• "Sex monster may get life" [1986-91 Michael Charles Glennon] -- Roman Catholic Church.
Herald Sun, "Sex monster may get life," www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,7521417%5E2862,00.html ,
11-10-2003 , Ed: 1 - FIRST , Pg: 004 , 599 words , NEWS, By Philip Cullen, Oct 11 03;
MELBOURNE (Victoria) Australia: Notorious pedophile priest Michael Charles Glennon may spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The serial child molester folded his arms and shook his head as a County Court jury yesterday found him guilty of 23 charges of abuse on three boys from 1986 to 1991.
He stared at the jury from the dock and mouthed the words "no", "wrong", "absolute crap" and "never" as the foreman sealed his fate.
The jury heard Glennon, defrocked by the Catholic Church in 1984, used his knowledge of Aboriginal customs to abuse children and scare them into silence.
Judge Roland Williams noted it had been a "lengthy and demanding trial" and excused the nine men and three women from sitting on another case for seven years.
The bony-faced monster has now been convicted over the past four years at three trials of 50 sex offences, which carry maximum penalties of up to 25 years' jail.
The trials could not be reported until today for legal reasons.
Glennon preyed on young boys while awaiting trial on other sex charges -- even after broadcaster Derryn Hinch was jailed in 1987 for exposing him in a radio campaign.
Glennon, 59, is currently more than half-way through a 6 1/2 year minimum jail term imposed after another jury convicted him in 1999.
The former priest, karate teacher and scout chaplain has now been convicted of abusing 15 children, including altar boys, over 17 years.
Many of the attacks took place at a youth camp at Lancefield he helped establish.
He is now classed a serious sexual offender under legislation that treats the protection of the community as paramount and allows longer jail terms than would otherwise be justified.
His latest shameful crimes can finally be revealed after the lifting of suppression orders banning publication of three trials that began in 1999.
Hinch, who spent 12 days in custody in 1987 and paid a $15,000 fine after being convicted of contempt of court in May 1986, yesterday said he would do it again.
"He is one of the most evil men I have ever known of in this town," he said.
"These charges relate to assaults on children up to 1991 and that means he never stopped. He is a predator -- he is just the most evil human being."
Hinch said he hoped Glennon, who has tasted just two years of freedom in the past 11, spends the next 20 years behind bars.
Glennon was first convicted in 1978 when he was sentenced to two years' jail after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting a girl under 14.
It is the only crime he has admitted.
In 1991, he was jailed for nine years with a seven-year minimum term after being convicted of five sexual assaults on three girls and a boy between April 1979 and December 1980.
Glennon was acquitted when the Full Supreme Court found that Hinch's campaign had made a fair trial impossible.
But his five months of freedom ended in May 1992, when the High Court reinstated the convictions and sentence.
He was released in November 1997 soon after being charged with 65 sexual offences. These were dealt with in three separate trials, which have now finally been heard.
In August, a jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting and raping a 12-year-old boy in 1984.
And in 1999, Glennon was jailed for 8 1/2 years with a 6 1/2-year minimum for assaulting six victims between May 1974 and May 1978.
Glennon will appear in court next week for a plea hearing before he is sentenced.
[Originally by courtesy of www.mako.org.au]
• Priest preyed on innocents. [1974-91]
MELBOURNE (Victoria) Australia:
Michael Charles Glennon was charged with dozens of sex crimes just before he was to be released from jail in 1997. The 65 offences against 15 children from 1974 to 1991 were split into three trials in April 1999. After yesterday's verdict, he was c... [Fee charged to obtain the rest of this newsitem]
-- Herald Sun, "Priest preyed on innocents," Ed: 1 - FIRST , Pg: 015 , 1192 words , NEWS, Oct 11 2003
• Pedophile ex-priest Glennon said sex was "secret men's business".
MELBOURNE: One of Australia's most notorious pedophiles, former Catholic priest Michael Charles Glennon, was convicted yesterday of molesting three boys between 1986 and 1991.
After the decision, Judge Roland Williams lifted suppression orders allowing details of Glennon's crimes to be reported for the first time - including convictions in 1999 and August this year.
The verdict, by a County Court jury, was the culmination of a legal saga that included aborted trials, a controversial intervention by broadcaster Derryn Hinch and appeals to the High Court.
Glennon, 59, was convicted of 23 charges against the three boys. The children, who were members of an extended Aboriginal family, were abused at Karaglen, a rural property near Lancefield.
At Karaglen, Glennon ran youth camps as well as performing Mass and other priestly duties despite being banned by the church in 1979 from ministering and having been forced from the priesthood in 1984.
The holder of a black belt in karate, he committed many of the abuses during martial arts camps run by his Peaceful Hand Youth Foundation.
During the trial, prosecutor Rosemary Carlin said Glennon had used his knowledge of indigenous culture to win the boys' trust - telling them sexual acts were "secret men's business".
Glennon was found guilty of 13 counts of indecent assault, a number of counts of sexual penetration and one count of rape.
Ms Carlin said the boys' parents had trusted Glennon - inviting him to their homes and allowing him to share a bed with their children.
"They think the world of Glennon; he is their priest, their friend, their confidant... He has shown them that he has a profound understanding and respect for the Aboriginal culture," she said.
One of the boys, now a man in his late 20s, said Glennon had abused him from the age of six or seven, scaring him with ghost stories before inviting him into his bed.
The other boys said they were abused between the ages of 10 and 13. They said Glennon told them that if they told anyone of their abuse, an Aboriginal spirit would pursue them.
Yesterday was the fifth time Glennon had been convicted of child-sex offences. He was found guilty of similar charges in 1978 and 1991 and is serving a minimum sentence of 61/2 years imposed in 1999 for offences against six children in the 1970s.
In August, Glennon was convicted of abusing a male child in his bedroom at Karaglen during the early 1980s. That hearing was a retrial ordered after a second 1999 conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal.
Glennon gained notoriety in 1985 when Hinch named him on air as a pedophile who was working with children despite a 1978 conviction for molesting a 10-year-old girl. That broadcast, made while Glennon was facing further child sex charges, led to Hinch being jailed for 12 days for contempt of court.
In 1991, Glennon was convicted of sexually abusing four children but won an appeal after arguing that media coverage had prejudiced his trial. That decision was overturned by the High Court, which reimposed the minimum seven-year sentence.
Glennon will be sentenced at a later date.
-- The Age, Melbourne, "More convictions for pedophile priest,"
www.theage.com.au ,
By Dan Silkstone, October 11 2003
• Priest and predator.
Former Catholic cleric Michael Glennon was worshipped by his flocks but he preyed on their most vulnerable members, reports Dan Silkstone.
MELBOURNE: See it fall, this brittle, yellowed leaf of history - freed from a crowded library file after almost 30 years.
It's an unlikely introduction to one of Melbourne's most infamous pedophiles, a good-news story of a lost and found puppy returned to a grateful, popular priest.
"I was heartbroken when he got out," Father Michael Charles Glennon told The
Age in 1974 about his mischievous labrador. "The kids adore Robbie. I was dreading having to explain to hundreds of Moonee Ponds children that Robbie was missing."
Now witness this faded clipping from 1979 in which a karate-kicking Glennon is hailed as "a new breed of church worker" as he promotes his Peaceful Hand Youth Foundation, a Christian karate movement that he boasts has 5000 members.
* * *
Glennon, one of Australia's worst pedophiles, was yesterday found guilty by a County Court jury of 23 child sex charges against three victims - the fifth time he has been convicted of such charges since 1978.
After the decision, Judge Roland Williams lifted suppression orders dating back to the late 1990s, allowing for the reporting of two previous trials, in 1999 and in August this year.
* * *
Though sacked from the clergy, he was practising as a renegade priest, ministering from his Thornbury home to a flock of poor and Aboriginal families. He also continued to run karate camps for thousands of local youths at his "Karaglen" property in rural Victoria.
So why did Glennon's followers love and trust him so completely, in the face of the disturbing and convincing evidence?
Throughout both trials prosecutor Rosemary Carlin marvelled that parents unquestioningly allowed their children to sleep in Glennon's bed and accompany him on overnight trips - long after he had been charged with sexual offences.
* * *
One of the boys, now a damaged man with a history of drug abuse, said Glennon had scared him with ghost stories before inviting him into his bed. Two victims said they loved Glennon so much that they sat among his supporters during the 1991 trial and wrote letters to him in prison. Carlin read from one of the letters, penned in 1991 by a 14-year-old victim.
"We shared so much together - laughed, cried, joked. There is no more of that because of the accusers," he wrote. "You were my life and soul. The thought of you not here causes me so much pain."
During the trial the same victim, now in his late 20s, could hardly look at his abuser.
* * *
[Picture: Michael Glennon in 1991.]
-- The Age, Melbourne, "Priest and predator,"
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/10/1065676160320.html ,
by Dan Silkstone, October 11, 2003
• Exposure of Anglican sex abuse led to counselling service being
swamped.
HOBART (Tasmania) Australia: Tasmania's sexual assault counselling service has been inundated with calls from victims and is unable to cope with the demand.
Victims of assault face waits of between four and six months for routine counselling. People seeking urgent help for historical cases sometimes have to wait four weeks to see a counsellor.
The crisis began about eight weeks ago when intense media coverage began about abuse within the Anglican Church and an inquiry into abuse of former state wards.
"We are not coping too well," the Sexual Assault Support Service's new state manager Karen Jones said.
"In the last year we have had a massive increase in the number of people ringing us for counselling." . . .
-- The Mercury, Hobart, "Abuse counselling crisis: Sex assault victims face long waits as service is swamped,"
www.themercury.news.com.au ,
by Ellen Whinnett, Oct 11 03
• EDITORIAL: "Keep him caged." Glennon.
MELBOURNE: We do not have the legislation in place to properly punish defrocked priest Michael Charles Glennon. He is the opportunistic, manipulative serial pedophile who shows no remorse, the predator without pity. Cunning and evil, he seeks out innocence and destroys it like an agent of Satan.
Repeatedly betraying his church and the trust of children and their families, he is one of the most malevolent elements in the flotsam that occasionally pollutes our country's otherwise-hopeful tides.
He has been stopped - for the moment. He must be stopped forever.
Never again should Glennon be free when some of his victims are doomed to stay hostage forever to fear of his making. Never again should he be permitted to walk streets where decent men walk, to be trusted in the presence of children, to be at liberty to plot once more the destruction of a young life.
Glennon, on Friday found guilty of 23 charges of abuse on three boys between 1986 and '91, appears beyond rehabilitation or redemption.
He is already serving a minimum 6 1/2 years after another jury convicted him in 1999. The latest case takes to 15 the number of children he has abused. Given Glennon's elaborate deceptions, his cruel cynicism and his inability to confront the reality of his wrongdoing, the community is entitled to wonder aloud what other broken lives lie hidden in this wicked former priest's wake.
Smiling savage Karate teacher, scout chaplain and founder of a rural retreat, Glennon's perversions know no bounds. And what of the poor parents who had this smiling savage baptise their babies -- and with what depraved thoughts?
He played guitar and led children in singing. He blessed some he later molested. He used his knowledge of Aboriginal customs to abuse some children and scare them into silence. He lied to children and parents and took advantage of Catholics who believed in their priest's integrity.
Glennon is 59. He is classed as a serious sexual offender under special legislation. He faces court this week for a plea hearing. Another 25 years in jail is a possible outcome.
He may well meet his maker without leaving jail.
We hope so.
-- Sunday Herald Sun, Editorial, "Keep him caged,"
www.heraldsun.news.com.au ,
Oct 12 03
•
SUCH BRAVE HEARTS. AUSTRALIA:
Two important developments in the war against child abuse in the past few days. One here in Australia. One in the United States. One depressing and one showing a glimmer of hope and understanding.
The depressing, even ignorant, news was here in Australia where a new report showed that almost 25% of those adults surveyed did not condemn sex between a 14-year-old girl and an adult. They did not see that as sexual abuse.
Presumably, they pine for Peter Hollingworth's return to Yarralumla. After all, that was his television defence for his lack of action against a 27-year-old married priest, a boarding school housemaster, who seduced one of his 14-year-old charges.
Remember, on Australian Story, the Governor-General and former Anglican Archbishop of Queensland, said that it wasn't child abuse or anything like that. Rather the other way round.
And the same survey released this week showed that one in ten Australian adults did not support prison sentences for parents convicted of sexually assaulting their children.
The family that lays together – stays together.
Now, I obviously don't believe that the 10% who oppose jail are all guilty of incest. But don't these ignorant or deluded people realise that the "jail card" is the one most played by incestuous fathers while coercing their daughters (and sons) into "keeping our little secret"?
They say things like: "Don't tell anybody because if you do then Daddy might go to jail…. and who would look after you and Mummy?"
And thousands of pressured and assaulted and scared kids have kept that foul secret for years. And the abuse has gone on and on.
The second news that showed some light at the end of the tunnel was out of the United States. The Catholic Church announced it would finally pay compensation to victims over the systematic sexual assaults on children by priests in the Boston Archdiocese in Massachusetts.
The Church will pay $ US85 million dollars. They have acknowledged that 524 victims deserve compensation for what perverted priests did to them over decades while Church leaders turned a blind eye.
The encouraging news out of that decision reaffirms something I have long believed and commented on. Church leaders from Brisbane to Boston are only now being dragged into the reality of the real world by their fears of more and more lawsuits.
They are only now accepting that telling victims (and their parents) to hush up for the sake of the Church and merely transferring a paedophile priest to another parish was not only morally and religiously reprehensible. It was legally and financially flawed.
I believe, only the threat of massive financial payouts (like this week's $85 million) has prompted a review of cover-up practices from Vermont to The Vatican.
We have seen how church leaders enjoy the high life. We have seen how the Vatican bankers operated so avariciously around the world. When church leaders and their accountants have to start selling investments to pay for lawsuits it is a different ballgame
The clever but callous tactic of ducking and denial is finally being nailed.
Coincidentally, on the day that both those stories came out I was in Brisbane as guest speaker at a corporate fundraising lunch for Bravehearts -- the plucky, earnest, fledgling child abuse fighting group up there.
It was founded and run by Hetty Johnston -- an indefatigable campaigner who even describes herself as a tank and who was a key campaigner in newspapers and on television during Governor-General Hollingworth's self-serving attempt to keep his Canberra privileges.
It was Bravehearts annual White Balloon Day and they released a cartoon CD for kids and a more explicit booklet for parents – to guide them on how to teach your children about inappropriate touching and sexual secrets.
(I guess the ten per cent of people who think fathers shouldn't go to jail for having sex with their five-year-old daughters won't read it).
The things that hit me hardest at that luncheon were two-fold.
The first was that "the corporates" – the top end of town – will go to charity functions and (generously) pay $25,000 for a signed cricket bat. They will go to Calcutta nights at the Spring Carnival and pay $50,000 for a horse.
But helping finance a child sexual assault victim group is sort of unseemly and uncomfortable.
We all applauded at Bravehearts when a guest paid $1000 for a donated washing machine.
The second thing that got to me in Brisbane was the sheer number of victims who came up to me after my speech. I'd seen and heard it all before. But it was a reminder of this much-hidden epidemic of the theft of childhood innocence.
Many of the women I spoke to were middle-aged. Abused as children at a time when nobody talked about it. Even the mothers that knew.
But, encouragingly, there were women in their twenties now prepared to bravely go public.
They have a long way to go. One woman could not prevent the welling tears as she told me about her daughter -- molested from the age of four to 21.
The man who did it is "known to Police". He still runs a sporting/entertainment complex in Queensland.
Whenever her daughter even sees the stadium on the TV news she freezes and almost retches.
-- Sunday Herald Sun, Hinch Article, SUCH BRAVE HEARTS,
http://www.hinch.net/articles_archive/such_brave_hearts.htm .,
by Derryn Hinch, probably Sun Oct 12 03
• See also "Outcry against 'sex monster' priest;" Vatican still says coverage "exaggerated" and "in United States"
AUSTRALIA: [Gives account of the guilty verdict on ex-priest Michael Glennon of a further 23 charges, giving his progressive total as 50]
. . .
Glennon committed further offences against young boys while awaiting trial on other sex charges, after broadcaster Derryn Hinch was jailed in 1987 for exposing him in his controversial "trial by media" radio campaign.
. . .
Meanwhile Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano said on Friday that the clergy sex-abuse scandal in the United States has been exaggerated by the media and unfairly tainted thousands of priests.
"The scandals in the United states received disproportionate attention from the media," he said, "There are thieves in every country, but it's hard to say that everyone is a thief."
-- Catholic News, http://www.cathnews.com/news/310/62.php , "Outcry against 'sex monster' priest,"
perhaps 12 or 13 Oct 03. Here are its Sources and Links:-
SOURCES:Herald-SunCatholic World News. LINKS:Editorial: Keep him caged (Herald-Sun)More convictions for pedophile priest (The Age)Abuse counselling crisis: Sex assault victims face long waits as service is swamped (The Mercury).
Article perhaps Oct 12 or 13 2003
########## Poynteronline, Abuse Tracker, Monday, October 13, 2003 edition follows:- • $5.2M church deal may be just beginning.
KENTUCKY: Now that the Diocese of Covington has agreed to pay $5.2 million -- an
amount greater than all its previous sexual-abuse payouts combined -- to
settle two Lexington-area lawsuits, attorneys and officials look to the
next case.
It is sobering.
The Cincinnati firm of Waite, Schneider, Bayless and Chesley is pursuing a
separate class-action suit against the diocese in Boone Circuit Court on
behalf of all victims of sexual abuse by priests in the past 50 years.
Attorney Stan Chesley believes that at least 40 priests -- more than one
out of every 10 in the diocese during that time -- sexually abused
children. He also believes there are up to 1,000 victims.
The Lexington case, first filed asking for $50 million, involved just 27
alleged victims and the agreed payment amounts to about $190,000 per
person.
If Chesley's estimate is correct and there are as many as 1,000 victims, a
settlement of the same magnitude in this next case could cost the diocese
$190 million.
-- The Cincinnati Post,
http://www.cincypost.com/2003/10/13/dioc101303.html ,
By Kevin Eigelbach, Post staff reporter, Oct 13 03
(Posted by Kathy Shaw 9:21:25 AM)
• Diocese won't detail priest aid.
SPRINGFIELD (MA): As one parish continues to protest against the financial
support given to a priest convicted of molestation, officials of the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Springfield refuse to say how many other priests
accused of sexual abuse may be receiving the same aid.
Since June 2002, the Rev. James J. Scahill and his St. Michael's Parish in
East Longmeadow have been protesting the diocese's financial support of
the Rev. Richard R. Lavigne by withholding the 6 percent of weekly
collections that is supposed to go to the bishop's office.
Lavigne, of Chicopee, admitted in 1992 to molesting two boys. In 1994, the
diocese settled 17 suits filed by those who say he sexually molested them
as children. Fourteen other suits are pending.
Lavigne, although still a priest, has been removed from the ministry as
have at least five others after the Misconduct Commission found merit in
accusations of sexual abuse against them. A sixth priest asked to be
removed from his duties after being named in a lawsuit.
-- The Republican,
http://www.masslive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1065858353261648.xml?nnae ,
By BILL ZAJAC Staff writer,
wzajac@repub.com
Oct 11 2003
• 'The Magdalene Sisters'.
PHILIPPINES: Greenbelt Cinema has been showing Director Peter Mullan's riveting
Oscar-worthy film The Magdalene Sisters. In a country recently made aware
of "clerical pedophilia" by Catholic priests, such sexual depravities
constitute a mere backdrop to institutionalized cruelties of Catholic
nuns. It is a movie with urgent social relevance and consciousness
intended to denounce the inhumane treatment of female adolescents by
ordained Catholic religious leaders.
Movie critic Joe Baltake calls the
film "harsh and angry," which "stages a deliberately paced and thoroughly
researched indictment of institutionalized cruelty and the kind of
ignorance and hypocrisy that validates and encourages it.
The Magdalene Sisters is set in 1964 County Dublin, Ireland, graphically
depicting the systematic punishment and demoralization of adolescents, who
have committed no crimes except for having been born female.
Declared as "wayward women," they are victims of rape, incest seduction. They are
victims of an unforgiving and misguided society, foremost among them are
their Catholic parents and clergy, who condemn their children for
institutionalization at Ireland's Magdalene Laundries, a series of prisons
disguised as convents for the young women to pay for their "sins."
The Laundries were run by the Sisters of Mercy, named after Mary Magdalene, a prostituted woman forgiven by Jesus Christ Himself for her remorse. But the Sisters of Mercy never forgave any of the reported 30,000 young women imprisoned behind locked doors, consigned to hard labor for 10 hours daily, 365 days yearly, without pay, until their parents or parish priests deemed they were cleansed enough to leave. Many adolescent girls were abandoned, never retrieved, living in poverty, misery and abuse in the Laundries until their oblivious deaths. Only until some unmarked caskets were discovered, causing a scandal in Ireland, that attention was paid to the unknown women, ultimately leading to the closing of the Magdalene Laundries. These convent prisons even flourished during the 1970s with the last laundry closed only in 1996. . . .
-- The Manila Times,
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2003/oct/13/opinion/20031013opi3.html ,
By Eric F. Mallonga,
possibly Oct 13 03
• Church keeping tabs on teachers.
CONNECTICUT: Catechism teachers at Roman Catholic parishes across Connecticut are
undergoing a level of scrutiny that was unheard of in the church until
this year.
The volunteer religious education teachers are being asked to fill out
forms and provide information that will be used to do background checks.
So are other church workers in both paid and volunteer positions.
Welcome to the new reality of the Roman Catholic Church in America.
-- New Britain Herald,
http://www.newbritainherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10310010&BRD=1641&PAG=461&dept_id=10110&rfi=6 ,
By LUTHER TURMELLE,
Special to The Herald,
possibly Sunday, October 12, 2003
• New Code of Conduct for Diocese.
SYRACUSE (NY): At least 12,000 employees and volunteers - including priests and bishops - must pass criminal background checks as part of the Syracuse Diocese's
attempt to combat sexual abuse of minors.
Anyone who has contact with children in the seven-county, 350,000-member
Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse will undergo training and background
checks and must follow a code of conduct as part of an expanded policy the
diocese will release today.(Thursday)
"If a person has a background of sexual abuse, we don't want you to have
anything to do with our young people," said the Rev. James P. Lang, who
oversees the program for the diocese.
The Diocesan Safe Environment Program will include clergy, teachers,
coaches and volunteers who work full-time or part-time, paid or unpaid, in
schools, parishes, Catholic Charities and youth ministry programs. The
policy also applies to Bishops James Moynihan and Thomas Costello.
-- Post-Standard
http://www.syracuse.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1065689730257620.xml?syrneocit ,
By Renee K. Gadoua
October 09, 2003
• List Of Accusations Against Priests.
WASHINGTON (DC): More than 25 current or former Roman Catholic priests serving as U.S. military chaplains have been accused of sexual abuse.
[Sixteen names not re-published here, due to risk of defamation]
-- TheBostonChannel.com
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/2546666/detail.html
• 'Thief' priest charged.
NEW YORK: A renegade priest who allegedly skimmed $88,000 from
the collection boxes of a Long Island church where he celebrated Mass for
25 years was arraigned yesterday for possessing an illegal gun and stolen
property.
John Johnston, 64, was busted Tuesday after he confessed to cops he had
been stealing from the poor box from St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church
in Bethpage, where he had celebrated Mass for the past 25 years.
Bail was posted at $1,500 at Queens Criminal Court and he was remanded to
Rikers Island where he awaits further charges in Nassau County for
stealing church funds.
-- New York Post,
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/7905.htm ,
October 12, 2003
• Priest Back In Court.
NEW YORK: A Queens priest suspected of stealing money from his Long Island parish
and making threatening phone calls to a Catholic high school principal was
back in criminal court late Friday to face additional charges.
John Johnston, 64, was arraigned on charges of second-degree criminal
possession of stolen property and fourth-degree criminal possession of a
weapon, according to a spokesman for Queens District Attorney Richard
Brown.
Acting Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron set bail at $1,500. Johnston is
scheduled to return to court Oct. 24 for a preliminary hearing, according
to the spokesman, Patrick Clark. He is still being held because of pending
charges in Nassau County, Clark said.
Johnston is suspected of making a series of harassing calls to the
principal of Bishop Laughlin High School, in the Fort Greene section of
Brooklyn between July 1 and Oct. 2, police said.
-- Newsday,
http://www.nynewsday.com/nyc-nyprie123492365oct12,0,1357505.story?coll=nyc-topheadlines-left ,
By Deborah S. Morris
October 12, 2003
• Audit praises Bridgeport Diocese in complying with abuse rules.
BRIDGEPORT (Conn.): An audit of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport
has found that church officials have complied with the requirements of the
U.S. church to protect children, the diocese said Saturday.
The audit, conducted by the Boston-based Gavin Group, said the diocese
exceeded requirements established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops' "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People."
The audit commended the diocese for aggressively "making its efforts as
transparent as possible to the public and parishioners, considering the
restrictions of civil and criminal due process."
The Gavin Group, comprised of former FBI agents, was hired by the bishops
conference to make sure 195 dioceses comply with the national church's
charter enacted following a scandal in the Boston diocese called into
question how abuse allegations are handled.
The charter imposes 17 rules, including one that requires the church to
turn over abuse allegations to authorities for criminal investigation.
-- The Advocate,
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/state/hc-11230613.apds.m0688.bc-ct--churoct11,0,3706730.story?coll=hc-headlines-local-wire ,
Associated Press, October 11, 2003
• Former K.C. priest accused of sexual abuse.
KANSAS CITY (MO): Two people filed lawsuits Thursday accusing a former
Roman Catholic priest of sexually abusing them in the early 1970s, and the
Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph of covering up abuse.
The civil suits filed in Jackson County Circuit Court accuse the Rev.
Francis McGlynn of sexually abusing Francis V. Scheuring and Theresa
White while McGlynn was a priest at St. Mary's Church in Independence, Mo.
The lawsuits also accuse the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Bishop
Raymond J. Boland and the Rev. Patrick Rush, vicar general of the diocese,
of covering up abuse.
Scheuring was an altar boy when the abuse allegedly took place from 1971
to 1974. White said the alleged abuse occurred when she was 17 and engaged
to marry a Catholic.
-- Lawrence Journal World
http://www.ljworld.com/section/stateregional/story/148329 ,
By Amy Shafer - Associated Press Writer,
Sunday, October 12, 2003
• Loyola move was quick but not painless; University president's removal 'a hell of a shock'.
NEW ORLEANS (LA): Bernie Knoth was not eating.
At one level he seemed the same man Temple Brown had come to like and
admire during his years as a member of the board of trustees at Loyola
University. There had always been an air of companionability about Knoth,
an invitation to call him Bernie instead of Father Knoth, a certain urbane
wit, intelligence and vivacity entirely appropriate to a university
president who must work with many constituencies.
In the comfortable setting of the President's Dining Room in Loyola's
Danna Center that Sept. 30 afternoon, Knoth sketched his plans for the
coming year for Brown, who had left the board but was still an honorary
trustee; Brown's wife, Penny; and two other couples.
Brown thought he sounded enthusiastic.
"I must say I didn't catch it, but my wife did," Brown said later. "She
told me later she thought there was something wrong. He'd just picked at
his food, and she thought he looked distracted."
Indeed, Knoth was likely forcing himself through the motions.
-- Times-Picayune
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/106593665034800.xml ,
By Bruce Nolan, Sunday October 12, 2003
• Catholic sex abuse scandal widens in military.
WASHINGTON (DC): Even as the Catholic Church has tried to put its sex abuse
scandal behind it with fresh policies and investigations, new accusations
have surfaced in the past year against 11 current or former priests who
served as chaplains in the military.
The new claims bring to more than two dozen the number of Catholic
military chaplains accused of sexual abuse, according to an Associated
Press review of church, military and court records.
Among the latest to be accused is Navy Cmdr. Brian Bjorklund, who had his
priestly powers suspended by the Detroit Archdiocese in July because of a
credible allegation that he abused a child before he joined the Navy.
Bjorklund has been suspended as a chaplain at the Naval Air Station in
Lemoore, Calif.
He is one of at least eight Catholic chaplains accused of sexual
misconduct before joining the military, the AP review found. Church and
court records show that Catholic officials knew, but did not tell the
military, about the misdeeds of at least two priests before they became
chaplains.
-- The Arizona Republic
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1012military12.html ,
by Matt Kelley, Associated Press, Oct. 12, 2003
• St Joseph's Home Care Co-ordinator urges openness following sexual abuse allegations.
MALTA: Fr Frankie Cini, the Co-ordinator of Care at St Joseph's Home for boys,
admits that it has crossed his mind that the institute should be closed in
the wake of the child abuse scandal that rocked the Maltese Church.
"There were moments when pressure and reactions were so strong that you
start asking yourself where is it going to end. I think it's too early to
say, but it's not the society's intention to close down the home at the
moment. We've been asking the government for help for ages. The State and
the Ministry of Social Policy know that the system is not sustainable
because we've been complaining about it for years. We have been accused
that we don't want to be monitored, that we resist State intervention,
when in fact we've been clamouring for it for years. We want to work
together - this is not a segregated area."
We speak inside the enormous home in Santa Venera, built more than a
century ago, where the abuses allegedly took place. Fr Cini, 32, has been
working here as the Children's Coordinator of Care for the last year and
these allegations have put him in the eye of the storm.
Being a priest and a member of the Missionary Society of St Paul - the
religious society involved in the scandal - Fr Cini is not afraid to
publicly raise the issue himself.
Only last Friday his first words to a packed hall of parents at St Monica
School, Qormi, were: "I am Fr Frankie Cini, a member of the MSSP and
Co-ordinator of Care at St Joseph's institute."
-- The Malta Independent,
http://www.independent.com.mt/daily/newsview.asp?id=21519
Web posted on October 12, 2003
• Covington Diocese settles at $5M; Alleged abuse involved priests in '60s and '70s.
COVINGTON (KY): The Covington Diocese paid more than $5 million late Friday to
settle 27 claims of sexual abuse by priests who served at churches from
Maysville to Lexington in the 1960s and 1970s.
The figure is nearly double what the diocese paid to settle sex-abuse
claims made in the last decade - and $1.47 million more than the diocese
earned in donations and investments in 2001.
The settlement is believed to leave only one unresolved lawsuit alleging
sexual abuse by priests in the Covington Diocese. That suit was made into
a class action earlier this month in Boone Circuit Court. Lawyers for the
Cincinnati firm Waite, Schneider, Bayless & Chesley believe there are
an additional 500 to 1,000 victims who could benefit from any damages paid
in connection to that claim.
Diocese spokesman Tim Fitzgerald said Saturday that the diocese's insurer
will pay $3.23 million of the settlement while the diocese will pay $1.94
million.
. . .
Diocese spokesman Tim Fitzgerald said Saturday that the diocese's insurer will pay $3.23 million of the settlement while the diocese will pay $1.94 million.
He said no money from parish assessments, the sale of real estate or from the Diocesan Annual Appeal will be used to pay the settlement. But, he added, it was unclear whether the settlement would affect the diocese's ability to offer services to its parishioners in the future.
-- The Cincinnati Enquirer,
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/10/12/loc_kychurchsettles12.html ,
By Jim Hannah, Sunday, October 12, 2003
• Catholic group prepares conference at Fordham.
NEW YORK: When Voice of the Faithful rose up in Boston during the Catholic Church's horrific year of 2002, demanding an undefined role for the laity in their
suddenly vulnerable church, the group was widely seen as sincere, a touch
naive and unlikely to last.
After all, the church's sex-abuse scandal would fade from the public
consciousness. The nation's bishops would wait out the crisis without
opening their ledgers or boardrooms, and ordinary Catholics would lose
interest in cracking their church's famously sealed bureaucracy.
Almost two years later, though, as Voice of the Faithful readies for a
major conference on Fordham University's Bronx campus, there are signs
that the group is fine-tuning its mission and finding a voice in scattered
parishes and even the larger Catholic community.
The group is still viewed with suspicion by some bishops and others who
insist it is covertly seeking to upend the magisterium -- what the church
believes is its God-given power to teach doctrine. But Voice of the
Faithful has focused on structural reform in the church, and a national
goal is to fashion new guidelines for how parish councils might operate.
Such an initiative may lack drama, but it says to critics that Voice of
the Faithful plans to be around and seek realistic, not radical, change.
-- The Journal News
ttp://www.nyjournalnews.com/newsroom/101203/a0112faithful.html ,
By Gary Stern, October 12, 2003
(Posted by Kathy Shaw, Poynteronline)
########## End of Poynteronline, Abuse Tracker, Monday, October 13, 2003
########## Poynteronline, Abuse Tracker, Tuesday, October 14, 2003 edition follows:- • The nun from hell.
NEW YORK; I've known Hollywood screenwriter Elizabeth Anderson for 15 years and her
husband, television producer Bob Stevens, for twice that long.
What I didn't know until last week - when I read Anderson's astonishing
manuscript, "Storming the Gates of Heaven" - was that, at age 7, she was
sexually tortured and mutilated by nuns at an exclusive Catholic girls
school in the Midwest, and that she and Stevens, the co-executive producer
of "Malcolm in the Middle," have spent the past decade in a quest for
justice and peace of mind.
Anderson's book is a harrowing, enraging and moving account of child
abuse, coverup, bureaucratic indifference and personal triumph. The
narrative - factual, although "the names have been changed to protect the
guilty" - details Anderson's 1993 miscarriage, which apparently triggered
repressed memories of her long-ago abuse. (Ironically, the memories came
back while she was polishing a remake of "Lassie" for director Daniel
Petrie, who also directed "Sybil.")
Anderson reveals that she and Stevens ultimately hired a private detective
to find her only surviving and most sadistic tormenter, "Sister
Thomasina," who - shockingly - was living, she writes, on the grounds of a
parochial school on the West Coast.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/126121p-112878c.html ,
-- New York Daily News,
by Lloyd Grove
(Posted by Kathy Shaw 10:26:20 AM)
• Ex-Brothers concerned at 'false' claims.
IRELAND: Two former Christian Brothers are upset that abuse allegations, already
investigated by the Garda, are being brought up again by the State's
redress board. Patsy McGarry reports in The Irish Times,
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2003/1011/1701048065HM7LAFFOY.html .
A former Christian Brother, "Peter", against whom no charges were brought
following a Garda investigation of physical and sexual abuse allegations
against him, has been asked by the Residential Institutions Redress Board
to comment on the allegations.
The board has also asked him to comment on one new allegation with which
he was not confronted before. It dates from a year when Peter was aged
two. He has never heard of the man making the allegation.
-- One in Four
http://www.oneinfour.org/news/news2003/falseclaims/
• My faith helped to save church abuse deal, says Woods.
IRELAND: The former Education Minister, Michael Woods, has said that his strong
Catholic faith made him the most suitable person to negotiate the
controversial compensation deal for abuse victims with religious
institutions.
Defending the exclusion of then Attorney-General, Michael McDowell, and
his officials from two meetings, Dr Woods said: "The legal people simply
couldn't have attended - it was a no-go area for them - they had fallen
out with the religious."
As the row over the exclusion of the Attorney-General's office from the
negotiations continues to divide the Government, Mr Woods yesterday told
the Sunday Independent: "My religion was an asset."
-- One in Four
http://www.oneinfour.org/news/news2003/faith/
( by Eoghan Williams in the The Sunday Independent,
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1061284&a>
mp;issue_id=9910 )
• Minister must act to prevent closure of One in Four group.
IRELAND: The Labour Party Spokesperson on Health, Deputy Liz McManus, has urged the Minister for Health, Michael Martin to provide the funding necessary to
allow the One in Four group to continue providing services to victims of
sexual abuse.
"One in Four has been one of the most successful groups assisting victims
of sexual abuse and it would be a real tragedy if it were allowed to
close. This will send out the wrong message entirely to victims of abuse.
We have heard the Taoiseach and other senior Ministers repeat time after
time over the past few weeks that their primary concern is for the victims
of abuse. This is an odd way to show it.
"It seems extraordinary that the state is prepared to provide indemnity
worth up to a billion euro to religious congregations that were, in many
cases, responsible for the shocking abuse of children placed in their
care, while it is not prepared to provide the modest amounts necessary to
allow an organisation like One in Four to continue in operation.
-- One in Four
http://www.oneinfour.org/news/news2003/labourdoc1/
• State was warned of risks of indemnity deal.
IRELAND:
A senior Department of Education official warned that the State would be
taking on an "unspecified financial burden" 13 months before an indemnity
deal was agreed between 18 religious congregations and the last
Government.
Mr Tom Boland said in a memo that the indemnity deal was "a kind of
retrospective insurance", which potentially supplied religious orders
"with a substantial subsidy".
In the memo to the Department's secretary general, Mr John Dennehy, dated
April 30th, 2001, and released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of
Information Act, Mr Boland said: "The State would be taking on an
unspecified financial burden, and relieving the congregations of same
(potentially providing them with a substantial subsidy)."
-- One in Four
http://www.oneinfour.org/news/news2003/deali/
By Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, From The Irish Times,
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2003/1013/2536437374HM5DEAL.html
• One in Four shuts down over funding dispute.
IRELAND:
Relevant Government departments have all denied knowledge of a telephone
call strongly criticising public statements by the director of the One in
Four organisation which supports victims of sexual abuse.
The allegation was made at a press conference yesterday when One in Four announced it is to shut down at the end of the month because of a dispute
with the Department of Health and Children over the funding of its
counselling programme.
The director, Mr Colm O'Gorman, claimed he was warned on September 12th
last via a phone call to a colleague that his "personal sabre rattling"
where Church and State were concerned was "creating 'a pissed-offedness'
in sections of Government".
It had suggested he was "biting the hand that fed him", he added.
-- One in Four,
http://www.oneinfour.org/news/news2003/fundingdispute/ ,
" 'One in Four' shuts down over funding dispute,"
(By Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent From The Irish Times
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2003/1014/705147206HM6ONEINFOUR.html )
• Abuse victims group forced to close.
IRELAND: The Government came under fire tonight over an "eleventh hour" decision
not to continue funding one of the country's key support groups for abuse
victims.
Charity One in Four said it will be forced to close because of a decision
by the Health Department to withhold funding for its counselling
programme.
Director Colm O'Gorman suggested the decision could be linked to his
critical stance over the resignation of a senior high court judge who
headed the country's child abuse commission.
At a press conference in Dublin Mr O'Gorman said: "It is very difficult to
work out what the reasons for this crisis are.
-- Ireland Online
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=67957440&p=67958xzx ,
18:40:33 Oct 13 2003
• Accuser of ex-Brebeuf principal is urged to step forward.
INDIANAPOLIS (IN): Testimonials on behalf of former Brebeuf principal Bernie Knoth continue to pile up. The 54-year-old Indianapolis native, a Jesuit priest until
last week, obviously has spent his career doing what all good teachers do.
He has enriched many lives, and now former students are speaking out on
his behalf in letters to the editor, on Internet sounding boards and in
interviews.
What is loudest in this din of praise, however, is the resounding,
deafening, lack of criticism. Instead, his resignation as president of
Loyola University in New Orleans, after a Jesuit-led panel's determination
that an allegation of sexual misconduct is credible, has created a tidal
wave of support. And under the roiling current, a common theme is
beginning to emerge: Will the accuser please step forward?
Given the circumstances -- a man's career and life have hit the wall --
that seems a fair request, although it no doubt sends victims' advocates
groups into a tizzy.
But let's look for a moment at the facts, as we know them, in this trial
by news media, in which we have seemingly forgotten that a man, even a
priest, is innocent until proven guilty.
-- Indianapolis Star
http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/6/083163-8966-009.html
by Ruth Holladay
October 14, 2003
• Holm's term too light given crime's severity.
UTAH: IN OUR VIEW.
Prosecutors in the case against former Hildale police officer Rodney Hans
Holm, convicted of two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a 16- or
17-year-old girl and one count of bigamy, said sentencing of the member of
the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints would "send
a message."
Unfortunately, the penalty imposed by Fifth District Court Judge G. Rand
Beacham sent the wrong message.
Holm, who was 32 when he married a 16-year-old girl, his third wife, was
given a slap on the wrists when Beacham sentenced him to one year in the
Washington County jail on a work-release program. Found guilty of three
third-degree felonies, he could have spent the next 15 years of his life
behind bars.
In issuing the sentence, Beacham said he doesn't believe the government
should make a person change their religious convictions. Sadly, he missed
the point.
-- The Spectrum
http://www.thespectrum.com/news/stories/20031014/opinion/450480.html
• Church ID Check.
SYRACUSE (NY): Starting this Sunday, Bishop James Moynihan says background checks will be conducted on all employees, priests, and volunteers in the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Syracuse. Also, employees and volunteers will have to sign a
ten point code of conduct that is designed as a safeguard against sexual
abuse.
The policy includes agreeing to appropriate behaviors, respect for
others' personal privacy, and three and a half years of additional
training for working with young people.
-- Fox 40
http://www.wicz.com/news/news.asp?m=v&a=4812
• Catholic Diocese Audit.
YAKIMA (WA): A team of auditors has spent the day picking through the Yakima Diocese.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned a Boston
based group to audit each of its 195 Diocese. Its the Church's new
safeguard against sexual abuse. Auditors won't look at how this Diocese or
any Diocese deals with cases of sexual abuse before 2002. They will make
sure the Diocese has systems in place to prevent abuse and follow new no
tolerance guidelines.
Michael Ross, the only person to file an abuse lawsuit against the Yakima
Diocese, says without including past abuse, any assessment of how the
Diocese is doing isn't complete.
Ross said, "They're not doing anything to help victims that I can see. I'm
a victim of priest abuse in Yakima. They're not helping me at all, they're
hurting me. They don't answer my questions, they don't answer my
therapist's questions, they don't pay our bills like they said they will."
-- KAPP
http://www.kapptv.com/index.php?section_id=668&xstate=view_story&story_id=154356
by Leeah Brennan
• Outspoken Victim of Abuse by Priest Kills Himself.
MORRISTOWN (NJ): A Morristown, N.J., man who was instrumental in organizing New Jersey residents who had been abused by priests apparently committed suicide
Sunday by walking in front of an eastbound New Jersey Transit commuter
train.
The man, James Thomas Kelly, 37, was killed when a Hoboken-bound train
from Dover struck him in the predawn darkness at 5:17 a.m.
Penny Bassett Hackett, a spokeswoman for New Jersey Transit, said the
train's engineer recounted seeing a man stepping onto the tracks as the
train was about an eighth of a mile from the Morristown station. Mr.
Kelly's car was found in the parking lot of the station, she said.
The news of Mr. Kelly's death stung those active with the New York and New
Jersey chapters of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Mr.
Kelly, a Mendham native, helped found the New Jersey chapter and was an
active speaker with the New York unit.
There was no note left, and family and friends of Mr. Kelly said that they
did not know why he might have killed himself. They cautioned against
linking the suicide directly to the abuse by a priest that he and some of
his brothers had suffered as children.
-- The New York Times, "Outspoken Victim of Abuse by Priest Kills Himself,"
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/14/nyregion/14SUIC.html?ex=1066708800&en=23ff5a9de2a269f0&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
By Ronald Smothers
October 14, 2003
• Victim says Church broke promise to keep accused from other children.
NAPLES (FL): They tried to be good Catholics. When their son said he had been sexually abused by Father Willie in the rectory of St. Ann Catholic Church, the
Naples couple was dumbfounded. They turned to another priest for help. He
told them to keep quiet, for the good of the church. In return, they were
promised the Rev. William Romero would leave St. Ann and never again work
as a parish priest or in unsupervised settings with children.
They tried to be good Catholics.
When their son said he had been sexually abused by Father Willie in the
rectory of St. Ann Catholic Church, the Naples couple was dumbfounded.
They turned to another priest for help.
He told them to keep quiet, for the good of the church. In return, they
were promised the Rev. William Romero would leave St. Ann and never again
work as a parish priest or in unsupervised settings with children.
That was in 1976. Earlier this month, the former altar boy and St. Ann
student -- now a 40-year-old married father living in Lee County -- filed
suit against Romero and the archbishop of Miami, claiming church leaders
broke the secret pact by quietly transferring the wayward priest to other
parishes, where he would abuse more children.
"This is their church. This is where they prayed," said Naples attorney
Ted Zelman, referring to the decision by the victim's parents a generation
ago to trust their spiritual leaders rather than go to police or the court
system.
-- Naples Daily News, "Ex-Naples priest faces new sex abuse suit,"
http://www.naplesnews.com/03/10/naples/e32797a.htm
By Alan Scher Zagier, aszagier@naplesnews.com
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
• Priest-abuse victim commits suicide.
MORRISTOWN (NJ): A Morris County man who was abused by a Roman Catholic priest as a youth, then began speaking out last year about his ordeal to other victims as
well as church reformers, committed suicide this weekend.
James Kelly, 37, of Morristown was killed when he was struck by an
eastbound NJ Transit train in Morristown about 5 a.m. Sunday. Kelly lay
down on the tracks and waited for the train to hit him, authorities said.
Matt Kelly said yesterday he did not know how big a factor the sex abuse
his brother endured at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Mendham
played in James Kelly's decision to kill himself.
"He had a lot of problems. I'm not comfortable saying (the sex abuse) was
the primary reason, but I don't know," Matt Kelly said. He and other
family members declined further comment.
James Kelly was an active member of the Survivors Network of those Abused
by Priests and had been a featured speaker at meetings of the Voice of the
Faithful, a church reform group.
-- Star-Ledger
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1066108524103270.xml
By Jeff Diamant and Brian T. Murray
• Jail the only thing that stopped pedophile, court told.
AUSTRALIA: Former Catholic priest Michael Charles Glennon was a serious sex offender who only stopped abusing children when he was behind bars, a Melbourne
court was told today.
One of Australia's most notorious paedophiles, Glennon, 59, was last week
found guilty of molesting three Aboriginal children between 1986 and 1991.
A Victorian County Court jury found Glennon guilty of 23 charges including
rape, sexually penetrating a child under 10, indecent assault and gross
indecency.
The former priest has now been convicted of sexually abusing 15 children
between 1974 and 1991, mostly at youth camps held at Karaglen, a rural
property near Lancefield north of Melbourne, which Glennon helped
establish and operate.
In the County Court today, prosecutor Rosemary Carlin said Glennon had not
been deterred by the law.
-- The Age, Melbourne,
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/14/1065917402556.html ,
By Jewel Topsfield,
4:50PM October 14, 2003
• Brothers accuse ex-Scout leader of sex abuse.
SEATTLE (WA): Tom Stewart of Enumclaw said he was about 8 years old when a Boy Scout leader began abusing him around 1971. His younger brother, Matt Stewart,
now living in San Diego, said he was 7 when the same Scout leader began
molesting him.
Yesterday the Stewarts filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court
against the Boy Scouts of America, the local Pacific Harbors Council of
the Boy Scouts of America and a former Scout leader currently living in
Seattle they say sexually abused them for years. ...
Locally, a lawsuit filed in January against the Rev. Patrick O'Donnell,
formerly a priest with the Spokane Roman Catholic Diocese, accused
O'Donnell and former Scoutmaster George Robey Jr. of sexually abusing
Scouts and others while both men worked with Boy Scouts in the 1970s.
-- The Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001765364_boyscouts14m.html
By Janet I. Tu
• Time runs out on priest-abuse suit.
JACKSON (MS): One of the eight lawsuits filed in Hinds County Circuit Court against the Catholic Diocese of Jackson over alleged priest sexual misconduct has been dismissed.
Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter said the statute of limitations had
expired in the lawsuit filed last year by Mark Belenchia and his wife,
Donna, and John Doe #1 against St. Mary Catholic Church/School and the
diocese.
"Mark Belenchia and John Doe were fully aware of the injury or abuse
inflicted upon them," DeLaughter said. "They knew that it was wrong at the
time it happened, long before they reached the age of majority and many
years before filing this lawsuit. Plaintiff Mark Belenchia's mother knew
of the abuse 25 years ago and plaintiff John Doe's parents knew 29 years
ago."
The plaintiffs had six years from their 21st birthday to file their
lawsuit, DeLaughter said. He entered a final order earlier this month
dismissing the lawsuit.
-- The Clarion-Ledger
http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0310/14/m04.html
By Jimmie E. Gates
jgates@clarionledger.com
• Man Who Was Member of SNAP Kills Himself.
NEWARK (NJ): A man who claimed he was molested by a Roman Catholic
priest as a boy, then became an advocate for other victims, committed
suicide by stepping in front of a train.
Friends of James Thomas Kelly, 37, of Morristown said he was deeply hurt
by the abuse. But they stopped short of saying that was the reason for his
suicide on Sunday.
Kelly was a member of SNAP, or Survivors Network of those Abused by
Priests, and spoke often about his experiences. Kelly helped establish the
group's New Jersey chapter, said Mark Serrano, a SNAP board member.
"Jim was always my go-to guy whenever I needed someone," said David
Cerulli, director of SNAP's New York chapter. "He was always willing to go
out and speak. He touched a lot of people."
Kelly lived in Mendham and worked as a salesman in the telecommunications
industry for 10 years.
-- NJ.com (AP)
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CHURCH_ABUSE_SUICIDE?SITE=NJO>&
SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT ,
Monday, October 13, 2003
• Sharing the law of the church.
OREGON: Conventions come and go in the Rose City, and some raise more questions
than consciousness. But a gathering this week of about 450 canon lawyers
of the Catholic Church might do both.
The Canon Law Society of America is holding its 2003 convention at the
DoubleTree Hotel at Lloyd Center through noon Thursday. The agenda
includes sexual-abuse investigations and the laws that govern the
selection of bishops.
Canon law is the codified system that binds the Roman Catholic Church.
With its roots dating back to ancient Roman law, it is similar to codes
that govern German and French citizens and very different from the common
law system that governs Americans. The exception is Louisiana, which bases
its state laws on canon law and, for example, calls its counties
"parishes."
-- The Oregonian
http://www.oregonlive.com/living/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/living/106613305934620.xml
by Nancy Haught, Oct 14 03
• Charity group's criticisms rejected.
IRELAND: The Minister for Health, Micheál Martin, has rejected any
suggestion of incompetence or ill-will by his officials that might have
led to the decision of abuse representative group, One in Four, to close
down from the end of the month.
One in Four's director, Colm O'Gorman, told a news conference the
organisation would cease operating at the end of next month, because of a
decision of the Department of Health and Children to renege on a
commitment to fund its counselling programme.
On RTÉ Radio, the minister defended the department's funding of groups
representing the abused, and said he found it hard to accept that One in
Four had to close because of financial problems.
He said there might be problems in relation to the group's counselling
role but he and his officials were prepared to meet them to discuss these.
-- RTÉ
http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/1013/abuse.html
(23:15) October 13, 2003
• Cardinal: Change will restore church.
CINCINNATI (OH): One of the most influential Catholics in the world says he sees
opportunities for change within the church in the wake of the clergy abuse
scandal in the United States.
But there are limits, he says, to how much change the church can endure.
In an interview Friday in Cincinnati, Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez
Maradiaga said lay Catholics must get more involved and church leaders
must get closer to their communities.
He said strengthening ties among priests, bishops and the people they
serve is crucial to restoring the trust that was lost during a year and a
half of revelations about abusive priests in America.
"We are one church. We are not separate," said Rodriguez, a Honduran
bishop who is mentioned as a possible successor to the pope. "I'm not up
high. I'm in the middle of my people.
"My role is not to be a prince on a throne."
While he supported giving lay Catholics more control over their own
parishes, Rodriguez said he is wary of those who seek more dramatic
changes to Catholic tradition and doctrine.
-- The Cincinnati Enquirer
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/10/11/loc_rodriguez11.html
By Dan Horn
• "Kisses in Baptist setting going to court; Church dispute heads to court tomorrow."
HYANNIS (MA): A defamation dispute involving a former Osterville Baptist
Church parishioner and her pastor begins tomorrow in Barnstable Superior
Court, six years after alleged kisses between the two led to charges of
slander and libel on both sides.
Former assistant Sunday school superintendent Cynthia Hinckley filed a
lawsuit against the Rev. Michael Rowe, his wife, Marjorie Rowe, and deacon
Paul Gage in August 2000 claiming slander, libel and intentional
infliction of emotional distress.
Hinckley claims Michael Rowe kissed her after a group baptism at Dowses
Beach and on one other occasion. After she tried to talk about what
happened and move forward, Hinckley said, the congregation began to turn
on her. She claims it was because of comments coming from within the
church and, specifically, from Gage and the Rowes.
During the ordeal, she left the church twice and then rejoined, but was
voted out by the membership after a disciplinary hearing. That's when she
filed the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.
Four months after Hinckley filed her lawsuit, the Rowes and Gage filed a
countersuit alleging defamation of character and intentional infliction of
emotional distress. They also named Hinckley's friends Tori Packer and
Rona Hart in the suit.
-- Cape Cod Times,
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/churchdispute13.htm
By Emily C. Dooley
########## End of Poynteronline, Abuse Tracker, Tuesday, October 14, 2003
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