated by Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, who is metropolitan for the New England bishops.
While almost 1,000 people gathered inside St. Paul's Cathedral, many more watched the live broadcast on Charter Community Access Channel 3. Bishop Daniel P. Reilly welcomed the television audience.
As the ceremony proceeded inside, some alleged victims of sexual abuse and advocates stood outside the cathedral on the sidewalks.
After being officially installed, Bishop McManus told area Catholics what his priorities are for Worcester as he came among them as "chief shepherd."
He called for a "new evangelization" for all baptized Catholics to reach out and bring back to church those who might have grown slack in practice of their faith.
Bishop McManus said he is keenly aware of the hurt and alienation felt by many local Catholics as a result of the clergy abuse scandal and pledged to work for healing and reconciliation.
"I am painfully aware that more than a few Catholics feel alienated from the church today because of a betrayal of trust by some of its clergy or religious leaders," Bishop McManus said.
With support of clergy, religious and laity, he said he wants to "help to heal the hurt that has kept some Catholics from feeling at home in the church of their youth. This effort at healing and reconciliation must be an essential part of the new evangelization here in the Diocese of Worcester," he said.
The bishop reminded Catholics, whether clergy, religious or laity, that from the day of Baptism until death "we Christians are called to bring the love of God to a world that longs to be touched, to be healed, to be embraced by the God who is love." It can only happen if all participate, he said.
Eight priests were removed from ministry by Bishop Reilly in the last two years after allegations of sexual misconduct were made. The diocese still has more than a dozen civil lawsuits pending before the courts. A report compiled for the bishops National Review Board last February shows more than 45 priests were accused of misconduct since 1950.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 04:32 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
Sat May 15, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont81.htm
• Vatican covering up order founder's seminary abuse, ignored clergy sex abuse: Book's claim. -- RCC.
The West Australian,
"Book scathing of Vatican silence," Book Review by Gavin Simpson, gavin.simpson@wanews.com.au , "Belief and Beyond" column, p 14 of "Weekend Extra," Saturday, May 15, 2004.
Vows Of Silence: The Abuse Of Power In The Papacy Of John Paul II, 2004, Jason Berry and Gerald Renner, Hodder Headline, Australia, $A 35
PERTH:
The nightmare of child abuse at the hands of the clergy ... the ultimate responsibility, according to American investigative journalists Jason Berry and Gerald Renner ... lies at the feet of one man: Pope John Paul II.
Depite his inspirational commitment to universal human rights, ... for many years this charismatic Pope chose to ignore the gravest violations of the rights of children in his own Church. Nearly a decade before the scandal drew widespread coverage in America, ... bishops from North America and Australia briefed John Paul II about the crisis but he provided no plan of action. [...] Both the authors are committed Catholics [...]
... one of the Pope's favourites, Spaniard Marcial Maciel, found of ... the Legion of Christ ... abuse of young seminarians and has got away with it ... complaints to the Vatican ... have been ignored or covered up. ... years of abuse at the hands of Father Maciel. Legionaries take ... a special oath never to speak ill of "Nuestro Padre" ... Maciel ...
... American canon lawyer, Father Tom Doyle, ... went from a career in the Vatican's diplomatic service in the United States to becoming something of an outsider as a crusader for the rights of victims of abuse.
... Berry and Renner say ... it is, above all, a matter of abuse of power. [...]
Vows of Silence also faces up to one of the most difficult issues about sex abuse -- how much it is related to a "gay culture" in the priesthood. [...]
"There is a crucial distinction between homosexual priests who embody genuine Christian witness, and the gay priest culture that arose in the 1970s, cynical about celibacy, riddled with hypocrisy and narcissistic behaviour.
[...]
In the end, the authors say, it is hard to imagine how a rejuvenated priesthood can be created without optional celibacy.
(Hodder Headline, $35)
[NOTE: Father Tom Doyle has had more trouble than becoming an "outsider," because it seems he lost his military chaplaincy post in September 2003, due to differing with his Church superior over providing daily divine service. News of this did not seem to have leaked out until around the time of the report in the National Catholic Reporter, "Chaplain's military career ends in dispute; Archbishop dismisses priest known for victim support in abuse crisis;" http://nationalcatholicreporter.org/update/nt042904.htm , by Arthur Jones, Apr 29 04. NOTE ENDS]
[Article May 15, 04]
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Sun May 16, 2004 edition follows:- • Comic film about Church abuse, bribery, obsession, leads Cannes The Times (Britain),
"Bad boy grows up,"
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7943-1107479,00.html SPAIN: At the end of the narrow sloping street which houses Pedro Almodóvar’s office is one of the biggest bullrings in Madrid. I want him to escort me to an early-evening fight in the hope that he might rant and rave. But Spain’s most famous film director is suffering from cluster migraines and too much media exposure. Time is something he doesn’t seem to have. His latest film, Bad Education, opened within hours of the Madrid bombings and frankly should have sunk like a stone.
"In Spain, we’re used to living with terrorism," says Almodóvar, soberly. "But this was something else. If the objective was to create psychological fear then it succeeded brilliantly. It was a terrible moment."
Bad Education - a comic thriller about bribery, the Catholic Church, abuse and obsession - defied the grim public mood to become an unexpected box-office sensation. The melodrama is driven by Fele Martínez, a thrusting young film-maker who falls in lust with a ruthless actor and Mexican heart-throb, Gael García Bernal. It’s Almodóvar’s first proper tilt at film noir, and it’s as fatalistic and beautiful as anything he has put on screen. It’s also the first Spanish film to open a Cannes festival.
Despite the pink cardigan, the 53-year-old director looks alarmingly formal in his tastefully cluttered glass box. I was expecting a showman as flamboyant and camp as Boy George. Instead I meet an accountant with chubby hands and hairy knuckles. The electrified hair has faded to a statesmanlike Clinton grey. The brown eyes are thoughtful and sombre.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 01:49 PM]
• Bishop’s Apology Not Enough [2004 McDonnell] -- RCC.
WWLP,
www.wwlp.com/news2004/story.html?artID=49596
SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts (WWLP) - Springfield Bishop Timothy McDonnell apologized on Thursday for some remarks he made comparing outspoken priest James Scahill to convicted child molester Richard Lavigne. The bishop's apology apparently wasn't enough for at least some of Father Scahill's parishioners.
They're mounting a petition drive at masses gathered this weekend which reads "The parishioners of Saint Michael's request that Bishop McDonnell apologize to all victims of clergy abuse, and, to our pastor Father James Scahill for comparing him to a convicted felon." Scahill's East Longmeadow parish has been withholding a portion of its weekly collections for the past two years to protest diocesan support for Lavigne.
• Cardinal visits parish hurt by alleged abuse [Policetti]
-- RCC.
Chicago Sun-Times,
www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-priest16.html ,
BY CHERYL V. JACKSON, May 16 2004
CHICAGO (IL): The focus was on "a new beginning" Saturday as Cardinal Francis George led a mass at a Northwest Side parish that has had two years to come to grips with charges a former priest there sexually assaulted a teenage girl.
George came to St. Tarcissus for the dedication of its new baptismal fountain and pool. But there was an underlying theme of moving forward.
"I have kept all of you, especially the victim, in my prayers," George told the congregants. "Recognize that in sin we also find the sense of forgiveness."
In 2002, the Archdiocese of Chicago reported the Rev. Sleeva Raju Policetti, who had been at the church six years, was accused of sexual misconduct with a parish teen. The priest fled Chicago for his native India in May 2002.
He was arrested in India and charged in Cook County with sexual assault. His extradition status was not available Saturday.
"It's not like people are dwelling on it," said Amy Rubic, the church's music director. "We're moving on. Churches experience bad times. My faith is stronger than one dumb priest, than one sinful priest."
• Parish priest kicked out for sex abuse allegation [1970s-80s McLaughlin] -- RCC.
Boston Herald,
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=28041 ,
By Eric Convey, Sunday, May 16, 2004
SOMERVILLE (MA): A Somerville Catholic priest has been removed from his parish following an allegation he sexually abused a minor more than 20 years ago.
The Rev. John E. McLaughlin, who had been pastor of St. Benedict's Church, agreed to be placed on administrative leave, the Archdiocese of Boston said in a statement released yesterday.
The allegation "was recently reported for the first time to the Archdiocese of Boston," the statement says.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 07:27 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
Sun May 16, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont81.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Mon May 17, 2004 edition follows:- • Diocese warned pastor about aide [2004 Yarrosh] -- RCC.
The Morning Call,
www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_1priestsexmay17,0,7650672.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed ;
By Chris Parker, May 17, 2004
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN (PA): The pastor of St. Ambrose Roman Catholic Church in Schuylkill Haven told parishioners on Sunday he had been warned by the Allentown Diocese that the Rev. Ronald J. Yarrosh, former assistant pastor, had "personality problems."
The Rev. Michael J. Stone, pastor of St. Ambrose, told his flock he "did not have a good feeling" about Yarrosh, 56, who was arrested Wednesday after police said they found hundreds of child pornography photos, books, magazines, videotapes and DVDs in his rectory apartment. He was charged with child abuse for allegedly having the images of child pornography.
"I just simply watched and prayed," Stone said. He said the diocese's warnings about Yarrosh were non-specific. Yarrosh was moved to St. Ambrose in June 2002.
"I think what they were alluding to were his social skills," Stone said after the service. "A lot of it had to do with his sense of humor."
Stone said Yarrosh has an "extremely dry wit," and sometimes his humor would be misunderstood.
Diocese spokesman Matt Kerr said he could not address Stone's statement, but added, "The diocese is supportive of Father Stone's efforts to communicate with the members of his parish at this time."
Yarrosh, who was released on $50,000 unsecured bail and is in a mental health program in Philadelphia, has been relieved of his clerical duties. He was assigned to St. Ambrose in June, where he served on the advisory board of the parish grade school.
• Children, mother get $750,000 after suing Church of God pastor, church [Farmer] -- Church of God.
The State (South Carolina),
"Children, mother get $750,000 after suing pastor, church,"
www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/8687342.htm ,
Associated Press, Mon, May. 17, 2004
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Two children and their mother will get $750,000 to settle a lawsuit against a Johnsonville pastor who admitted to sexually abusing the youngsters.
The women and children sued several defendants, including the pastor, Larry Farmer, and the local, state and national Church of God, according to a story published Monday in South Carolina Lawyer's Weekly.
Farmer was arrested in March 2002 and seven months later pleaded guilty to committing a lewd act on a minor.
Farmer admitted to sexually abusing the children for about three years, first at the Church of God in Johnsonville and later at a second church, the newspaper reported.
"We absolutely do not tolerate that kind of conduct," the Rev. Jerry Chitwood told the publication. Chitwood is the administrative bishop for the Church of God in South Carolina.
After Farmer pleaded guilty, the Church of God ordered him to never be a pastor again in their church.
"This is a sad case," Chitwood told Lawyer's Weekly. "I'm a father and a grandfather, and I can tell you the church stands firm against this kind of behavior. When we revoke a minister's credentials for sexual conduct with a minor, they can never be restored."
• Church gave job to priest despite offences [1978-1987 Woodcock] -- RCC. Boys.
New Zealand Herald,
www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3567030&thesection=news&thesubsection=general ;
May 18 2004
NEW ZEALAND: The Catholic Church was aware paedophile priest Alan Woodcock had a previous sexual assault conviction before it made him a teacher at an Upper Hutt boys school.
When knowledge of his offending began to spread, a former chief district court judge - an old boy of the school - advised the church to keep it out of the public eye.
Woodcock yesterday pleaded guilty to 21 charges relating to the abuse of 11 boys between 1978 and 1987 when he was teaching at St John's College, Hastings; St Patrick's College, Silverstream; Highden, a school for young priests in Palmerston North; and Futuna, a Catholic retreat in Wellington. Thirteen other charges were withdrawn.
Woodcock was remanded in custody to appear in the Wellington District Court for sentencing on June 25.
Woodcock was extradited from Britain five months ago, after an 18-month court battle.
Documents reveal the church was aware before it appointed Woodcock to St Patrick's that he had previously been convicted of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old youth in Christchurch in 1979.
Correspondence shows the church knew of the incident even before he was convicted.
Father Noel Delaney, then head of the Society of Mary of which Woodcock was a member, wrote to the court offering church support for the priest.
• A call to Bishop McManus to start the healing. -- RCC.
Worcester Voice, http://worcestervoice.com/Current%20news.htm , May 17, 2004
WORCESTER (MA): The Worcester Voice, an advocacy organization to support victims of clergy sexual abuse in the Worcester Diocese, has joined with other active community members to heed Bishop Robert J. McManus’ call for all to join together to bring about healing and reconciliation.
The Bishop acknowledged the hurt the scandal in the Catholic church has caused its faithful, whether victim or non-victim, and asked all to join him in healing the wounds.
The bishop said during his installation ceremony at Cathedral of St. Paul in Worcester that people have been hurt by a betrayal of trust by some clergy and religious leaders.
He also called for a "new evangelization" where laity, clergy and bishops will work to bring alienated Catholics back to the full practice of their faith.
The Worcester Voice endorses Bishop McManus’ call and wants to become part of the "solution" and not the problem. Worcester Voice was formed about two years ago when full impact of the clergy abuse scandal started being felt in the Worcester Diocese. They have continually pressed for openness by the diocese and for disclosing the full impact of clergy sexual abuse in the diocese.
• Accuser decries bishop's 'plantation' life [O'Connell] -- RCC. Seminary males.
Palm Beach Post,
www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_048a1328078321980011.html ;
By John Lantigua, Monday, May 17, 2004
PALM BEACH (FL): The revelation that disgraced former Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell lives in seclusion at a scenic Catholic monastery in South Carolina has reopened old wounds among his victims, led some to speak out publicly for the first time and prompted bitter calls to jail the former leader of the Palm Beach Diocese.
Four men, all of whom claim O'Connell sexually exploited them when they were minors and students at a Missouri seminary, expressed their outrage to The Palm Beach Post, condemning the leniency both church and state showed O'Connell. The men said the church is doing more to help O'Connell than to help his victims.
Going public for the first time, Mike Wegs, 50, of Minneapolis said church lawyers questioned him so aggressively last year during a deposition session about O'Connell's sexual relationship with him and his painful family past that he attempted suicide and was hospitalized for weeks.
"He should be in jail," Wegs said of O'Connell. "He violated the ultimate trust. He corrupted an entire institution. He corrupted the ideals and morals of young boys.
"But nothing will happen to him. He will not go to jail. He has lost his power and access to Palm Beach society, but he won't suffer more than that. He won't be defrocked. He's just waiting out the storm, and what better place to wait it out but at a Southern plantation?"
• Psych study key in case vs. diocese
[1997-2000 Ensey, Urrutigoity] -- RCC.
Scranton Times Tribune,
www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11660376&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=416046&rfi=6 ,
By David Singleton, 05/17/2004
SCRANTON (PA): An attorney for a former student allegedly molested by two priests contends the Diocese of Scranton did not press for the clergymen's psychological records in a conscious decision to give them an advantage in court.
Attorney James Bendell, who represents the former St. Gregory's Academy student identified only as John Doe, makes the argument in paperwork filed in U.S. District Court as part of continuing fight over the release of the records. At issue are diocese-requested psychological examinations of the Rev. Eric Ensey and the Rev. Carlos Urrutigoity performed in March 2002 at the Southdown Institute treatment facility in Ontario, Canada.
A civil lawsuit filed that same month accuses the two priests, both members of the Society of St. John, of molesting the former St. Gregory's student between 1997 and 2000.
Judge John E. Jones III ruled March 23 the former student's counsel could review certain psychological records, including the Rev. Urrutigoity's Southdown evaluation. Last month, the Rev. Urrutigoity and the Rev. Ensey asked the judge to reconsider, arguing the records are confidential and they never consented to their release to the diocese or to Bishop James C. Timlin.
• Church sex abuse victim sheds his anonymity to help others [O'Connell] -- RCC. Seminary male.
Columbia Daily Tribune,
www.showmenews.com/2004/May/20040516Feat001.asp ,
By TONY MESSENGER, Sunday, May 16, 2004
MISSOURI: Terrible abuses. Torture. Corruption. Cover-up. Culture of secrecy.
These are the words being tossed around as we discuss the horrific prison abuse scandal in Iraq.
Mike Wegs uses the same words to describe an institution he used to love.
His church.
Wegs grew up in Moberly. His youth - and much of his adulthood, really - was taken away from him in Hannibal. Now he lives in Minneapolis, and he's trying to put the pieces of his life back together.
You've read his story, perhaps, but didn't know it. Two years ago, he was known as one of the many John Does who accused disgraced Bishop Anthony O'Connell of sexual abuse while he was a seminarian at the now-closed St. Thomas Seminary. The Hannibal seminary trained generations of Roman Catholic priests in Missouri, but to Wegs and some of the other impressionable boys who were manhandled and abused by a pedophile they called "O.C.", the place might as well have been a prison in Abu Ghraib.
Wegs' John Doe lawsuit is among 13 proceeding against O.C. in circuit court in Hannibal. Other priests from the seminary have been accused as well. Wegs doesn't expect to win. But as the church and its membership try to heal from the scandal that exploded first two years ago in Boston, spreading to St. Louis and other dioceses around the nation, Wegs is speaking out publicly to send a message that he believes is important to the healing.
Things were as bad in the Jefferson City diocese as anywhere else in the nation, he believes, and the cover-up continues. Wegs was inspired to go public with his story after seeing the verbal abuse heaped upon fellow O.C. victim Chris Dixon, who also has ties to Mid-Missouri. Dixon, a former deacon at Sacred Heart Catholic Church here in Columbia, was the victim who caused O.C. to step down from his leadership position in the church. Wegs thinks there have been countless other priests and bishops who protected the O.C.s of the church for decades and still operate with impunity.
• Former Priest Pleads Guilty [Woodcock] -- RCC. Boys.
NewstalkZB
http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,3882-3351557,00.html ,
03:43 PM, May 17 2004
NEW ZEALAND: Students at the schools where Alan Woodcock worked knew he was having sexual relationships with their classmates.
The 55-year-old has pleaded guilty to 21 charges of sexual assault at the Upper Hutt District Court Monday morning.
A summary of facts has revealed that victims who told their fellow students about their abuse were ostracised.
The summary describes how Woodcock preyed on his victims under the guise of music teacher or counselor at several schools in the lower North Island.
The victims tell of how Woodcock told them they were homosexual or threatened to cane them if they told on him.
Police dropped 13 of the 34 charges, including a sodomy charge, and Woodcock pleaded guilty to the remaining 21 charges of sexual assault or inducing an indecent act.
He had lived in England since the late 1980s before a High Court ruling ordered his extradition to New Zealand for trial.
• Former Catholic priest pleads guilty to indecencies [1982-85 Woodcock] -- RCC. Boys.
New Zealand Herald,
www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3566855&thesection=news&thesubsection=general ,
May 17 2004
NEW ZEALAND: A former Wellington Catholic priest, extradited from Britain after being charged with child sex offences, pleaded guilty to all 21 charges in Upper Hutt District Court this morning.
Alan Woodcock, 56, formerly of Upper Hutt, was accused of indecently assaulting boys at Silverstream, Upper Hutt, and Palmerston North between 1982 and 1985 while working as a teacher.
He had lived in England since the late 1980s before a High Court ruling ordered him to return for trial.
Senior Sergeant Murray Porter, of Upper Hutt police, said Woodcock today admitted six charges of indecently assaulting a boy under 16 and three charges of an indecent act against a boy.
He admitted five charges of indecently assaulting a male and two of committing an indecent act upon a male. Two charges related to his inducing a male to perform an indecent act upon him, which he admitted, as well as three charges of inducing a boy to perform an indecent act.
• Kevin Britt, Bishop of Grand Rapids, dies at age 59 [8 abused 35] -- RCC.
Detroit Free Press,
www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw97901_20040517.htm ,
May 17, 2004
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) -- The state of Michigan lost its second Catholic bishop in less than two months when the Rev. Kevin Britt of the Diocese of Grand Rapids died unexpectedly at age 59.
Co-workers found Britt at his home Sunday morning after they became worried when he did not return several phone calls. He apparently died sometime during the weekend, said Ned McGrath, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
McGrath said Britt had canceled all his appointments last week because he hadn't been feeling well. ...
Like other Catholic clergy, Britt apologized after a report was released detailing church-related sexual abuses of minors since 1950. The Diocese of Grand Rapids reported that eight priests had abused 35 victims.
"On behalf of the diocese, I apologize for the crimes of sexual abuse of minors that has occurred in the past," Britt said in February.
• Hispanics suffer clergy abuse in a culture of silence -- RCC. Boy.
The Morning Journal,
www.morningjournal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11660194&BRD=1699&PAG=461&dept_id=46371&rfi=6 ;
May/17/2004
HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Robbie Acevedo does not fear the end.
For Acevedo, who is only 38, death will bring a welcome finality to a life of self-destructive behavior begun in his early teens and culminating in a broken marriage, a multitude of health problems, and ultimately, a death sentence.
Years of hard drinking have left him with hepatitis C and cirrhosis of the liver. Excruciating pain, in nearly every inch of his 5-foot-3-inch, 135-pound frame, is his constant companion. ...
His downward spiral, Acevedo said, began when he was 12, during what should have been a happy, uplifting weekend retreat for children at a Paterson, N.J., church. A deacon separated Acevedo from the other children, took him down to the basement, made him disrobe, and raped him, the Dover, N.J., resident said.
In many ways, Acevedo experienced the range of feelings that people who were sexually abused by clergy members as children have described -- guilt, shame, trauma, and an inability to get close to others.
But Latinos such as Acevedo also have had to cope with a complex cultural dimension to their experience as well. The son of Puerto Ricans who were devout Catholics, strict with their four children, and unquestioning of authority, Acevedo feared no one would believe his story.
In the Latino culture, talk about sex is often discouraged. And many parents, particularly in Latin-American countries, view sexual abuse as a family secret and a source of shame.
• Priest confesses to sex abuse [1982-85 Woodcock; order knew he had been previously convicted] -- RCC. Boys.
News 24,
www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1528117,00.html ,
11:03, May 17 2004
WELLINGTON, New Zealand: A former Catholic priest, extradited from Britain to New Zealand to face charges of sexually abusing teenage boys, admitted his crimes in a court near Wellington on Monday.
Alan Woodcock, 56, formerly of Upper Hutt, admitted to indecently assaulting boys in the lower North Island towns of Silverstream and Palmerston North between 1982 and 1985 while working as a teacher.
Police said he had lived in England since the late 1980s before a high court ordered him to return to New Zealand for trial.
The head of the teaching order, Father Dennis O'Hagen, said outside the court that church authorities knew Woodcock had a conviction for committing sexual indecencies with an adult male before he was placed in a teaching position.
"It was a very bad mistake, but expert advice was that he would not be a threat to people," O'Hagen said.
• Group weighs whether priest in abuse case should continue in post [1980s McLaughlin] -- RCC. Males.
BOSTON (MA):
Boston Globe,
www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/05/17/group_weighs_whether_
priest_in_abuse_case_should_continue_in_post ;
By Jared Stearns, Globe Correspondent, May 17, 2004
Officials of the Archdiocesan Union of Holy Name Societies in Boston will meet tonight to decide whether a Somerville priest who stepped down from his duties pending an investigation of a sexual abuse allegation will continue as the fraternal organization's spiritual moderator.
The recent allegation contends that the Rev. John E. McLaughlin, pastor at St. Benedict Church, was involved in sexual misconduct with a minor nearly 20 years ago, said the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese.
"Just recently it was brought to our attention," he said. "He took a voluntary leave of absence" on Saturday.
McLaughlin was also named in a 2002 lawsuit that alleged he sexually abused two men on two occasions. No action was taken to remove McLaughlin from his position at that time, Coyne said, because the archdiocese handles allegations of sexual abuse of adults differently from allegations involving minors.
Carmen L. Durso, the lawyer who represented the two men who accused McLaughlin of sexually assaulting them, said it's "nonsense" that the archdiocese did not remove McLaughlin from his position when the first allegations surfaced.
"The business about whether they were adults is arguably relevant if you're talking about something that might be characterized as a consensual relationship between adults," he said. "This was not a consensual relationship. There was an assault by a priest. This is nonsense that they didn't take any action."
• Removed Somerville priest had previous complaints
[1980s, 2001 McLaughlin] -- RCC. Males.
BOSTON (MA):
Boston Herald,
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=28178 ,
By Robin Washington, Monday, May 17, 2004
A Somerville priest removed from ministry Saturday for alleged child molestation two decades ago was allowed to serve despite two previous sexual misconduct complaints against him.
The Rev. John E. McLaughlin, pastor of St. Benedict's parish, accepted a voluntary leave following the new charge, which an Archdiocese of Boston statement said was "reported for the first time."
But two years ago, a Lynn man in his 40s told the Herald he was sexually assaulted by McLaughlin in June 2001. A second man leveled similar charges and both claims were part of last year's $85 million global settlement, in which neither the church nor any priest admitted responsibility.
"They involved allegations from adults," archdiocese spokesman the Rev. Christopher Coyne said, explaining why McLaughlin had not been removed. "(The new allegation) was involving someone under the age of 18 at the time. That's the difference."
The Lynn man, an El Salvador native, said he was kissed and groped after seeking counseling from the Spanish-speaking priest.
"It was very hard to stop him because he was a priest, a representative of God," the man said in September 2002, describing three attempts to get the priest off him.
The second man said McLaughlin groped him at his son's christening.
• Bishop urged to audit diocese progress in preventing abuse -- RCC.
Mercury News,
www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8682824.htm?1c ,
By ROBIN EVANS, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.), Posted on Sun, May. 16, 2004
SANTA CLARA (CA): A day before he is set to participate in a Santa Clara University conference looking at lessons learned from the sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, the leader of a national victims' group warned Thursday of backsliding by bishops.
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), hand-delivered a letter to the San Francisco archdiocese urging Bishop William Levada to support a second annual audit of diocese progress in identifying and removing problem priests and preventing further abuse. It was a message intended for all U.S. bishops.
The bishops of several East Coast dioceses were able to put off to November a vote by the U.S. Conference of Bishops on whether to even conduct an audit this year.
"The newly released letters from dozens of bishops clearly indicate the postponing or canceling of one of the most clear and simple, common-sense reforms in the clergy molestation crisis," Clohessy said.
The delay was only recently discovered by the lay Review Board, the committee established to oversee church response and progress toward the goals set at the bishop's 2002 conference in Dallas. The board was able to get the vote on the agenda of a June retreat in Denver.
[Posted by Kathy Shaw at 01:44 AM]
////////// End of Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker
www.ncrnews.org/abuse ,
Mon May 17, 2004
Religions' sex abuse Chronology, visit: http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethics/ethcont81.htm
#### Clergy Sex Abuse Tracker,
www.ncrnews.org/abuse,
Tue May 18, 2004 edition follows:- • Man defends cleric uncle despite abuse settlement [2001 McLaughlin] -- RCC. Males.
Boston Herald,
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=28444 ,
By Robin Washington, Wednesday, May 19, 2004
SOMERVILLE (MA): Lawyers for the Archdiocese of Boston were "irresponsible" in settling a sexual assault claim against a Somerville priest who was later removed after an unrelated allegation, the cleric's nephew charged.
The Rev. John E. McLaughlin, pastor of St. Benedict's parish, was visiting a parishioner at the time a Lynn man in his 40s said the priest kissed and groped him three years ago, Andrew P. McLaughlin wrote the Herald of his uncle.
"I know this because I was attempting to contact him at the time," he wrote. "I would without hesitation swear to all of this under penalty of perjury."
The priest's nephew said church lawyers were irresponsible in agreeing to include the accuser in last year's $85 million global settlement, as well as another adult's claim of abuse by the priest.
On Saturday, McLaughlin accepted a voluntary suspension in wake of claims he molested a minor two decades ago.
Carmen Durso, the lawyer for both adult plaintiffs, said victims frequently confuse the exact time and place of abuse.
"They were both very credible," he said. "In the other case there was another witness to the complaint."
[Posted by Kathy Shawat 11:17 PM]
• Aretakis resists probe on Hubbard
-- RCC.
Troy Record,
www.troyrecord.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11670482&BRD=1170&PAG=461&dept_id=7021&rfi=6 ,
By Robert Cristo, 05/18/2004
ALBANY (NY): Investigators hired by the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese to look into allegations of sexual misconduct against Bishop Howard Hubbard claim to have run into roadblocks while attempting to interview alleged clergy sex abuse clients of attorney John Aretakis.
According to a statement released Monday by former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, in the past three months, her investigators have interviewed more than 200 people, including those who have been outspoken critics of Hubbard.
White refuses to publicly discuss her investigation until it is completed, but adds in the statement that "we've obtained substantial and significant" information regarding the allegations against the longtime bishop.
White claims, however, her investigators have received "no cooperation" from Aretakis or any of the nearly 80 alleged clergy sex abuse victims he has represented throughout the state.
She further states that Aretakis was the "first person we contacted" after she was retained by the diocese for more than $700 an hour to settle the storm of controversy surrounding Hubbard once and for all.
• Settlement Reached In Catholic Sex Abuse Case [1950s-70s Hazen; 18 sought $69m] -- RCC.
KOIN,
www.koin.com/webnews/20042/20040518_churchsuit.shtml , May 18 2004
BEND, Ore. -- A settlement has been reached with 18 plaintiffs in the Baker Diocese Catholic church sexual abuse case.
The victims say the late Rev. David Hazen molested them between the late 1950s and early 1970s.
The plaintiffs sought $69 million in the case that was to go to trial later this month. Terms of the settlement were not revealed.
The settlement resulted from a two-day conference this month mediated by retired Clackamas County judge Sid Brockley. An attorney for the diocese says it was a good settlement, resolving all 18 claims.
Plaintiffs' lawyer David Slader of Portland told the online Bend Bugle that they are grateful a settlement was reached. Slader says the victims of Hazen are now able to concentrate their energy on healing.
• U.S. hierarchy, review board at odds -- RCC.
National Catholic Reporter,
http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/052104/052104h.php ,
By JOE FEUERHERD, Washington, for May 21 04
WASHINGTON (DC): The high-profile lay committee investigating the clergy sex abuse scandals was "manipulated" by the bishops, who used the 13-member National Review Board for public relations cover while withholding key information from the panel.
That charge was made in a March 30 letter from Anne Burke, the Illinois Court of Appeal justice who serves as the board’s interim chair, to bishops’ conference President Wilton Gregory.
Copies of correspondence obtained by NCR indicate the board’s relationship with dozens of members of the hierarchy is severely strained. While the language used by the National Review Board and the bishops falls short of the invective that led then-board chairman Frank Keating to resign in June 2003 (he compared the bishops to the mafia), it is far from collegial. Board members question the bishops’ commitment to child protection, while some bishops charge the board has strayed beyond its mandate.
Burke’s letter paints a picture of hierarchical deception and public relations maneuvering. While the letter bears her signature, it was reviewed and approved by the review board, Burke told NCR.
Even as National Review Board members were presenting their findings on the scope and causes of the crisis to a widely covered Feb. 27 news conference, wrote Burke, its members were unaware that the bishops were considering shelving or delaying some of the board’s key recommendations.
Nearly a month later, as four board members formally presented the recommendations to the bishops’ administrative committee, the board had not been informed that key members of the hierarchy were seeking to defer or derail a second round of audits designed to measure diocesan compliance with child-protection policies established by the bishops at their June 2002 meeting in Dallas.
• Catholic Bishops, Lay Panel Reach Deal on Abuse Policy -- RCC.
NPR,
www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1900459 ,
May 18, 2004
CHICAGO (IL): An agreement was reached Monday between Catholic bishops and a review board committee on the best way to monitor clergy sex abuse. From Chicago Public Radio, Jason DeRose reports on how the two sides say a new proposal will be presented at a future meeting.
• New bishop ordained in Ogdensburg -- RCC.
Newsday,
www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny-brf--newbishop0518may18,0,2450338.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire ; May 18, 2004
OGDENSBURG, N.Y. -- The Most Rev. Robert Cunningham, officially made the new Bishop of Ogdensburg Tuesday, said he hopes to use his position to attract more men and women to religious careers and bring back those who have strayed from the Roman Catholic church.
Cunningham, 60, succeeds Bishop Gerald Barbarito, who was transferred to Palm Beach last July.
"I want to work with priests, parents and religion teachers to try to convince people that a religious life is rewarding," Cunningham said during an eight-minute acceptance speech.
"We tend to look at those who are not going to church, and we need to reach out to them," he said. "We need to recognize that some people place themselves outside the church."
In a reference to the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic church in the United States, Cunningham thanked those priests who remained "loyal to their ministry."
• Diocese of Baker settles abuse case [1950s-60s Hazen 18 victims; < $US 70m] -- RCC. Males.
Bend Bulletin,
www.bendbulletin.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=13488 ,
By Lisa Rosetta and Kelly Kearsley, May 18, 2004
OREGON: The 18 men who sued the Diocese of Baker alleging that a priest employed by the diocese sexually abused them have settled their case, according to David Slader, the men's attorney.
"The men are satisfied that they have adequately demonstrated that they were victims of Father Hazen and the diocese was completely and morally responsible for his abuse of them and of many other young boys," Slader said Monday.
Negotiations between the men and the diocese, which covers Central and Eastern Oregon, lasted 29 hours over the course of two days, said Greg Lynch, the Bend attorney representing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baker.
The case was scheduled to go to trial later this month but was settled late Friday night.
The settlement was mediated by Sid Brockley, a retired Clackamas County judge, Lynch said. Several conference rooms at The Riverhouse were rented out for the settlement negotiations, and all 18 plaintiffs in the lawsuit, whose homes are scattered across the country, flew in for the conclusion of the case.
"It was a difficult case for the bishop, Bishop Vasa, because these 18 men filed a lawsuit based upon abuse they say occurred in the early 1960s, and the priest who allegedly abused them is dead and the bishop who was in charge of the diocese (at that time) is dead," Lynch said. "The diocese has no record of any of these individuals being abused by Father Hazen."
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Baker faced nearly $70 million in claims from the 18 men, who said they were sexually abused in the 1950s and 1960s in Burns and Klamath Falls by the late Rev. David Hazen.
• Hollingworth's quest for salvation -- Anglican.
The Courier-Mail, Brisbane,
www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,9601131%255E953,00.html ,
by Jamie Walker, May 19 04
AUSTRALIA: Twelve months after he resigned as governor-general, Peter Hollingworth is working to rebuild his shattered reputation by serving porridge and toast to Melbourne's homeless. He even washes the dishes.
And he is planning to mark the anniversary of his departure from vice-regal office next week by publicly confronting the very issue that drove him from Yarralumla - child sex abuse.
For the past two months, he has spent two mornings a week as a volunteer at the Lazarus Centre in East Melbourne, providing breakfast to people who live rough on the streets of Melbourne's CBD. Those close to him say it was the first step in what a humbler and penitent Dr Hollingworth hopes will be his road back to public acceptance.
The Lazarus Centre's manager, Father Michael Hopkins -- an Anglican priest whom Dr Hollingworth ordained in 1996 while archbishop of Brisbane -- said yesterday the role was a far cry from the pomp and perks that went with being governor-general.
"He helps gets things set up before 7.30, serves the food and he's around afterwards to do the dishes and the vacuuming," Fr Hopkins said. "It's all hard yakka. Stuff a lot of people wouldn't want to do."
• Judge denies helping in paedophile cover-up [1970s Woodcock, Trapski] -- RCC. Teenage Boy.
New Zealand Herald,
www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3567268&thesection=news&thesubsection=general ;
By STUART DYE AND NZPA, May 19 2004
NEW ZEALAND: A former chief district court judge who helped the Catholic Church with media inquiries relating to paedophile priest Alan Woodcock says he did not try to cover up Woodcock's previous sexual offending.
But police say the role played by Judge Peter Trapski, and other aspects of the case, will go under a microscope.
Woodcock, ordained a priest in 1972, was convicted in 1979 of a sex offence against a 17-year-old male.
Despite this, he was appointed a teacher at St Patrick's College in Upper Hutt where some of the offences took place.
Judge Trapski, an old boy of St Patrick's, was consulted by the Catholic Church in 1994 when one of Woodcock's victims went to the media.
A church document says Judge Trapski, who was chair of St Patrick's trust board at the time, advised the church to place "confidential material" about Woodcock into his employment file but within a separate envelope labelled "secret".
• Police probe role of church [1978-87 Woodcock, 1982 Curtain] -- RCC. Society of Mary. Boys.
Stuff,
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2911603a11,00.html ,
By FRAN TYLER and NZPA, 19 May 2004
NEW ZEALAND: Police are investigating the role other church staff may have had in allowing paedophile priest Alan Woodcock to continue to work with children.
Woodcock, 56, pleaded guilty this week to 21 charges relating to the sexual abuse of boys while he was working at St John's College in Hastings, St Patrick's College in Silverstream, Highden novitiate - a school for trainee priests in Palmerston North - and the church's Futuna retreat in Karori, Wellington. The offending happened between 1978 and 1987.
The officer in charge of the Woodcock case, Detective Sergeant Murray Porter, would not comment yesterday on any other investigations that might be taking place, but The Dominion Post understands that further inquiries are being made into the role of some church staff.
Complaints from boys about Woodcock's abuse were made in August 1982 to then St Patrick's rector Father Michael Curtain.
In a 1995 interview Father Curtain told police he called the Society of Mary's head, Provincial Father Fred Bliss, explaining the allegations and asking for Woodcock to be moved. Woodcock was allowed to stay on at the college till the end of that year under a set of rules drawn up by Father Curtain. He was then moved to Highden.
The rules included directions that he leave the door to his bedroom open if a boy needed to see him "unless the visit is of a confessional nature or a similarly private matter", and that he not hitch-hike. Woodcock was also advised to get a passport "to cover any possible eventuality".
• Cardinal Mahony voices support for review board -- RCC.
National Catholic Reporter,
http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/052104/052104m.htm ,
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR. in Rome, for May 21 04
ROME: Amid tensions between the lay-led body created to investigate the sexual abuse crisis and some U.S. bishops, an American cardinal has said any attempt to eliminate the National Review Board would be "short-sighted," and represents only a minority view among the bishops.
In the same interview with NCR in Rome May 13, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles also said he would not withhold Communion from pro-choice Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The full text of the interview can be found in the Special Documents section at NCRonline.org.
The 68-year-old cardinal, generally seen as on the church’s moderate-to-progressive wing, said some bishops were never comfortable with the National Review Board and the Office of Child and Youth Protection.
"In Dallas, [some bishops] voted for this reluctantly, and never did like this involvement of any review board or a national office or anything else," Mahony said. "They feel, we got a report out of them, we got John Jay, now let’s get rid of the whole thing.
"I personally think that’s a very short-sighted approach," Mahony said. Reflecting on his experience with a lay review board in Los Angeles, he said, "The involvement of our wonderful lay leaders has been a real grace."
• The ache in the Catholic psyche -- RCC.
National Catholic Reporter,
http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/052104/052104b.htm , for May 21 04
UNITED STATES: Some months ago, reader Laurence McLaughlin sent in a photo of the painting we used on this week’s cover.
In a note to layout editor Toni-Ann Ortiz, he said he did the painting "to ease the sorrow," and he hoped we might find a use for it. The effects of the sex abuse scandal, the betrayal of the "tender ideal" that Fr. Michael Parise writes about, is difficult to illustrate (see story). McLaughlin’s word seems a perfect fit for his painting, because it does, indeed, capture the "sorrow," that kind of ache in the pit of the stomach that seems a natural companion to this awful, intractable story.
McLaughlin was a priest from 1965 until 1989, when he retired. He was later laicized and married. He’s now 81, lives with his wife, Mary, in Long Beach, Calif., and goes to work painting in his studio nearly every day. In a phone conversation recently he told me he found the scandal stories, the numbers and all the attendant publicity difficult to take.
His years as a priest were "happy years for the most part." If he was shocked by the dimensions of the scandal, he also, as his painting shows, has great empathy for innocent priests whose lives and ministry have been forever altered.
• Judge defends advice over paedophile priest [1979 Woodcock, 1994 Trapski] -- RCC. Boys.
Stuff,
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2911602a11,00.html .
19 May 2004
NEW ZEALAND: Former chief district court judge Peter Trapski yesterday defended his role with the Catholic Church in relation to its handling of publicity about paedophile priest Alan Woodcock in the 1990s.
When one of the victims went to the media in 1994, the church turned to Judge Trapski for advice. He had helped to set up its abuse protocol and was at the time chairman of St Patrick's College in Silverstream. Woodcock had abused several boys at St Patrick's 12 years earlier.
Judge Trapski said he had tried to encourage the church to be more open about sexual offending by its priests and brothers, instead of "sweeping things under the carpet" as parts of the church had done in the past.
Documents show the church knew Woodcock had a conviction for sexual offending in 1979 against a 17-year-old youth, before it appointed him to St Patrick's. He had been granted name suppression.
When media inquiries were made about Woodcock, Judge Trapski urged caution so that the suppression order would not be breached. He also suggested that "confidential material" about Woodcock be placed in his employment file in a separate envelope marked confidential. He said yesterday this advice was to ensure that all the material was together so that it could be accessed, but that "sensitive" material would not be open to just anyone.
Judge Trapski said he was aware in 1994 of complaints made in 1982 by Silverstream boys about Woodcock's abuse but he advised the church to be careful about saying anything about them as Woodcock could not be found and "we could not put stuff into the media without his knowledge" or giving him the opportunity to defend the claims.
• Sexual abuse by priests in the spotlight in Spain [Calvo, Rial, Sánchez, Martín de la Peña] -- RCC. Boys, Girl
National Catholic Reporter,
http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004b/052104/052104p.htm ,
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR., for May 21 04
MADRID, Spain:A new movie by controversial Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, plus a series of recent criminal convictions, have thrown a spotlight on sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Spain, according to a May 10 feature by the leading Spanish daily El País.
Since the sexual abuse crisis in the United States broke in January 2002, some commentators have labeled the phenomenon an "American problem." By way of contrast, the El País report indicates that overwhelmingly Catholic Spain is struggling with strikingly similar revelations.
The lengthy two-page story appeared in an English-language supplement culled from El País and distributed with the Spanish edition of the International Herald Tribune.
In recent months, El País reported, a priest in the Spanish town of Jaen, Luis José Beltrán Calvo, was sentenced to eight months in prison for repeated sexual abuse of a boy that began when the boy was 11 and lasted until he was 14. In Pontevedra, another priest, Edelmiro Rial, was sentenced to 15 years on 10 counts of sexual abuse and two attempts of abuse involving six adolescents. In Barcelona, Ramón López Sánchez received 28 years for abusing three minors, and in Madrid, José Luis Martín de la Peña was sentenced to 10 years for the repeated abuse of his housekeeper’s daughter, which began when the girl was three years old.
While El País reported that reliable estimates as to the size and scope of the problem are difficult to obtain, it cited one 10-year-old study by Félix López Sánchez, a professor of sexual psychology at the University of Salamanca. Based on a survey of 2,000 people, the majority of whom had been to colleges and homes run by religious organizations, Sánchez’s survey found that 15 percent of Spanish males reported having experienced at least one act of sexual abuse prior to age 17. Nine percent of those cases, the report concluded, involved priests.
• Priest arrested on indecent assault charge [2002 Liberatore] -- RCC. Altar Boy.
Times Leader,
www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/8696791.htm ,
Associated Press, Tue, May. 18, 2004
SCRANTON, Pa. - A Roman Catholic priest was charged with indecent assault and corrupting a minor after a young man told police he had been in a sexual relationship with the clergyman when he was in high school, prosecutors said Tuesday.
The Rev. Albert M. Liberatore Jr., of Scranton, turned himself in late Monday evening, was arraigned and released on bail.
Lackawanna District Attorney Andrew Jarbola said his office began investigating the allegations against Liberatore, 40, last week after being contacted by church officials, who had conducted an internal inquiry into the accusations with the help of a private detective.
The alleged victim, now an adult, told police that he became involved with the priest when he was a ninth-grade altar boy at the Sacred Heart Church in Duryea.
Investigators said that the man described meeting Liberatore regularly for dinners, sleeping twice a week in his residence at the rectory and going with him on trips with him to New York, where they had sexual contact in hotels.
The indecent assault charge stemmed from an alleged encounter at the University of Scranton in 2002 when the man was 17. He told police that the priest, who was an instructor at the school, groped him after the two argued about whether the teen was gay.
• Jesuits settle suit over sexual abuse [1954-79 Convert]
-- RCC. Jesuits. Altar Boys.
Fairbanks News-Miner,
http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2155789,00.html ,
By MARY BETH SMETZER, Tuesday, May 18, 2004
ALASKA: The Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus and the Society of Jesus Alaska have reached a settlement with six Alaska men in a sexual abuse lawsuit, according to one of the lawyers representing the men.
The former altar boys sued the Jesuits and the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks last summer, claiming that the Rev. Jules Convert sexually molested them while he worked as a priest in the villages of St. Marys, Unalakleet, Holy Cross and Kaltag in western Alaska between 1954 and 1979.
The plaintiffs' claims against the Jesuit order were resolved Monday in a private settlement conference, according to a press release issued by the law firms of Manly & McGuire, and Cooke Roosa & Valcarce. They said the Jesuits agreed to a large monetary settlement, including paying college tuition for some of the victims' children.
The settlement terms also include a provision for lifetime counseling for the victims, as well as a onetime opportunity for the victims, many of whom are Alaska Natives, to obtain vocational training in the occupation of their choice.
In the release, attorney John Manly said: "Jules Convert used his Roman collar, a symbol of faith and devotion to Jesus, as a 'free pass' to sexually violate innocent children. Nothing can take away the pain these men have suffered as a result of their abuse at the hands of their village priest. We hope that this part of the settlement will help the victims to rebuild their lives."
• Bishops ignore their burning house -- RCC.
Dallas Morning News,
www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/columnists/rdreher/stories/051804dnedidreher.9caa5.html ;
By ROD DREHER, Tuesday, May 18, 2004
DALLAS (TX): On the road this weekend, I went to Sunday Mass at a Catholic parish outside the Dallas diocese. The priest did something I've only seen happen once before in the 11 years I've been a Catholic: He spoke from the pulpit against abortion and the politicians who support it.
This is going to shock non-Catholics, who seem to think that we faithful papists hear nothing but lectures on abortion and sexual morality from our priests. It's not true. Except for illness, I've not missed a single Sunday Mass since I entered the church in 1993. Though I've lived in major East Coast sees, as well as Dallas, I have yet to hear a sermon explaining, or even proclaiming, church teaching on any aspect of human sexuality - save for abortion, which I'd last heard preached on in, no kidding, 1995.
After this Sunday's Mass, I thanked the priest for his words, and told him I wanted to praise him in print. He kindly asked me not to, explaining that it could only get him in trouble with his bishop. I understood. I've known good priests to be punished by their bishops for teaching the Catholic faith, but no priests punished for failing to do so.
This is the context in which the move by some Catholic bishops to deny communion to pro-choice politicians - and now, according to the bishop of Colorado Springs, to Catholics who vote for them - should be understood.
Look, I believe that lawmakers who vote for legalized abortion have directly participated in a form of murder, and should be denied communion, which the church teaches is literally the Body of Christ. But I also believe it's folly, and even grandstanding for a Vatican audience, for the American bishops to get on their high horse about this issue right now.
The child sex abuse scandal and the evacuation of moral authority it caused is part of it, but there's a more fundamental problem here: For an entire generation, Catholics in this country have not been taught the basics of the faith.
• Two priests dropped from woman's abuse lawsuit [1980-81 Campbell, Cherry]
-- RCC. Altar Boy.
Centre Daily,
www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/8691875.htm ,
Associated Press, Tue, May. 18, 2004
GREENSBURG, Pa. - Two Benedictine priests were removed from a woman's sexual abuse lawsuit because they would not be responsible for her alleged health problems even if they had abused her son, a judge ruled.
Westmoreland County Judge Gary Caruso last week ruled that the Revs. Andrew Campbell and Athanasius Cherry should be removed from a Port Matilda woman's lawsuit, which claims her son was plied with drugs and alcohol and abused by priests while a teenager.
Campbell is the head of the English department at St. Vincent University, which is run by the Saint Vincent Archabbey, the oldest Benedictine monastery in the United States. Cherry is the pastor of the St. Vincent Basilica.
In her lawsuit, filed last year, the woman claims her son told her in July 2002 that he was sexually abused by Campbell, Cherry and another priest while he was an altar boy in 1980 and 1981. She claims that learning of the abuse has caused mental anguish, humiliation, nightmares and increased risk of a heart attack, among other conditions.
Her son filed a separate lawsuit in February.
• Catholic group, bishops agree on sex abuse audit proposal -- RCC.
Chicago Sun-Times,
www.suntimes.com/output/religion/cst-nws-cath18.html ,
BY CATHLEEN FALSANI, Religion Reporter, May 18, 2004
CHICAGO (IL): A watchdog panel of prominent lay Roman Catholics and a group of U.S. bishops meeting at a Rosemont hotel reached common ground Monday about how ongoing efforts to enforce new church laws governing clergy sex abuse cases should proceed.
Despite recent public tensions between the lay National Review Board and several influential bishops, a contingent of 14 bishops on the Ad Hoc Committee for Sexual Abuse, and 10 of the 12 review board members, said they agreed on a proposal to present to the entire U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at its meeting in Denver next month.
At issue had been the review board's desire to continue audits of all the American dioceses to make sure new laws, which say in part that a priest with even one credible allegation of sex abuse against a minor should be removed permanently from ministry, are properly implemented.
In letters to Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, president of the USCCB, made public earlier this month, several bishops including Cardinal Edward Egan of New York and Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, strongly opposed a second round of audits, saying the review board was overstepping its authority.
A heated exchange of letters between the cardinals, Illinois Appellate Justice Anne Burke, who heads the National Review Board, and Gregory revealed the extent of acrimony between the lay board and some church leaders.
• Bishop Meets with Father James Scahill -- RCC.
WWLP,
www.wwlp.com/news2004/story.html?artID=50320 , 05-17-2004
SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts (WWLP)- A private, closed-door meeting was held this afternoon between Springfield Bishop Timothy McDonnell and Father James Scahill. Last week Bishop McDonnell sparked a firestorm of controversy when he said outspoken parish priest James Scahill was doing as much damage to the Diocese as former priest and convicted child molester Richard Lavigne. The Bishop has since apologized to the victims for any pain caused by his comments. Today’s meeting between McDonnell and Scahill was scheduled before this latest turn of events. The Diocese, Bishop McDonnell, and Father Scahill all said they would not comment on today’s meeting because it is private.
• Bishop meets critical priest -- RCC.
Republican,
http://masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1084866722158040.xml?nnhf ,
By STAN FREEMAN, sfreeman@repub.com , Tuesday, May 18, 2004
SPRINGFIELD (MA): After clashing with the Springfield diocese's bishop last week, the Rev. James J. Scahill said his meeting yesterday with the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell, was "very healthy."
The meeting had been scheduled before May 11 when Scahill said the bishop threw him off the Presbyteral Council and said he was as destructive to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield as defrocked priest Richard R. Lavigne, a convicted child molester and the subject of about 40 complaints from those who said he abused them when they were minors. Scahill had criticized the bishop for the time he was taking in considering whether the diocese should financially support Lavigne.
While acknowledging their continuing differences, Scahill said yesterday that the meeting was "very healthy."
"It was a very good and a very open meeting. I would say the bishop and I are not on the same page, but it looks like we may well be in the same chapter," Scahill said. He would not elaborate.
Diocese officials did not return calls seeking a statement from the bishop about the meeting.
• Lawyer Accused of Not Cooperating [Hubbard] -- RCC.
Fox 23,
www.fox23news.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=998B57D7-CDC7-4982-A344-D52903566372
ALBANY (NY): In a statement, Mary Jo White says attorney John Aretakis has refused to cooperate with her investigation. White was hired by the diocese to look into allegations of sexual improprieties by Hubbard, allegations the bishop denies.
White says Aretakis and his clients, who made the allegations, have refused to meet with her or answer written questions. Aretakis says he doesn't trust Mary Jo White, and helping her could hurt his clients.
"I find what Mary Jo White is doing is flawed....She's asking me to compromise my representation of not only 2 clients but also 5 or 6 other witnesses I represent that I'm also keeping from her," says Aretakis.
White says she and her team have interviewed more than 200 people over the last 3 months. Still no word on when the investigation will be completed.
• Hubbard probe lacks testimony of accusers [1970s Hubbard] -- RCC. Males.
Albany Times Union,
www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=249058 &category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=5/18/2004 ;
By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Tuesday, May 18, 2004
ALBANY (NY): A probe into alleged misconduct by Bishop Howard Hubbard has yielded "substantial and significant information" from more than 200 supporters and critics of the church leader but nothing from the lawyer who sparked the inquiry, Mary Jo White said Monday.
The former federal prosecutor hired in February by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany to conduct the investigation said she hasn't spoken with attorney John Aretakis or his clients.
"Mr. Aretakis was the first person we contacted after our investigation was announced," White said. "To date, and despite repeated oral and written requests, he and his clients ... have chosen not to cooperate.
"We are issuing this statement as a public invitation," White said in a written statement Monday, noting that the probe will be completed "with or without" them. She has not set a deadline for release of her report.
White is investigating allegations that Hubbard was sexually involved in the 1970s with Thomas Zalay, a 25-year-old Albany man who killed himself in his parents' home in 1978, and a claim by 40-year-old Anthony Bonneau of Schenectady that the bishop paid him for sex in Washington Park when he was a teenage runaway.
The accusations surfaced at news conferences arranged by Aretakis, who has filed several lawsuits against the diocese on behalf of people who say they were abused by priests and who maintain the diocese did little when they later sought help.
• Catholic church, law enforcement hosting summit on sex abuse
[O'Brien] -- RCC.
The Arizona Republic,
www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0517summit17-ON.html ,
by Michael Clancy, May. 17, 2004
PHOENIX (AZ): The head of the U.S. Catholic Bishops Office of the Child and Youth Protection will be in Phoenix on Thursday for a long-awaited summit on sexual abuse.
The summit, put on by the Diocese of Phoenix and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, will complete the final requirement of the immunity agreement between former Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien and Rick Romley, the county attorney. In that agreement, O'Brien admitted endangering children and quietly transferring priests accused of sexual misconduct.
O'Brien resigned two weeks after signing the agreement after he was arrested and charged for leaving the scene of a fatal accident. He currently is serving his sentence of four years' probation and 1,000 hours of community service.
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, who replaced O'Brien as bishop, said the summit is designed for individuals who work on sexual abuse issues daily.
"Sexual abuse has not only impacted our Catholic Church and other faith communites, it touches all part of our society: youth sports, Scouts, schools, day-care centers, homes, any place where our children and youth gather to play, learn, live and trust," Olmsted said. "We need to do all that is possible to ensure that this trust will never be broken again."
As many as 350 may attend, organizers said, including clergy, victims, perpetrators, law enforcement officials, counselors and others. About 100 representatives of the Diocese of Phoenix will attend, said public information officer Mary Jo West.
• Sex-abuse suit filed vs. priest
[1950s-60s Cannon] -- RCC. Boys.
Philadelphia Daily News,
www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/8693446.htm?ERIGHTS= 4674914628708896885philly::kashaw@peoplepc.com&KRD_RM= 1impqpknppohhhhhhhhhholjmp|Kathleen|Y ;
By GLORIA CAMPISI, campisg@phillynews.com
PENNSYLVANIA: Walter Daly put it behind him.
But his alleged abuse as a child by a priest at Camp St. Monica ate at him throughout his adult life, Daly's lawyer said.
"He dealt with it himself, or tried to," said Stewart J. Eisenberg, who has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Daly and his wife, Jean, against the Philadelphia Archdiocese, St. Monica's Church in South Philadelphia and the Rev. John Cannon, the alleged abuser.
Eisenberg said that in the late '50s and early '60s, when the abuse is alleged to have occurred, campers at the church's Berks County summer camp called Cannon "Poison Ivy" for the way he crept through the camp at night searching for his victims.
The Daly lawsuit seeks in excess of $500,000. It was filed Thursday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.
Spokeswoman Cathy Rossi said the archdiocese had not reviewed the lawsuit but noted it involved "allegations that occurred decades ago.
"The diocesan priest named in the suit, Father John Cannon, is no longer in active ministry," she said.
• Priest pleads not guilty to sex assault [2002 Gagnon]
Male +.
Milford Daily News,
http://www.milforddailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=48185 ,
By Sara Withee, Tuesday, May 18, 2004
UXBRIDGE (MA): Flanked by supporters holding rosary beads, a Millville priest yesterday answered an allegation he sexually assaulted a male parishioner and a new charge of assaulting a second person.
The Rev. Jean-Paul Gagnon, on leave from St. Augustine's Parish, gripped a Bible in Uxbridge District Court yesterday as he pleaded not guilty to indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 and assault and battery.
Worcester County District Attorney John Conte last month announced that Gagnon would be charged with sexually assaulting a male St. Augustine's parishioner in Sutton on or about Oct. 11, 2002.
In early April, Conte told the Daily News his office had closed its investigation of Gagnon after filing the indecent assault charge.
The straight assault and battery charge that emerged during yesterday's arraignment involved a second victim, Conte spokesman Elizabeth Stammo said in an interview. She said the victim came forward in April, but could not provide any additional details.
The Worcester Diocese placed Gagnon on leave from St. Augustine's Parish last July after an investigation. The Rev. Maurice Gilbert was brought in December, ending months of uncertainty at the parish.
• Church will inform police of sex abuse claims after Woodcock [1978-87 Woodcock] -- RCC. Boys.
New Zealand Herald,
www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3567090&thesection=news&thesubsection=general ;
05.18.2004
NEW ZEALAND:
The Catholic Church today vowed to pass all allegations of sex abuse against children by members straight to police following the conviction of paedophile priest Alan Woodcock yesterday.
"We learn by our mistakes and they were very grievous mistakes," the head of Woodcock's order, Father Denis O'Hagan said.
"When allegations of abuse are made against our order if they are contemporary and they are about children we will immediately inform the police."
The church was aware Woodcock had a previous sexual assault conviction before it made him a teacher at a Wellington boys' school.
Woodcock yesterday pleaded guilty to 21 charges of abusing 11 boys between 1978 and 1987 when he was teaching at St John's College, Hastings; St Patrick's College Silverstream; Highden, a school for young priests in Palmerston North; and Futuna, a Catholic retreat in Wellington.
Thirteen charges were withdrawn.
He was remanded in custody to appear in Wellington District Court for sentence on June 25.
• TOP STORY: Abuse by priest a shock to college [1978-87 Woodcock] -- RCC. Boys.
Hawke's Bay Today,
www.mytown.co.nz/story/mytstorydisplay.cfm?thecity=hawkesbay&thepage=news&storyID=3567081&type=nzh ;
18.05.2004
NEW ZEALAND: The Catholic Church and St John's College in Hastings only found out on last night's television news that one of the charges against paedophile priest Alan Woodcock related to his time in Hawke's Bay.
Woodcock yesterday pleaded guilty to 21 charges of abusing 11 boys when he was teaching in Hastings, Upper Hutt, Palmerston North and Wellington, mostly in the mid-1980s. Thirteen charges, including one of sodomy, were withdrawn.
He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on June 25.
The earliest complaint dated back to 1978, when Woodcock, then a teacher at St John's, removed a 14-year-old's trousers during a trip in the hills behind Taradale.
Principal Neal Swindells said the school had never been approached with a complaint about the priest, and he learned only last night that one of the charges related to his time in Hastings.
• Police will hear sex abuse claims first - church [1978-87 Woodcock] -- RCC. Boys and seminarians.
Stuff,
stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2911270a11,00.html ,
18 May 2004
NEW ZEALAND: The Catholic Church has vowed to pass all allegations of sex abuse against children by members straight to police following the conviction of paedophile priest Alan Woodcock yesterday.
"We learn by our mistakes and they were very g
