Court weighs what church assets are vulnerable in sex-abuse suits

Portland, Oregon -

In the seaside town of Florence, parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church have pledged $1.9 million toward a major building expansion.

But attorneys for at least 72 men and women who say they were sexually abused by the church over the years have their eye on that money and much more elsewhere to help settle lawsuits totaling $534 million against the bankrupt Archdiocese of Portland.

So St. Mary's, 123 other parishes, 24 missions and 44 Roman Catholic schools in Western Oregon are moving fast to prove that parishioners intended their money only for building and running their parishes and schools.

By today, the archdiocese must present the Bankruptcy Court with a list of 10 parishes it wants for test cases and to argue eventually that those parishes can claim a right to their own assets. A court hearing is scheduled for May 9.

If they fail, Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris could rule that all assets registered in the archdiocese's name belong unequivocally to the archdiocese, making them available to claimants.

If that happens, the archdiocese could continue to argue that it holds those assets in trust not for the parishes, but for individuals or organizations that donated toward specific purposes.

Read the article at The Seattle Times dated January 31, 2005

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Church-affiliated abusers blend into new communities

Manatee, Florida -

If the allegations against Joseph Gilpin are true -- that he abused boys as a seminarian before beginning a teaching career in Florida -- it would resemble a path followed by dozens of church-affiliated abusers.

They often end up in jobs outside the church that involve interaction with children, in positions like teacher, coach, or counselor, said David Clohessy, the national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

Last week, a letter from the group led to the suspension and eventual resignation of Gilpin, who worked in Manatee schools for 34 years. SNAP and another advocacy group say Gilpin molested two boys in the 1960s, and another man has come forward who also says he was a victim of Gilpin's abuse.

Clohessy said it's not unusual for those accused of abuse to blend into new communities.

He reeled off several examples: An ex-priest who had abused a Kansas City man surfaced as a drug and alcohol counselor for teenagers; a priest from Missouri turned up as a greeter at a Florida theme park; a priest from Iowa rented an apartment a few blocks from two schools.

The problem of abusive priests resurfacing elsewhere won't wane anytime soon, said Jason Berry, a freelance writer and the author of two books on the scandal in the Catholic Church.

Read the article at heraldtribune.com dated January 30, 2005

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Attorney denies priest admitted abuse

Fairbanks, Alaska -

The Rev. James Poole admitted to sexually abusing young girls in a deposition he gave last year, according to the lawyer for two of the three women who have made claims against the former Catholic priest and the Fairbanks Diocese.

In arguments in Bethel Superior Court last week, attorney Ken Roosa said Poole admitted to molesting Jane Doe 1, among others, and called himself "the great lover of the world" while answering questions under oath in September.

But an attorney representing Poole later denied some of the statements Roosa attributed to the priest.

While Poole's attorney, Timothy Lynch, confirmed in a written statement that his client admitted french-kissing Jane Doe 1 as a child, he denied several other claims made by Roosa, including that the former Catholic priest molested another child and that he was expelled from Alaska for a year because of other abuse allegations.

Read the article at Anchorage Daily News dated January 30, 2005

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Mystery surrounds life of priest who killed himself

Hurley, Wisconsin -

When he was assigned to a cluster of churches around Hurley, Wis., last August, everything seemed to come together for the Rev. Ryan Erickson.

Four years after fulfilling his boyhood dream of becoming a priest, the 31-year-old had his own parish.

Clad in a traditional cassock, he conducted Masses in a style comforting to his older parishioners but with an energy and flair that drew the younger crowd as well. Attendance at worship increased by 50 percent.

He seemed happy, friends said, trading practical jokes with the church staff and getting a dog -- a golden retriever mix he named Beast.

But in early November, his life started to unravel when investigators from Hudson, Wis., arrived to question him about a double homicide at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home in Hudson in 2002 -- during the time he served a church there.

He denied any involvement, but the questioning rattled him, friends said. Five weeks after investigators first met with him, he hanged himself from a fire escape outside the Hurley rectory.

The allegation about a crime involving at least one minor came before police turned their attention to Erickson in the homicides, Trende said. He declined to elaborate on that allegation or to say whether it was related to the slayings.

Read the article at Duluth News Tribune dated Jan. 30, 2005

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Ex-priest's attorney requests trial move

Bethel, Alaska -

The attorney for the Catholic Bishop of Northern Alaska has requested that a Bethel Superior Court judge move the trial of a former priest accused of sexual abuse out of the southwestern Alaska town.

In his motion, Bob Groseclose asked Judge Dale Curda to consider holding the Nov. 15 trial in Anchorage or Nome, two locations he said better fit the civil suit filed by Jane Doe 1 against the Rev. James Poole.

Chief among his complaints about a trial in Bethel was the expense of flying the accused and his accuser, their lawyers and witnesses to the Kuskokwim River Delta rather than the more centrally located Anchorage. Short of the state's largest city, Groseclose also argued that Nome is a more fitting trial site since most of the abuse Jane Doe 1 accuses Poole of occurred in that Bering Sea coast town.

Read the article at News-Miner dated January 30, 2005

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Priest quits post; to face charges of sex solicitation

Swampscott, Massachusetts -

Parishioners at St. John the Evangelist Church expressed a mixture of sadness and sympathy yesterday for their former pastor who resigned Friday after accusations that he propositioned a 12-year-old girl and her mother for sex while dining at a Chelsea restaurant.

"It's a sad day," said Flo DiPietro, a 53-year-old parishioner. "He is such a good man, he lifted this parish up."

The Rev. Jerome Gillespie, 55, who had served the Catholic parish for only seven months, is scheduled to appear in Chelsea District Court on Feb. 17 to face charges of enticement of a child under age 16, solicitation of sex for a fee, and accosting a person of the opposite sex, police said.

Chelsea police issued the summons on Friday, the same day the Archdiocese of Boston said Gillespie had resigned as pastor of the North Shore parish. Gillespie is alleged to have propositioned the girl and her mother at about 9 p.m. Tuesday while dining at Floramo's, a popular Chelsea restaurant.

Read the article at Boston.com dated January 30, 2005

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Failure to act

General/Historical -

In fact, the Church has considered pedophilia not just a psychological problem but an " ecclesiastical crime " — sexual contact with a minor is defined as such in the 1984 Code of Canon Law, the body of law that structures the Catholic Church’s legal system. Father Thomas Doyle, a canonical lawyer who’s testified on behalf of plaintiffs in some 200 sex-abuse lawsuits, traces the existing law back to the Middle Ages, when Irish monks published penitential books for use while hearing confessions. Several of the tomes, according to Doyle, refer to sexual crimes committed by clerics against boys and girls. One widely used volume, known as the Penitential of Bede, advises clerics who sodomize children to repent their sins by subsisting on nothing more than bread and water for anywhere from three to 12 years. " The reason sexual abuse of minors is in these books, " says Doyle, " is because it was a problem. "

Yet this vast institutional knowledge of the problem never resulted in changes on the diocesan level — changes that might have prevented the molestation of thousands of children. Until the infamous 1984 case of Gilbert Gauthe, who was convicted of fondling and raping dozens of boys in Lafayette, Louisiana, the Church dealt with the issue quietly.

Read the article at BostonPhoenix.com dated October 4 - 11, 2001

Pedophilia / History Repeats Itself / Abuse scandal has rocked Catholic Church for years

The United States -

As reporters often do, I began researching my advance story on the Catholic bishops meeting in Dallas last week by looking back at my "clips" to remind me of what I'd written about all this in the past.

"Gathering in a city rocked by two church sex scandals," one story began, "the nation's Catholic bishops meet in New Orleans today to discuss rising concerns about pedophile priests."

Change the dateline from New Orleans to Dallas and the entire story reads like it was written yesterday. But it wasn't. I wrote it nine years ago, in June 1993.

Is this repetition an indictment of the bishops, who never seem to learn, or the news media, which keep telling the same story?

In my view, both -- although the media commit the lesser evil.

I've lost count of the number of times that newspapers -- including this one -- have told their readers this year that the sex abuse scandal in the church "began in January in Boston."

It didn't.

This incarnation of the scandal began in the early 1980s in New Orleans and erupted every few years in places like Santa Fe, Dallas, Santa Rosa, Stockton, San Francisco, Los Angeles and many other dioceses. Basically, this year's story is the same sad, sensational tale we've been telling for at least 15 years.

Why have this year's revelations in Boston (where the scandal previously erupted in 1992) turned into a huge national story?

Read the article at SFGate.com dated June 16, 2002

Gilpin cites 'notoriety,' resigns job

Manatee, Florida -

Haile Middle School Assistant Principal Joseph Gilpin resigned Friday, just two days after allegations resurfaced that he molested two young boys while he was a Catholic seminarian more than 30 years ago.

"After some thought and prayer, I think it best that I terminate my employment with the Manatee County school district," Gilpin wrote in his resignation letter, addressed to Manatee County School Superintendent Roger Dearing.

Dearing accepted the resignation, but indicated the district still plans to learn more about Gilpin's past.

"That closes one chapter and opens another," Dearing said. "I believe it's incumbent upon us as a school district to make sure nothing untoward has happened here in this school district.

"The main thing is to make sure current and former students were protected when under his charge."

Read the article at Bradenton Herald dated Jan 30, 2005

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Archbishop Burke defrocks clergymen

St. Louis, Missouri -

Three priests accused of sexual abuse years ago have been defrocked, including one blamed in the alleged suicide of an ex-Marine he was said to have molested in his youth, St. Louis’ archbishop announced yesterday "with deepest regrets to all who have been harmed."

Archbishop Raymond Burke said he launched the proceedings - what the Roman Catholic church calls laicization - last year against Michael McGrath, Donald "Father Duck" Straub and Robert Yim in light of "credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against them."

Burke said he took the often-lengthy action "for the welfare of all children and for the welfare of the church" and after careful examination of each allegation, the archdiocese said in a statement.

Read the article at Showmenews.com dated January 29, 2005

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Two teenagers plead not guilty in case of beaten Catholic priest in Springfield

Decatur, Illinois -

Two teenagers pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of aggravated battery in connection with the beating of a priest who formerly served Holy Family Parish in Decatur.

Jamie E. Gibson, 17, and Ryan Boyle, 15, waived rights to preliminary hearings and entered not guilty pleas in Sangamon County Circuit Court.

The teenagers face two counts of aggravated battery each in connection with an alleged December attack on Monsignor Eugene Costa, 54. Springfield police earlier said the alleged beating left the Roman Catholic priest unconscious with "life-threatening" injuries.

Springfield police have declined to comment why the priest was attacked or why he was at Douglas Park.

Costa resigned from active ministry earlier this month to focus on recovery and to deal with "previous instances of inappropriate and risky behavior," the diocese announced earlier this month.

"Some behavior, while not illegal, is certainly immoral, especially for someone who has taken an oath of celibacy," Sass said.

Costa remains a priest but resigned as diocese chancellor and pastor of parishes in Athens and Sherman. Costa served as pastor of Holy Family Parish in Decatur from 1987 to 1993.

The diocese is unaware of any inappropriate contact with minors or behavior that would violate the church's "zero tolerance" policies regarding sexual abuse of children and youths, Sass said.

The next court appearance for Gibson and Boyle is Feb. 22.

Read te article at Herald & Review Newspaper Website - Decatur, Illinois dated January 28, 2005

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Priest gets 2 years of probation in harassment case

Stamford, Connecticut -

A Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to two years of probation yesterday for harassing a female employee at Sacred Heart Church in Greenwich.

The Rev. Douglas Tufaro, 53, was arrested on a warrant in October and charged with five counts of second-degree harassment. Tufaro has been on a leave of absence from the Diocese of Bridgeport for unknown reasons.

Tufaro appeared in state Superior Court in Stamford on an application for accelerated rehabilitation, a program for first-time offenders that eventually wipes their record clean after a period of probation.

Assistant State's Attorney Steve Weiss didn't argue the application but asked for two years of probation because Tufaro was in counseling at the time of his arrest.

Read the article at The Advocate dated January 29, 2005

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Catholic youth program co-founders accused of sexual-abuse coverup

Phoenix, Arizona -

The co-founders of a Catholic youth ministry are being accused of covering up and helping carry out sexual attacks on a teenage boy in 1985.

Phoenix Catholic Diocese Monsignor Dale J. Fushek and Phil Baniewicz, president of Life Teen Inc., were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Former priest Mark Lehman, resigned Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, the Diocese of Phoenix and St. Timothy's Parish in suburban Mesa also were named.

The lawsuit expanded allegations brought to the diocese late last month by William J. Cesolini, who claims he was sexually assaulted at St. Timothy's parish in 1985 by Lehman when he was 14 while Fushek watched. The suit claims Fushek failed to report the attack to authorities.

Cesolini, 33, also claims in his lawsuit that he was sexually abused "on more than one occasion" in 1985 by Baniewicz.

Read the article at tucsoncitizen.com dated January 29, 2005

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Two more men sue Pittsburgh diocese claiming abuse; two suits tossed in Allentown

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -

Two more men have sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, claiming they were plied with alcohol and sexually abused by priests decades ago, and a Schuylkill County panel of judges dismissed two abuse lawsuits against the Allentown Diocese they said were filed too late.

The two men bring to 35 the number of people who have sued the Pittsburgh diocese in the past year claiming they were molested by 18 former priests. None of the cases has gone to trial.

A 53-year-old man from McKeesport claims in his lawsuit that he was fondled by a priest at St. Mary Czestochowa Church in McKeesport, a Pittsburgh suburb, when he was 11 years old. A 45-year-old man claims he was fondled and sodomized at the St. Paul Church in Butler by a former priest when he was 15 years old.

Lawyers representing the victims contend that the diocese protected and reassigned priests that were involved in abusing children.

Read the article at phillyBurbs.com dated 1/30/2005

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Church withheld evidence, insurer says

Los Angeles, California -

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles withheld "critical evidence" that could help insurance carriers assess the validity and worth of more than 500 sexual abuse claims, the insurers allege.

In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, three members of American International Group Inc. allege the church and Cardinal Roger Mahony have tried to force insurers into a settlement, but have not provided key documents - including plaintiffs' medical and work records.

"The archbishop's failure to investigate and to initiate formal discovery has resulted in the loss of critical evidence," according to the lawsuit. "Despite the fact that memories are fading and witnesses are dying, the archbishop has consistently resisted the taking of any depositions or recorded statements in the ... proceedings or otherwise."

Nearly 700 clergy abuse lawsuits are pending against dioceses in Southern California.

Read the article at Seattle Post-Intelligencer dated January 27, 2005

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Eamonn McCann: Blaming Derry bishop is letting the Catholic Church off the hook

Belfast, Ireland -

Some of the criticism of the Bishop of Derry, Seamus Hegarty, for his handling of sex abuse allegations against a priest has been misplaced. The man who must shoulder most of the blame is the Pope.

The bishop was merely following orders from the Vatican.

The line of the Vatican is that the interests of the victims of clerical sex abuse are to be given low priority when compared to the interests of the Catholic Church.

The allegations which have come to light over the past fortnight, as a result of the journalistic endeavour of Donna Deeney of the Derry Journal, are grave. The gravest concern the behaviour, not of the priest but of the diocese in dealing with the priest.

This allegation is that even after the diocesan authorities had acknowledged the priest's sexual abuse of an 18-year-old, he was given a role in a support group for victims of abuse, including sexual abuse.

Read the article at Belfast Telegraph dated 27 January 2005

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Vatican dismisses priest named in sex abuse scandal

Louisville, Kentucky -

The Vatican has dismissed Thomas Creagh from the priesthood. He's the fourth man to leave the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville over the recent sex-abuse scandal.
The action came late last month.

The 63-year-old Creagh had not worked in ministry since May 2002. He resigned as pastor of Holy Family Church in Louisville after being accused of sexual abuse in a lawsuit against the archdiocese.

Read the article at WKRN.com dated January 29, 2005

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Lawyer wants to add Catholic Charities to sex-abuse lawsuit

Louisville, Kentucky -

Attorney William McMurry wants to include Catholic Charities in a lawsuit accusing the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and others of abusing children at orphanages.
The motion is to be heard Monday by Jefferson Circuit Judge Denise Clayton.

The original lawsuit, filed in July, accuses the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth of knowing about and covering up sexual abuse at St. Vincent, St. Thomas and St. Thomas-St. Vincent orphanages in Jefferson County.

The orphanages were owned by Catholic Charities. The order, which operated them, has denied the accusations.


Read the article at Courier-Journal.com dated January 27, 2005

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Ohio News Now: PERSPECTIVE: Prosecutor re-examining deal with Catholic Church

Cincinnati, Ohio -

Activists challenging a prosecutor's agreement to end a sex abuse investigation against a Roman Catholic archdiocese have a potential ally: the new prosecutor.

It is not certain, however, whether Joseph Deters, who returned as Hamilton County prosecutor this month, would consider overturning the plea deal or could reopen the investigation.

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati pleaded no contest in 2003 to charges of failing to tell authorities about sex abuse allegations against priests, becoming just the third Roman Catholic diocese at that time to strike a deal with prosecutors in a criminal investigation.

The agreement ended a nearly two-year investigation, among the probes nationwide after molestation allegations were made against a priest in Boston in 2002.

Read the article at ONN. Ohio News Now dated January 29, 2005

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Three insurance firms sue LA Catholic bishop over child sex abuse deals

Los Angeles, California -

Three insurance firms have sued the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, accusing its leader of refusing to share information about alleged priestly sex abuse, a report said.

The companies have asked a judge to order Cardinal Roger Mahony to provide documents that could be used to relieve them of liability stemming from allegations by more than 535 people since the 1930s, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"For whatever reasons, the archbishop's apparent goal is to obviate any meaningful disclosure of the facts and circumstances of these claims, and yet to pressure (the insurers) to contribute enormous sums of money" to settle the cases, according to the lawsuit.

Read the article at Yahoo! News dated January 27, 2005

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Accuser Says Abuse Went on for Years

Cambridge, Massachusetts -

Taking the stand against a central figure in Boston's clerical abuse scandal, a 27-year-old firefighter tearfully testified Wednesday that former priest Paul Shanley had repeatedly molested him in a church bathroom, rectory, pews and confessional.

The man — who asked not to be named publicly — said the abuse began when he was 6 years old and enrolled in religious education classes at St. Jean's Roman Catholic Church. Shanley, he testified, continued to molest him at the church in Newton, Mass., until he was about 12.

While in the bathroom, the accuser said, the priest "would kneel down and try to teach me how to perform oral sex." In the confessional, "we would just talk about all the sins a second-grader could have," the man said. And then, he testified, Shanley would digitally penetrate him.

Read the article at Yahoo! News dated Jan. 27, 2005

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Philippines Catholic church to expel priests for sexual misconduct: report

Manila, Philippines -

The Catholic Church in the Philippines has decided to expel priests found to have committed acts of sexual misconduct, it was reported here.

The change came in a revision of pastoral of guidelines on "sexual abuse and priestly misconduct" made at a recent plenary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, the Manila Standard reported.

In the past priests found to have committed such misconduct were "relieved of their posts, then sent abroad for a vacation or a cooling-off period, after which they returned to continue their vocation," the paper said.

The plenary gave bishops a "free hand in imposing sanctions on erring members of the clergy, including expulsion from the priesthood," the paper said.

Conference president Fernando Capalla did not say what penalties or sanctions the new guidelines laid down for erring priests.

Read the article at Yahoo! News dated Jan 25, 2005

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Vatican Disciplines 17 Priests in N.Y.

Rockville Center, New York -

The Roman Catholic Church has disciplined 17 priests of a New York diocese for sexual abuse allegations.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island informed parishioners of the actions in a three-page letter listing the status of sex abuse cases against 23 priests.

Bishop William F. Murphy reported that eight priest were defrocked by the Vatican, nine were permanently suspended, three await canonical trials and two have been cleared. Proceedings against another have been deferred.

Several victims' rights groups criticized the bishop, saying the identities of the disciplined priests should be made public.

Read the article at Guardian Unlimited dated January 25, 2005

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Catholic order head quits as abuse probe to open

Mexico City, Mexico -

The Mexican founder of an ultra-conservative Roman Catholic order has resigned after 63 years as its leader just as the Vatican is opening an investigation into allegations he sexually abused former members.

Marcial Maciel, 84, who was warmly praised by Pope John Paul II on the 60th anniversary of his ordination in November, stepped down as leader of the Rome-based Legion of Christ last week, citing his age, according to the group's web site on Monday.

He will be replaced by another Mexican priest, 47-year-old Alvaro Corcuera, rector of the Legion Seminary in Rome and a consultant to the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops.

The resignation came a few weeks after Vatican prosecutor Martha Wegan said she would look into the case of a group of former Legionaries of Christ who accused Maciel in 1997 of sexually abusing them decades ago when they were teenagers.

Read the article at Reuters.co.uk dated Jan 25, 2005

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'Twist of Faith' Focuses on Surviving Abuse

Toledo, Ohio -

At the opening of the Sundance Film Festival Robert Redford told a Salt Lake audience that, as always, the documentaries are the strongest films. One of this year’s is a compelling story focused on faith.

The story is one man's struggle against evil within his church; 'Twist of Faith' focuses on surviving abuse. Tony Comes believed that if it was ever going to stop, change had to come from within, from the true believers, even if they had been badly abused.

Tony Comes, "Twist of Faith", Sundance Film Festival Documentary: “We’d come up here, drink, eat, shoot pool. Part where it gets weird is Sunday morning wake up and some guy’s violating you. Then a half hour later you take a shower and a half hour after that, everybody who’s up here, sometimes families included, are sitting around in the living room up there and he’s saying mass.”

Tony Comes, a 34-year-old husband, father and Toledo, Ohio firefighter is a survivor of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest. He kept it a secret for more than 20 years. Now his story is a Sundance documentary.

Read the article at KSL News dated Jan. 24, 2005

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Newsday.com - Long Island News

Long Island, New York -

The Vatican has defrocked eight Long Island priests accused of sexually abusing minors, ordered three priests to face church trials and cleared two others, Bishop William Murphy discloses in a report on the abuse crisis to be published later this week.

Three years after the scandal broke in Boston and reverberated in dioceses across the nation, Catholics here will be given a tally on the status of clerics who have been accused.

In a three-page letter, Murphy said 23 priests had credible abuse allegations made against them. The accusations against nine of the priests were disposed of by the Diocese of Rockville Centre, while the cases against 14 others were sent to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for review.

"Of those 14, two were found to have the allegations sufficiently unsubstantiated so that I am able to return them to ministry. For three of the priests, the Diocese has been instructed to have a canonical process or trial," Murphy writes. Murphy also disclosed in his update that the Vatican dismissed eight of the clerics from the priesthood.

Read the article at Newsday.com dated January 24, 2005

A State Supreme Court Opinion Allows a Clergy Child Sex Abuse Case to Go Forward, But Makes a Mess of Tort Law in the Process

Nashville, Tennessee -

Last week, the Supreme Court of Tennessee reinstated a clergy child sex abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim that the Diocese should be held liable for injuries caused by a former priest, even though who was not in the employ of the church when he molested two young boys.

The suit - entitled John Doe 1 ex. rel., Jane Doe 1, et. al. v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville, et al. - will now go forward in state trial court unless, of course, a settlement is reached.

Given the facts of the case, it is easy to see what the court wanted to give the plaintiffs a chance to go before a jury. The Tennessee Supreme Court's decision might have been motivated by sympathy, but along the way it made a mess of the tort law.

The cases arise from the actions of Edward McKeown. McKeown served as a priest in the Diocese from 1970 to 1989. The two plaintiffs, however, met McKeown in the 1990s -- after he had returned to life as a layperson. (The mother of one of the boys - who are known only as John Does 1 and 2 -- is also a plaintiff.)

McKeown came into contact with both boys while he lived in a mobile home community and had various non-religious jobs. He began abusing one boy in 1994, and the other in 1995. Currently, McKeown is serving time in prison for numerous count of child sexual abuse.

The plaintiffs allege that McKeown abused an unknown number of minors -- not including themselves -- while he was in the service of the Catholic Church in Nashville, and that the Diocese knew about these activities. Apparently, the Diocese tried to help McKeown but ultimately expelled him from the priesthood because of his criminal activities.

Read the article at FindLaw dated Jan. 24, 2005

Priest's appeal over abuse case

Northern Ireland -

A Catholic bishop has been asked to explain his decision to keep a priest in his parish after a sex abuse allegation.

Father Edward Kilpatrick, a parish priest in Lifford, was forced to leave in 1995 following allegations of abuse.

His name was cleared two years later and he returned to work.

Father Kilpatrick has asked why Dungiven priest Father Andy McCluskey who has admitted he was behind a sex abuse allegation was kept in post.

Father McCluskey told parishioners at weekend Masses in St Patrick's Church that he had made a mistake for which he was paying dearly.

A five figure compensation pay-out was made without admission of liability.

Read the article at BBC NEWS dated 24 January, 2005

Local lawyer takes on priest sex abuse

Anchorage, Alaska -

Attorney Ken Roosa thought his first case in 2002 involving four men who say a Catholic priest sexually abused them in the village of St. Marys would be solved in mediation with the Diocese of Fairbanks and the Jesuits.

The men who came forward and said they were molested as children by the Rev. Jules Convert appeared to be the only ones, Roosa said recently. But mediation failed. Roosa, a bearded ex-prosecutor who spent years working with sexual abuse victims, and the four men, identified in the lawsuit as John Does 1-4, sued in June 2003.

Not long after, a man who had followed the national coverage of priest sex abuse called Roosa from Texas and said he too had been abused by Convert as a child in rural Alaska. In November, he got a call from another man with similar accusations against Convert.

Eventually, the lawsuit included 18 plaintiffs who say Convert invited them, as boys between 6 and 16 years of age, to spend the night with him, sometimes asking them to sleep in their underwear or even naked. They say they would awake in the middle of the night and find the priest fondling them, according to the civil complaint filed in Bethel Superior Court.

Read the article at Anchorage Daily News dated January 23, 2005

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CNN.com - Priest sentenced for raping boy in 1980s

Cambridge, Massachusetts -

A Roman Catholic priest was sentenced Wednesday to 4 1/2 to 5 years in prison for repeatedly raping an altar boy in the 1980s.

The Rev. Robert Gale pleaded guilty Tuesday to four counts of raping a child just as jury selection was set to begin for his trial.

Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 10 to 12 years, but the judge settled on the shorter prison term, to be followed by 25 years of probation.

The sexual assaults took place at St. Jude's parish in Waltham between 1980 and 1985 when the victim, now 34, was between 10 and 15 years old. Prosecutors said the boy was sexually abused by Gale about twice a month.

Read the article at CNN.com dated Dec 1, 2004

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ABC News: Sexual Abuse at Blair Boys' School

London, England -

British police were investigating child abuse allegations today following reports that pupils at a Roman Catholic school attended by Prime Minister Tony Blair’s teenage sons complained about a priest working there.

The latest embarrassment for Britain’s Catholic hierarchy, which is already embroiled in several similar cases of abuse, concerns David Martin, a priest and chaplain at the Oratory School in London before he died in 1998 aged 44.

“Allegations have been received by a Hammersmith and Fulham child protection team of potential abuse within a London school,” a Scotland Yard police spokeswoman said. “These allegations are being investigated.”

Read the article at ABC News

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Baton Rouge Catholic school forming list of possible new names

Baton Rouge, Louisiana -

A Roman Catholic school will change its name by June because of sexual allegations leveled at its namesake, Diocese of Baton Rouge officials said.

Bishop Sullivan High School was named for Joseph Sullivan, bishop in Baton Rouge from 1974 until his death in 1982. He was accused last spring of sexual abuse in 1975 involving a 17-year-old boy. The diocese settled a lawsuit in November that had been filed by the victim, now in his 40s.

Read the article atNola.com dated 1/23/2005

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Embattled priests' paths crisscrossed

Phoenix, Arizona -

For all practical purposes, they are superstars of the Phoenix Catholic Church.

They have been for decades.

Recently, though, within months of one another, Monsignor Dale J. Fushek and the Rev. John Cunningham were banned from public ministry.

Their setbacks, for unrelated and still-unproven reasons, have stunned a church reeling from two years of scandal.

They have created an unwanted crisis for their bishop, divided the faithful and raised troubling questions about possible political intrigue, personality cults and the almighty power of the dollar.

"Difficulties like these are always sad and painful," Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said in an e-mail response to a question from The Arizona Republic about the suspensions of Fushek and Cunningham.

"Each of these cases has its own unique set of circumstances; thus it is not helpful to compare them."

Comparing the allegations against the two priests is, indeed, impossible.

Read the article at The Arizona Republic dated Jan. 23, 2005

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Notre Dame parish gets new leader after the Rev. Emerson is charged with sexual misconduct

Michigan City, Indiana -

The Rev. Keith McClellan, associate pastor at Queen of All Saints parish in Michigan City, has been appointed as administrator of Notre Dame parish.

Temporarily, he takes over for the Rev. Richard Emerson, who has been on administrative leave since Dec. 18, following allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor. Emerson denies the charges.

McClellan's appointment to the administrative post at Notre Dame is temporary, said the Rev. Brian Chadwick, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Gary.

Read the article at Michigan City News Dispatch Online dated Sunday, January 23, 2005

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Cleaner abused children in church

Dublin, Ireland -

THE first case of alleged sexual abuse of a child in a sanctified church building will go to trial in the central criminal court in Dublin later this year.

A Donegal man, who was employed as a cleaner by the Catholic church, faces 13 counts of sexual assault and rape. He is expected to plead not guilty to the charges.

Colm O’Gorman, the founder and head of One in Four, the Irish charity for victims of sexual abuse, said: “I’ve never heard of any cases of this happening within the physical structure of a church. No one in our organisation has heard of such a case in fact. Though of course that’s not to say that this is the first time it has happened.”

O’Gorman said a high proportion of child abuse took place in the diocese of Raphoe, which covers most of Co Donegal. Last year it emerged that Dr Philip Boyce, the Bishop of Raphoe, left three priests in their posts even though they were under investigation by the gardai for child abuse. Church policy at the time should have resulted in the removal of the suspects until the investigations were completed.

Fr Eugene Greene, another priest who was based in the Raphoe diocese, is currently serving a 12-year jail sentence for offences against 26 boys.

Read the article at Times Online dated January 23, 2005

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PM - Father Klep refused bail

Melbourne, Australia -

MARK COLVIN: A Catholic priest, who was deported from Samoa last night, is in jail in Victoria this evening.

Father Frank Klep was refused bail when he appeared in a Melbourne magistrate's court today.

Victorian police met Father Klep when he arrived at Melbourne airport this morning.

He's been wanted by the authorities for more than five years.

It was 1998 when a warrant was issued for his arrest on five counts of indecent assault, relating to his time at a boarding school run by the Salesian Catholic order in Melbourne.

The Salesian order today said it had not known there was a warrant out for his arrest - but Victorian police tonight said that they did tell the order that Klep was a wanted man.

But while the legal focus today fell on Father Klep, another Salesian priest remains under investigation in Samoa.

Read the transcript at PM - ABC.net.au dated Friday, 25 June , 2004

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The World Today - Father Klep back in Australia

Australia -

ELEANOR HALL: A Catholic priest who has been the subject of an arrest warrant on paedophile charges for that last six yeas arrived back in Australia this morning.

Father Frank Klep was yesterday expelled from Samoa after it was discovered that he had made a false declaration on an immigration form.

Father Klep was the subject of five outstanding charges of sexual assault, while in Samoa conducting missionary work.

In what is shaping as a dark chapter for the reputation of the Australian Catholic church in the Pacific, the Samoan government is now considering whether or not to expel two other Salesian priests who are associates of Father Klep.

David Hardaker with this report.

Read the transcript at The World Today dated Friday, 25 June , 2004

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Cleveland.com: The Cost of Abuse

The United States -

Sex abuse cases have rocked the Roman Catholic Church in the past, but never as forcefully as they have in recent months. Some observers estimate that the church in America has paid as much as $1 billion in settlements, jury awards and treatment for priests involved in sex abuse cases since the mid-1980s. Mark Chopko, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, says the figure is closer to $250 million. A review of sex abuse cases in the church since 1985 includes the following cases.

1985

Gilbert Gauthe, a parish priest in Lafayette, La., is sentenced to 20 years in prison for molesting 11 boys. Victims, who claim the diocese has known of problems with Gauthe since the mid-1970s, sue the diocese and settle for about $18 million. Gauthe's is one of the first nationally publicized priest sex abuse cases.

1987

The Plain Dealer reports allegations of child sexual abuse against four priests in the Cleveland Diocese and efforts to keep them secret. All four priests are sent to new assignments, where some have access to children. The revelations prompt new diocesan policies for handling sex abuse claims.

1989

Hawaii's Joseph Ferrario is the first U.S. bishop accused of molestation. Ferrario, who denies the allegations, retires early in 1993.

..........................

Read the article at Cleveland.com dated 04/14/02

TIME: Catholicism in Crisis: A Victim's Story

Lafayette, Louisiana -

1984 -

The first big priestly sex abuse scandal broke in Louisiana in 1984, when Father Gilbert Gauthe was indicted for sexual abuse. Two years later, he was sentenced to 20 years for molesting 11 altar boys, and admitted he'd assaulted dozens of other children. As a result of the civil cases that followed, his victims were awarded at least $18 million in damages. TIME recently spoke with one of Fr. Gauthe's victims. Now in his 30s, the victim has married several times and is the father of four children. He works in law enforcement in Louisiana, and has requested anonymity.

"If my name were to be printed in my local newspaper, I would lose my job in law enforcement, and getting that job has been a life-long dream," he explains. "Louisiana still revolves around the Catholic Church even today, and there are plenty of people who don't want you saying anything at all against the church, even if one of its priests did molest children."

Read the article at TIME.com

The New Yorker: From the Archives: Unholy Acts

Wheelwright, Massachusetts -

On a Sunday morning a year ago last January, the congregants of my church—St. Augustine's Mission, a tiny Catholic church in the central Massachusetts town of Wheelwright—looked up to see an unfamiliar priest at the altar. Nothing was said about our pastor, Father Ronald Provost, by this stranger in white alb and green stole; the Mass went on, as we were taught that it should, regardless of the celebrant. We received Communion, said our thanksgiving, and went downstairs to the hall for coffee and doughnuts. There were some whispers of curiosity about where Father Provost was that morning, but in such a small parish we were not going to ask anyone directly; and, whatever the reason for Father Provost's absence, we knew we were lucky to have a priest at all in these days of an ever-shrinking clergy and a growing number of church closings. After greeting us at the back of the church, the visiting priest, who identified himself as Father Rocco Piccolomini, the diocesan vicar for priests, had quickly left.

.................

He said nothing about why he had gone there, but he implied that the treatment had worked, and said that he was ready and eager to go back to work as a parish priest.

It was a short conversation. I didn't ask Father Provost about his ordeal, but he volunteered a comment that seemed strange to me. "I don't know why they're after me," he said. "Just seven pictures of kids in their underwear." I had no idea what he was talking about..................

Read the article at The New Yorker: From the Archives dated 1993-06-07; Posted 2002-06-10

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Suicidal priest probed in crime

Hudson, Wisconsin -

A Catholic priest who killed himself after police questioned him about an unsolved double murder was under investigation for a possible crime involving a child or children, police said Tuesday.

Police Chief Richard Trende said detectives interviewed the Rev. Ryan Erickson last fall after receiving an allegation involving the priest and a minor or minors.

He would not specify what type of possible crime was under investigation or how the allegation surfaced.

Erickson, 31, was found hanged Dec. 19 outside his rectory at St. Mary’s Church in Hurley in far northern Wisconsin.

Just days earlier, Erickson was interviewed by Hudson detectives about the shooting deaths of Dan O’Connell, 39, and James Ellison, 22, at the O’Connell Family Funeral Home in February 2002.

Read the article at Post-Crescent dated Jan. 19, 2005

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Priest accused of arranging teenage abortion is living in Canada, says lawyer

Louisville, Kentucky -

A Catholic priest accused of arranging an abortion for a teenage girl he got pregnant in the 1960s is now married and living in Canada, said a lawyer who filed the lawsuit.

The alleged sexual abuse began when the girl was about 13 years old, and it occurred in motels, in cars and even in the children's home where the girl stayed and where Rev. James Aloysius Brown was assigned, according to the lawsuit. The suit, an amended version of an earlier lawsuit, was filed Tuesday against the Diocese of Covington in Boone County Circuit Court. It claims that 21 priests in the diocese abused dozens of children.

Read the article at CNEWS World dated April 23, 2003

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Calif. priest who co-wrote document on sex abuse charged with molesting boy

San Francisco, California -

A Roman Catholic priest and expert on church law who co-wrote a document on dealing with sexually abusive priests has been charged with molesting a boy more than 30 years ago.

A criminal complaint was filed May 12 against Rev. Gregory Ingels, who until recently was a priest at St. Bartholomew Church in San Mateo.

Ingels, 60, was charged with engaging in sexual conduct with a 15-year-old boy in 1972, two years before Ingels was ordained. Ingels was teaching at a Catholic high school in Marin County at the time and the boy was his student.

According to the complaint, Ingels made incriminating comments in recent conversations with the victim that were tape-recorded by police.

Ingels faces up to eight years in prison.

He was one of four experts chosen to draft a legal interpretation of the "zero tolerance" policy adopted last year by U.S. Catholic bishops toward child-molesting priests. The guide, published in March, offered recommendations on how the policy could be implemented.

Read the article at CNEWS World dated May 23, 2003

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Records show U.S. priest was fired from Calgary diocese amid adultery charges

Boston, Massachusetts -

A Roman Catholic priest who fathered two children and failed to call for help while their mother overdosed in Massachusetts was later dismissed from his post at a Canadian diocese when a married woman said she'd had an affair with him, church personnel records made public Wednesday said.

Rev. James Foley, a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston, was on loan to the Diocese of Calgary when the accusation surfaced in the late 1960s. "We have come to the conclusion that you can no longer work as a priest in the Diocese of Calgary," Msgr. Paul O'Byrne wrote to Foley in May 1968.

"The double life you have been leading is known much more widely than you realize and will become known to many others, especially if you return."

Foley was in Massachusetts at the time but apparently was planning to return to St. Mary's Cathedral in Calgary.

Read the article at CNEWS World dated January 29, 2003

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Suspect priests resettled: Report

Dallas, Texas -

An international movement of Roman Catholic priests out of countries where they have been accused of abusing children has continued even after the abuse scandal that swept the U.S. church in 2002, the Dallas Morning News found in a year-long investigation. Hundreds of priests accused of abuse have been moved from country to country, allowing them to start new lives in unsuspecting communities and continue working in church ministries, the newspaper reported in today's editions.

The priests lead parishes, teach and continue to work in settings that bring them into contact with children despite church claims to the contrary, the newspaper said.

Vatican officials declined to comment Friday after an overview of the investigation was featured on National Public Radio.

In one case, Rev. Frank Klep, a convicted child molester who has admitted abusing one boy and is wanted on more charges in Australia, was placed in Apia, Samoa, in the South Pacific. Australia has no extradition treaty with Samoa.

Read the article at Ottawa Sun Online dated June 20, 2004

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Abuse charges acknowledged

New Glasgow, Nova Scotia -

A Roman Catholic bishop says the death of a priest accused of sexually abusing 15 minors makes it difficult for the church to defend itself against lawsuits filed by some of the alleged victims. Bishop Raymond Lahey of the diocese of Antigonish issued a "pastoral statement" yesterday to inform parishioners of the church's response to the civil action taken by people who claim to have been victims of the late Hugh Vincent MacDonald. "The diocese, I as its bishop, and its Professional Standards Advisory Committee acknowledge the immeasurable pain and suffering that can be caused by those who abuse their positions of trust as a priest," Lahey wrote.

Read the article at Canoe.ca dated August 31, 2004

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Fugitive priest jumps to his death

Mazatlan, Mexico -

An international search for a fugitive former priest from the United States neared an end as authorities surrounded a beachfront hotel. But Siegfried F. Widera, who fled to Mexico to avoid 42 counts of child molestation in Wisconsin and California, did not surrender.

The 62-year-old died Sunday after jumping from a balcony next to his third-floor room at the Vista Dorada Hotel, near one of Mazatlan's most popular beaches.

It was unknown whether Widera intended to kill himself or to escape, said Marta Gutierrez, an official with the state attorney general's office in Sinaloa, the state that includes Mazatlan.

As federal and state agents surrounded the hotel, Widera was seen running to his balcony, Gutierrez said. He died as an ambulance rushed him to a hospital.

Read the article at CNEWS World dated May 27, 2003

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Reaction to latest court decision concerning Mount Cashel victims is mixed

St. John's, Newfoundland -

Reaction to the latest court decision concerning Mount Cashel victims is mixed.

An Ontario court ruled Wednesday in favour of a controversial plan to distribute $15.5 million to the sexual abuse victims from the orphanage. The proposal outlines levels of compensation and includes a clause that would see claimants sign away their right to sue the government once they've accepted compensation.

Don Burrage says if other former residents chose not to accept money now, they still have the right to sue the government.

The money comes from the Christian Brothers of Ireland in Canada.

That's the defunct teaching order that ran the orphanage, where dozens of boys were raped and beaten from the 1960's to late 1980's.

Read article at CNEWS dated February 5, 2004

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Church liability for sex crimes in limbo

Newfoundland -

Three dozen former altar boys sexually abused by a Newfoundland priest can sue the local Roman Catholic diocese as well as the man who assaulted them, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday. But the judgment failed to settle another question with far more sweeping legal ramifications: Whether the Church as a whole can be held liable for such wrongdoing.

Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, writing for a unanimous nine-member bench, said the contending parties simply hadn't presented enough facts to resolve that issue.

"The record before us is too weak to permit the court ... to responsibly embark on the important and difficult question of whether the Roman Catholic Church can be held liable," McLachlin wrote.

Read article at Ottawa Sun Onlineo dated March 26, 2004

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Toronto Christian Brothers settle suit

Toronto, Canada -

A call has gone out for men abused as children in an Ontario reform school in the wake of a recent tentative deal between victims and Toronto Christian Brothers.

Lawyers have been unable to locate 54 men involved in a class action lawsuit filed against the Catholic religious order for failing to fulfil financial obligations set out in a 1992 abuse settlement. The class action was launched by Vancouver resident David McCann in 2002 in a bid to recover more than $1.7 million still owed to some victims of abuse at St. Joseph's Training School in Alfred, Ont., east of Ottawa.

McCann, who was sent to St. Joseph's as a child, negotiated the original $16-million compensation package for 1,600 victims of abuse at that institution and at St. John's at Uxbridge, Ont., near Toronto.

Read the article at CNEWS dated January 8, 2004

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Presbyterians sign final residential schools compensation deal

Ottawa, Canada -

The federal government and the Presbyterians have signed a final compensation deal under which the church will pay $2.1 million to victims of abuse at Indian residential schools it ran.

The agreement, initialled in December, requires the church to accept responsibility for the sexual and physical abuse and cover 30 per cent of the estimated liability. The federal government will cover the remainder of the liability and has committed $1.7 billion over seven years to resolve up to 18,000 lawsuits out of court.

Nearly 12,000 people are seeking compensation through the courts for their experiences at Indian residential schools - which were funded by the government and run by churches - and more suits are expected.

The Anglican Church, following ratification by its 30 dioceses, is expected to sign a final agreement soon.

Negotiations continue with the United Church, while talks have stalled with Catholic church groups named in more than 70 per cent of cases.

Read article at CNEWS Canada dated February 13, 2003

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CNEWS World - 34,000 Catholic nuns report sexual abuse, St. Louis newspaper says

St. Louis, Missouri -

A little-publicized 1996 survey of Roman Catholic nuns in the United States estimated that at least 40 per cent had suffered some form of sexual trauma, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in a copyright story Sunday.

And some of the abuse, exploitation or harassment has come at the hands of priests or other nuns, according to Saint Louis University researchers who conducted and reported on the survey, which was partly funded by several orders of Catholic nuns.

The researchers told the newspaper that the survey was the only national scientific study dealing with the sexual victimization of Catholic nuns.

Read the article at CNEWS World dated January 6, 2003

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U.S. Supreme Court strikes down law that revives old sex crime prosecutions

Washington, D.C. -

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the government cannot retroactively erase statutes of limitations, a defeat for prosecutors trying to pursue priests accused of long-ago sex abuse.

On a 5-4 vote, the justices struck down a California law that allowed prosecutions for old sex crimes. It was challenged by a 72-year-old man accused of molesting his daughters when they were children. The case was closely watched because of sex abuse problems in the Roman Catholic church, but it also has implications for terrorism and other crimes.

Read the article at CNEWS World dated June 26, 2003

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Charges shock friar's cousin

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada -

A local family is shocked after learning an ex-Alberta Catholic friar who said he was too ill to travel here for his mom's funeral is in fact an accused pedophile hiding in the U.S. Now, Donette Luchansky - a distant cousin of the accused - says the family will do everything in its power to bring him back to Canada to face justice.

Gerald Chumik, an ex-Alberta Catholic friar, was charged in 1990 with two child sex offences in Newfoundland dating from the 1970s. Federal authorities say he'll be arrested if he ever steps foot again on Canadian soil.

Right now, the 69-year-old is holed up in a Franciscan mission in Santa Barbara, California. Suffering from cancer and diabetes, most of his day is spent in the mission's infirmary.

Since the charges were laid 14 years ago, the church has had him undergoing sex offender treatment.

Read the article at Canoe.ca dated July 21, 2004

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Ex-priest guilty of sex crimes

Inuvik, North West Territories, Canada -

A former Manitoba priest has been convicted of sex crimes with students at an Inuvik residential school in the early '60s. Martin Houston, 67, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of buggery and two counts of indecent assault involving students under his charge.

The assaults took place between August 1960 and June 1962 when he was a dorm supervisor at Grollier Hall, a residential school run by the Roman Catholic church in Inuvik.

"You soiled the lives of innocent boys," said Justice Arthur Lutz, who gave Houston a suspended sentence and put him on three years probation.

The sentence was a joint recommendation of Crown attorney Noel Sinclair and defence lawyer Richard Wolson.

This is the second time Houston has been sentenced for sexual abuse at Grollier Hall. In 1962, he pleaded guilty to five counts of buggery and five counts of gross indecency.

Read the article at Winnipeg Sun dated August 19, 2004

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Top court skirts church liability for sex assaults

London, Ontario -

Three dozen former altar boys sexually abused by a Newfoundland priest can sue the local Roman Catholic diocese as well as the man who assaulted them, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled yesterday. But the judgment failed to settle another question with far more sweeping legal ramifications -- whether the church as a whole can be held liable for such wrongdoing.

Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, writing for a unanimous nine-member bench, said the contending parties simply hadn't presented enough facts to resolve that issue.

"The record before us is too weak to permit the court . . . to responsibly embark on the important and difficult question of whether the Roman Catholic Church can be held liable," wrote McLachlin.

Whether an entire religious denomination can be sued is a key issue in thousands of abuse claims by former aboriginal students at church-run residential schools.

Read the article at London Free Press dated 2004-03-26

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London RC diocese facing new lawsuits

London, Ontario -

Two men who allege they were sexually abused by a Roman Catholic priest and teacher filed separate multimillion-dollar lawsuits yesterday against the diocese of London. And the men are urging other victims of retired Rev. John Harper, twice convicted of sexual abuse, to come forward.

Peter John Gahlinger, 54, of Ottawa and a 50-year-old London man using the pseudonym Tony Devlin filed statements of claim yesterday amounting to $6 million, plus interest and costs.

They claim they were sexually abused by Harper, who still lives in London and was their teacher between 1960 and the early 1970s.

Harper and the diocese are named in both lawsuits.

Gahlinger's suit also names Bishop Ronald Fabbro.

Read the article at London Free Press dated 2004-07-16

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Sex-abuse raps reinstated

Ontario, Canada -

A CORNWALL lawyer implicated in one of Canada's most notorious investigations into sexual abuse must stand trial again on charges he molested boys, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled yesterday. During a rarely granted oral hearing, the high court "dismissed from the bench" Jacques Leduc's application to appeal an Ontario court ruling last summer that overturned a third court's decision to stay the charges against him and award him nearly $300,000 in damages.

Leduc, the former legal counsel for the Archdiocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, was charged in 1998 with eight counts of sexual exploitation involving three teenage boys after Project Truth, a massive OPP probe into sex allegations, named him and several prominent Cornwall-area individuals as suspects.

The case was tossed out in March 2001 after defence lawyers convinced Superior Court Justice James Chadwick that the Crown had deliberately withheld evidence.

Ontario's Court of Appeal overturned that ruling in July, calling the finding "entirely unsupported by the record" and "so clearly wrong that it does amount to an injustice."

Read the article at Ottawa Sun Online dated January 13, 2004

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Nuns facing abuse claims

United Kingdom -

A BBC documentary has revealed that an order of Roman Catholic nuns is facing more than 250 claims for compensation from former children's home residents who allege they were abused.

The Poor Sisters of Nazareth, which ran homes for disadvantaged children in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Kilmarnock, could face a bill running into millions of pounds amid allegations of abuse.

A total of 263 people are involved in the allegations against the order, whose home in Aberdeen has been investigated by the police.

Former residents of the four homes have relived their alleged experiences for Tuesday's edition of the Frontline Scotland series.

Read the article at BBC News dated February 10, 1998

Priest raped schoolgirl in confession box, court told

United Kingdom -

A prominent Roman Catholic priest raped a girl in a confessional box at her school, a court has been told.

Father John Lloyd, a former spokesman for the Archbishop of Cardiff, also sexually abused altar boys, the jury heard.

Lloyd, 57, denies four charges of rape and 17 of indecent assault involving four girls and two boys aged between eight and 13.

Read the article at BBC News dated 3 February, 1998

Priest jailed for indecent assault

United Kingdom -

A Roman Catholic priest convicted of indecently assaulting a 13-year-old girl has been jailed for 21 months.

Father John Lloyd, 57, a parish priest for 32 years, indecently assaulted the girl minutes after baptising her.

Passing sentence at Cardiff Crown Court, the judge Mr Justice Rougier said: "There can be few grosser breaches of trust than when a priest sexually abuses a young child while exercising his pastoral function.

"And I find the description of what you did to that girl almost unbelievable."

Read the article at BBC News dated February 19, 1998

Catholic order apologises publicly for abuse

Ireland -

An influential Irish Roman Catholic religious order involved in teaching generations of youngsters has issued an unprecedented high-profile public apology for sexual and other abuse inflicted over years in its institutions.

The congregation of the Christian Brothers in Ireland has taken out half-page advertisements in Irish newspapers admitting that some victims' complaints have been ignored.

The admission follows a number of prosecutions initiated against members of the order, other Irish religious societies and Catholic clergy in recent years over sex and other crimes, often dating back decades.

Read the article at BBC News dated March 30, 1998

Paedophile cases haunt the church

United Kingdom -

The police are investigating evidence that a known paedophile returned to work as a priest in 1985. It is the latest in a long line of abuse cases to tarnish the Catholic Church's image.

There was a time when, almost without exception, a priest was regarded as a respected member of the community.

Today, the news that yet another cleric has been accused of sexually abusing children is not uncommon.

Religious affairs commentator Andrew Brown says revelations that Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor - then a bishop - allowed a known paedophile to continue working as a priest, will damage the church's reputation in the UK.

John Wilkins, editor of Catholic weekly The Tablet, says the image of the church has been tarnished "appallingly" by paedophile priests around the world.

Read the article at BBC NEWS dated 19 July, 2000

Austrian bishops label cardinal a paedophile

Austria -

The Catholic church in Austria has released a statement which says the paedophile accusations levelled at the Archbishop of Vienna, Hans Hermann Groer, are "in essence true."

The statement was issued by the country's top four bishops.

Hans Hermann Gröer was Cardinal and Archbishop of Vienna until in 1995. He was forced to resign after accusations that he molested a pupil in a shower at a Catholic boys school 22 years ago.

Except for a written statement to a newspaper that year when he rejected the charges as "defamation", he made no further comment and the Vatican made no move at the time to investigate.

New charges against him were made in December by a monk who said the former archbishop had molested him as a child.

Read the article at BBC News dated February 28, 1998

Father James Porter: Pedophile Priest

Minnesota, Massechusetts, Texas -

"Those victims also note that the child-abuse problem in Massachusetts churches did not begin with Father Geoghan or Christopher Reardon in the 1980s. In fact, the archdiocese established its longstanding pattern of denial and concealment twenty years earlier, with the case of Father James Porter. A serial predator who molested at least 125 children of both sexes, claiming victims in five states, Porter was recognized as “a problem” by his superiors in the early 1960s. Multiple complaints, a criminal arrest, and several confessions from Porter himself failed to prompt any meaningful action. Instead of dismissal and prison, Porter was treated to multiple transfers, vacations, and ineffective “spiritual counseling.” The end result: a tragedy that shocked the nation when it was revealed, more than three decades after Porter abused his first victim.

This is the story of that tragedy and how it might have been averted at the start, if anyone had cared enough to try."

Read the article at CrimeLibrary.com

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Huge church abuse settlement in Ireland

Dublin, Ireland -

The Roman Catholic Church offered a high-profile apology Tuesday and more than $300,000 to a former altar boy sexually abused by a priest, the biggest individual settlement of its kind in Ireland, where hundreds of such cases have yet to face court.

In a statement read before the High Court, Cardinal Desmond Connell, archbishop of the Dublin archdiocese, expressed "profound regrets" about "the injury caused to Mervyn Rundle by Father Tom Naughton."

Rundle, now 28, was abused by Naughton when he was 9 and 10. He and his father initially reported the abuse to church authorities in 1985, but Naughton wasn't convicted of molesting boys until 1998, when he received a three-year prison sentence.

Read the article at CNEWS World dated January 28, 2003

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Priest guilty of sex abuse

England -

A FORMER Catholic priest was yesterday found guilty of sexually abusing a teenage boy and girl at a children’s home 30 years ago. Michael McConville, 51, of Walworth, London, abused a "position of responsibility" at the St Mary’s home in Gravesend, Kent, to form a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl. Maidstone Crown Court also heard how he indecently assaulted a teenage boy at the home, run by the Catholic Children’s Society.

Another former priest, 56-year-old David Murphy, of Portobello High Street, Edinburgh, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to eight counts of indecent assault relating to the sexual abuse of children at the home. The court heard that Murphy and McConville had been posted to St Mary’s in 1969 and 1970 respectively by the CCS. Both will be sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court at a later date.

Read the article at Scotsman.com dated Sat 15 Feb 2003

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Have you ever heard of a priest named Rudy Kos

San Diego, California -

I make a call to the San Diego Police Department's Sex Crimes Unit. "Have you ever heard of a priest named Rudy Kos? He's accused of molesting 11 boys - most of them altar boys - in Dallas, Texas. He's here."

"No, I never heard of this guy," says Sergeant Joanne Archambault.

For a moment I wonder if she's saying this because "Megan's Law," which will allow law enforcement to disclose information on certain sex offenders, doesn't come into effect until July 1. (The 1994 rape-murder of seven-year-old Megan Kanka in New Jersey prompted the law, which is gradually being adopted by many states.) Everyone in Dallas, Texas, knows Kos lives in San Diego. For weeks, reports have appeared daily in the Dallas Morning News of a civil suit filed against him by the 11 young men - though one, who committed suicide in 1992, is represented by his parents. Allegations of sexual abuse. Eleven boys. Over 11 years.

Read the article at www.sdreader.com dated June 19, 1997

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South Australia Church offers payout to abuse victims

Australia -

South Australia's Catholic Church has created legal history by offering an unconditional $2 million compensation package to victims of child sex abuse.

The Advertiser newspaper is reporting this morning that offers will be delivered today to more than 30 families of young boys who allegedly were abused by a bus driver at a Catholic school for the intellectually disabled between 1987 and 1991.

It says the offers are unprecedented in that they do not contain any confidentiality clauses and recipients do not have to waive their rights to take legal action against the church for compensation.

Read the article at CathNews.com dated 24 Sep 2003

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The Australian: Sins of the monsignor

Australia -

DENIS Ryan says he had no trouble accepting the double-dealing he saw as part of the culture of the Victoria Police in the 1970s.

"A nod here, a wink there among colleagues to do the 'right thing' was not viewed as duplicitous or corrupt," he says. "In those days, it was simply the way the job was done. It made things easier for everyone and you might need a favour back the other way sooner rather than later."

Back then Ryan was working as a senior detective constable in Mildura, the border capital of the Sunraysia district of northwest Victoria.

"I never professed to be a saint or sinner," says Ryan, now 72, and based at his Mildura orchard. "But I never took a bribe."

More than 30 years later, Ryan is seeking redress from the police force he says cut short his career after he raised allegations of sexual assault of children by a Catholic priest – with the rank of monsignor – in the early '70s.

Read the article The Australian dated November 20, 2004

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Judge to review scope, cost of diocese child abuse audit

Manchester, New Hampshire -

A judge will try to breathe life into the stalled state review of child protection policies implemented by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester in the wake of the clergy abuse crisis.

On Thursday, the church and the state presented varying interpretations of the historic criminal agreement that both sides entered two years ago, demonstrating in a courtroom that differences essentially arise on the scope and cost of the audit.

The biggest sticking point is the extent to which the state can review the diocese’s abuse policies. Prosecutors want to interview anyone who will use the diocese’s procedures, but church officials claim that process crosses a constitutional boundary.

Read the article at The Telegraph Online dated Friday, Jan. 21, 2005

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Charity demands full investigation of sexual abuse cases

Ireland -

Alleged sex abusers should be thoroughly investigated by the police and other agencies, a charity which helps victims of abuse said tonight.

The comments by the Nexus Institute follows confirmation that the Catholic Church permitted a priest, who paid out compensation to an alleged sex abuse victim, to continue working in his parish.

It emerged today that the priest, who has not been identified, paid a five figure sum out-of-court to settle allegations of sexual abuse against him.

Read the article at ::: u.tv ::: dated FRIDAY 21/01/2005

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Nuns Group Hears Abuse Accounts

United States -

Officials of a Silver Spring-based organization that represents about 75,000 Catholic nuns have held a private meeting with four women and a man who allege that they were sexually abused by nuns.

It was the first time that officials of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an association of about 1,000 leaders of women's religious orders, formally met with members of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests to hear their personal stories.

The two-hour meeting, which took place Sunday in Chicago, was organized after group members and their supporters protested outside the conference's offices in July, demanding that they be allowed to address the organization's national convention in Texas in August.

Conference officials agreed to the private meeting with the advocacy group. Among the people at the Sunday meeting was an 82-year-old Milwaukee woman who said she was molested at a convent in 1928

washingtonpost.com dated October 9, 2004

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Former nun convicted of 2 felony sex crimes

Virginia Beach, Virginia -

The former nun accused of molesting a 10-year-old fifth-grader at a Catholic school 35 years ago was convicted Wednesday of two felony sex crimes.

Eileen M. Rhoads, 65, was rushed out of the Virginia Beach Circuit Court building by her attorney, William H. “Happy” O’Brien, after she entered an “Alford” plea to taking indecent liberties with a child and enticement of a child.

In an Alford plea, the defendant does not admit the act, but admits that the prosecution could likely prove the charge.

Judge Edward W. Hanson Jr. will formally sentence Rhoads on Sept. 22.

She faces up to 10 years in prison.

Read the article at HamptonRoads.com/Pilot Online dated July 15, 2004

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Porn furore vexes Austrian leader

Austria -

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel has spoken out over a sex scandal at a Roman Catholic priests' training college that has shocked the country.

Mr Schuessel called for a full explanation of the scandal, which erupted when child pornography was allegedly found at the seminary.

Further images then emerged showing clerics kissing and fondling trainees.

Read the article at BBC NEWS dated 17 July, 2004

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Vatican won't solve diocese money problems

Vatican City -

From New Zealand to Newfoundland, sex abuse settlements are posing an enormous financial burden on the Roman Catholic Church, even leading the Boston Archdiocese in the United States to consider the unprecedented step of filing for bankruptcy.

But when it comes time to pay the bills, Vatican officials won't be signing the checks.

Settlement costs this year in Ireland are estimated at $140-million, and in the United States dioceses could wind up paying hundreds of millions of dollars for new claims. Victim advocates estimate that U.S. dioceses had already spent $1-billion on settlements before this year's crisis.

Read the article at St Petersburg Times.com dated December 12, 2002

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Priest 'abused teacher's trust'

Sydney, Australia -

A CATHOLIC priest who indecently assaulted a male parishioner had abused his position of trust and authority, a Sydney court heard today.

Terence Norman Goodall, 64, now retired, pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre District Court to one count of indecent assault.

Although his victim reported the matter to police only in 2003, Goodall was charged under laws that existed when the crime took place in 1982.

Read the article at NEWS.com.au dated January 20, 2005

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Diocese considering bankruptcy

St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada -

The Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. George’s is examining bankruptcy as a way to deal with compensating victims in the sex abuse case of Father Kevin Bennett.

The diocese has not actually filed for bankruptcy and has made no final decision, but is exploring the possibility, according to Bishop Douglas Crosby.

“It’s terrible to even consider it. It’s very disquieting,” Crosby said.

Read the article at Transcontinental Newsnet dated January 20, 2005

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Diocese: Seons was Regina principal

Iowa City, Iowa -

A former bishop of the Sioux City Roman Catholic diocese, who served as principal at Regina High School for nine years, was accused of child sex abuse during his tenure in Iowa City.

A report issued this week by Davenport Bishop William Franklin states there were three allegations against retired Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens and the diocese settled one of those allegations for $20,000 in October.

The accusations stem from alleged acts in the early- to mid-1960s, according to the report. Davenport diocese spokesman Deacon David Montgomery said Soens served as Regina High School's principal from 1958 to 1967. Montgomery said he did not know whether the abuse allegations involve Regina.

Read the article at press-citizen.com
dated January 20, 2005

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Jury Panel Seated In Ex-Priest Sex Abuse Trial

Cambridge, Massachusetts -

A jury of eight men and eight women will hear the child rape case against former Catholic priest Paul Shanley, one of the most notorious figures in the clergy sex abuse scandal.

Jury selection was completed Thursday afternoon and the 12 regular jurors and four alternates will hear opening statements from the lawyers on Monday in Middlesex Superior Court.

Shanley, 73, is accused of child rape and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. The alleged victim, now 27, says Shanley raped him repeatedly at St. Jean's parish in Newton between 1983 and 1989, beginning when he was 6 years old.

Read the article at TheBostonChannel.com dated January 20, 2005

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Ex Cathedra: Goodwill Shunting: Even after $100 million sex-abuse settlement, Orange Diocese still denies claims of victims

Orange County, California -

The image made the front page of newspapers across the country and led off multiple newscasts: a tearful Joelle Casteix accepting the humbled apology of Bishop Tod D. Brown moments after he announced the settlement of 90 sex-abuse cases against his Diocese of Orange for $100 million, the largest settlement amount in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. The image was supposed to signify a new era for the Orange Diocese—an era of reform, transparency; an era where, as Brown put it, the harassment of molestation victims "will never happen again."

The image was a fraud.

Just four days later, Brown’s spokesman, Father Joseph Fenton, ruined whatever goodwill the bishop established with sex-abuse victims.

Read the article at ORANGE COUNTY WEEKLY dated January 21 - 27, 2005

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January 19: �Church Abuse Cover-Up

Cincinnati, Ohio -

9News Anchor, on set
Catholic Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk has denied any knowledge of sexual abuse by priests on his watch, but I-Team reporter Laure Quinlivan has court documents "just filed" that appear to indicate that's not true.

She's here with the details.

Laure Quinlivan, I-Team reporter, on set
The most important document regarding the question of whether the Archbishop knew of sexual abuse, is this one -- written by the Archbishop himself. It shows he knew Father David Kelley may have sexually abused children. But instead of reporting him to police, he moved him around.

The letter contradicts the Archbishop's statements after the November 2003 plea deal.

Read the article at WCPO.com dated January 19, 2005

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Bishop in settlement had served local parish

Davenport, Iowa -

A retired Catholic bishop accused of child sexual abuse served as a priest in Burlington, but none of the alleged assaults against him occurred during his time here.

The Diocese of Davenport this week acknowledged paying $20,000 to settle a claim that former Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens abused a child in the early to mid-1960s while serving as a priest in the diocese.

Soens led St. Paul's Catholic Church in Burlington from 1950 to 1952, his first assignment after ordination. He was made the fifth bishop of Sioux City in 1983 and held the post until retiring in 1998.

He is the first bishop in Iowa publicly accused in the abuse scandal that has attacked the foundation of the Catholic Church nationwide. The claims against Soens surfaced in a report by Davenport Bishop William Franklin updating the diocese on the status of sexual abuse allegations dating back to the 1950s.

Read the article at The Hawk Eye Newspaper dated January 20, 2005

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Police seize letters at Pell's office

Australia -

DETECTIVES investigating a sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church raided the offices of the Archbishop of Sydney.

Letters between Archbishop George Pell and a young man abused by a priest 20 years ago were seized.

The police raid came to light yesterday as the priest, Terence Norman Goodall, admitted sex crimes.

Read the article at NEWS.com.au dated January 21, 2005

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Head of Belgium's Catholic church ordered to pay in pedophile case

Brussels, Belgium -

The head of Belgium's Roman Catholic Church must pay damages to one of three boys whom a priest was convicted of molesting, a criminal court ruled today.

The court said Cardinal Godfried Danneels and a local assistant bishop were responsible as the employers of The Rev. Andre Vanderlyn, a 64-year-old Brussels parish priest.

It ordered the two men to pay a total of $14,000, the first time high-level church officials have been held responsible for civil damages in a pedophile case involving Belgium's church.

Read the article atAP Online dated 04-09-1998

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NEWS.com.au | Confession: Pell admits $50k offer (archived)

Australia -

SYDNEY Catholic Archbishop George Pell has admitted offering the family of two child sex abuse victims $50,000 if they kept silent about the assaults by a cleric.

According to Channel Nine's 60 Minutes program, the offer was made to the family of two girls abused by their local priest over six years from 1987, when they were just five years old.

Read the article at NEWS.com.au

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Cover story: Reports of abuse

Several reports written by senior members of women’s religious orders and by an American priest assert that sexual abuse of nuns by priests, including rape, is a serious problem, especially in Africa and other parts of the developing world.

The reports allege that some Catholic clergy exploit their financial and spiritual authority to gain sexual favors from religious women, many of whom, in developing countries, are culturally conditioned to be subservient to men. The reports obtained by NCR -- some recent, some in circulation at least seven years -- say priests at times demand sex in exchange for favors, such as permission or certification to work in a given diocese. The reports, five in all, indicate that in Africa particularly, a continent ravaged by HIV and AIDS, young nuns are sometimes seen as safe targets of sexual activity. In a few extreme instances, according to the documentation, priests have impregnated nuns and then encouraged them to have abortions.

In some cases, according to one of the reports, nuns, through naiveté or social conditioning to obey authority figures, may readily comply with sexual demands.

Although the problem has not been aired in public, the reports have been discussed in councils of religious women and men and in the Vatican.

Read the article at The National Catholic Reporter dated March 16, 2001

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Jury selection continues in Shanley rape trial

Cambridge, Massachusetts -

Potential jurors were questioned about their views on the Catholic Church and whether they had been victims of sexual abuse as the child rape trial began for defrocked priest Paul Shanley.

Seven jurors were seated by late Wednesday morning, among them a man who is Catholic and does landscaping at his church. Others were sent home because they'd seen pretrial media coverage and didn't think they could be objective.

Twelve jurors and four alternates will hear the case against Shanley, one of the most notorious figures in the clergy sex abuse scandal. He is accused of child rape and indecent assault and battery of a child and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Read the article at Boston.com dated 1/19/2005

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Sioux City Journal: Church says former bishop accused of child sexual abuse

Davenport, Iowa -

A former bishop of the Sioux City Roman Catholic diocese was accused of child sex abuse when he was a priest in the Davenport diocese, and the Davenport diocese reached a settlement with one of the accusers, church officials said.

A report issued Tuesday by Davenport Bishop William Franklin said that there were three allegations against retired Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens and the diocese settled one of those allegations for $20,000 in October.

Soens was the Sioux City diocese's fifth bishop, serving from 1983 to 1998.

Soens' name did not surface publicly until now because no lawsuits were filed naming him, according to Patrick Noaker, an attorney for victims who as a group reached a $9 million settlement in October with the Davenport diocese.

Read the article at Sioux City Journal dated 01/19/2005

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