Retired priest pleads guilty in child porn case

St. Louis, Missouri -

A retired priest previously convicted of sexual misconduct in Wisconsin will go to prison for at least five years after pleading guilty to child pornography charges, federal officials said Monday.

David Malsch, 66, was convicted of child enticement in 1993. In 2001, Malsch was sent to the Wounded Brothers Recon Facility, a home for troubled priests in the eastern Missouri town of Robertsville.

In 2003, federal authorities searched Malsch's room there and found 28 photos of child porn. U.S. Attorney James Martin said Malsch also had forwarded some of the pictures to a Pennsylvania pen pal.

Malsch pleaded guilty Monday to one felony count of receipt of child pornography. Under the PROTECT Act, adopted two years ago to strengthen the government's ability to investigate and punish violent crimes against children, he will go to prison for at least five years and up to 20 years.

Sentencing is June 10.

Read the article at AP Wire dated Feb. 28, 2005

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Retired priest pleads guilty in child porn case

St. Louis, Missouri -

A retired priest previously convicted of sexual misconduct in Wisconsin will go to prison for at least five years after pleading guilty to child pornography charges, federal officials said Monday.

David Malsch, 66, was convicted of child enticement in 1993. In 2001, Malsch was sent to the Wounded Brothers Recon Facility, a home for troubled priests in the eastern Missouri town of Robertsville.

In 2003, federal authorities searched Malsch's room there and found 28 photos of child porn. U.S. Attorney James Martin said Malsch also had forwarded some of the pictures to a Pennsylvania pen pal.

Malsch pleaded guilty Monday to one felony count of receipt of child pornography. Under the PROTECT Act, adopted two years ago to strengthen the government's ability to investigate and punish violent crimes against children, he will go to prison for at least five years and up to 20 years.

Sentencing is June 10.

Read the article at AP Wire dated Feb. 28, 2005

Documents Say Priest Failed Lie Detector

Toledo, Ohio --

A Roman Catholic priest accused of strangling and stabbing a nun in 1980 failed one of two lie detector tests in the days after the killing, according to court documents released Monday. The Rev. Gerald Robinson's failed test indicated he was involved with the nun's death, according to a document filed by investigators. A second polygraph test however indicated that Robinson 'passed' the test, but investigators say the results were marginal and inconclusive.

Robinson's attorney, Alan Konop, would only say that lie detector tests mentioned in the search warrants were 'not a true representation of what happened.' He did note that Robinson passed a second polygraph test, clouding the results of the first. Neither test is admissable in court.

The reports of the lie detectors tests came in a series of search warrants which were opened today and given to the news media by the courts. The opened warrants also indicate that Toledo Police investigators tried to months to obtain so called 'secret archive' files from the Diocese and finally in September of 2004, they obtained search warrants to look for those alleged files at the Catholic offices in downtown Toledo.

Read the article at WTOL-TV Toledo, OH dated Feb 28, 2005

Clergy abuse program questioned

Albany, New York --

The Independent Mediation Assistance Program, or IMAP was set up outside of the Albany Catholic Diocese in order to help those affected by clergy sex abuse.

Mark Furnish, a member of the Survivor's Network of those abused by priests, or SNAP, has questioned the program and it's funding. He said, 'First of all I think this is a public relations ploy by the diocese of Albany to make it look like they are actually doing something to help survivors.'

A ploy that Mark Furnish said has been in response to the hundreds of alleged clergy sexual abuse cases that took place within the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese years ago.

Scott Fine of IMAP said, 'There were a number of instances in which individuals who had been victimized preferred to seek services and compensation from an entity other than the church.'

Read the article at Capital News 9 dated 2/27/2005

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Yakima Diocese denies abuse allegations

Yakima, Washington --

The Roman Catholic church for Yakima has formally denied all charges raised in a recent lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a priest.

A former Zillah resident, Rose Yates Lamey, filed a suit early this month in Yakima County Superior Court, saying she was raped by the Reverend Michael Simpson in 1962 when she was ten.

Lawyers for the church say it has no knowledge of the alleged abuse. Simpson is dead, and the statute of limitation has elapsed.

Last year the church in Yakima said it had spent more than $1 million to settle abuse cases involving a half dozen clergy, but Simpson was not identified as one of them.

Read the article at FOX 12 OREGON dated Feb 25, 2005

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Yakima Diocese denies abuse allegations

Yakima, Washington --

The Roman Catholic church for Yakima has formally denied all charges raised in a recent lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a priest.

A former Zillah resident, Rose Yates Lamey, filed a suit early this month in Yakima County Superior Court, saying she was raped by the Reverend Michael Simpson in 1962 when she was ten.

Lawyers for the church say it has no knowledge of the alleged abuse. Simpson is dead, and the statute of limitation has elapsed.

Last year the church in Yakima said it had spent more than $1 million to settle abuse cases involving a half dozen clergy, but Simpson was not identified as one of them.

Read the article at FOX 12 OREGON dated Feb 25, 2005

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Abusers’ payroll

Hampton, New Hampshire --

In 1983, Reverend Gordon MacRae was involved in a child-molestation incident in Hampton. The victim was a 14-year-old boy. Shortly afterward, the Diocese of Manchester assigned MacRae to St. Bernard’s Church in Keene, where he became associate pastor. No one at St. Bernard’s knew about the Hampton matter, but church officials did. They had even notified the N.H. Attorney General’s Office, which decided not to prosecute.

Four years later, MacRae became acting parish administrator at St. Bernard’s, replacing Reverend Steven W. Scruton, who had just been convicted of indecent exposure and was being sent off for what was described as intensive counseling. Unbeknownst to local parishioners, Scruton had been arrested in 1984 after a similar incident in Londonderry, but charges were dropped. When he left Keene, Scruton moved to Dover. But, instead of being counseled, he became a counselor himself — to sex offenders in a Massachusetts prison.

In Keene, MacRae took on a new assignment in addition to his church duties. He was named executive director of Monadnock Region Substance Abuse Inc. That position brought him into contact with troubled children at the Spofford Hall rehabilitation center, where he also said mass. The Diocese of Manchester raised no alarms.

MacRae was arrested in November 1988 and pleaded guilty to offering to pay a child to have sex with him. Keene city officials then publicly urged the Diocese of Manchester to make sure that MacRae’s future church assignments, if any, would not bring him into contact with any more young people.

Read the article at The Keene Sentinel Editorial dated February 26, 2005

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Nun death probe data to be released

Toledo, Ohio -

Documents supporting two police searches of the Toledo Catholic Diocese in the murder investigation of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl most likely will be released Monday.

The Lucas County Prosecutor's Office yesterday decided not to fight a decision by Common Pleas Judge Thomas Osowik Thursday to release the records, said Dean Mandross, a senior assistant prosecutor.

That means search warrant affidavits, possibly outlining why police felt they needed a court order to search the downtown church office on Sept. 15 and 17, may be released at 9 a.m. Monday.

Prosecutors were looking for any church records about the Rev. Gerald Robinson, who was charged in the slaying of the nun in the Mercy Hospital chapel 24 years ago.

Detectives reopened the murder case in 2003 after they learned a 41-year-old woman, in unrelated allegations, claimed she had been sexually aswsaulted by several priests.

As part of her complaint, she accused Father Robinson of assaulting her once. Cold-case detectives - recognizing Father Robinson's name as a suspect from the 1980 homicide - decided to reopen the old murder case.

Read the article at toledoblade.com dated February 26, 2005

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Church levy in aid of abuse fund scrapped

Derry, Northern Ireland --

A Catholic diocese in Northern Ireland is to scrap a controversial levy in support of a fund for clerical sex abuse victims, it emerged tonight.

Bishop Seamus Hegarty caused outrage over his decision to charge parishioners without many of them knowing.

A three per cent levy had been put on parishes in the diocese of Derry as part of the church’s arrangement to pay for any cases.

Read the article Evening Echo dated 25/02/2005

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Church regrets row over donations

Derry, Northern Ireland --

The Bishop of Derry has said he regrets the "disquiet" caused by paying parishioners' money into a fund for victims of clerical sex abuse.

Dr Seamus Hegarty made the statement after parishioners complained donations were being put into a fund compensating victims of paedophile priests.

Parishioners were angry their money was being paid into the Stewardship Trust without their knowledge.

The revelations were made in BBC NI's Spotlight programme on Tuesday.

Parishioners found out their donations were being paid into the trust when the bishop was questioned on the programme.

Read the article at BBC NEWS dated 24 February, 2005

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Miss. high court refuses to hear priest abuse case

Jackson, Mississippi --

The Mississippi Supreme Court has refused a request by the Catholic Diocese of Jackson to review what the diocese believed were conflicting judicial rulings on sex abuse cases and a judge's refusal to dismiss a lawsuit brought by two people.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Smith on Thursday signed an order declining, without comment, to hear arguments from the diocese and other defendants.

Last year, Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter ruled he would not dismiss the abuse claims of two plaintiffs against the diocese. The plaintiffs known only as John Does 6 and 7 claim they were sexually abused by Father James Kircher in the late 1970s.

DeLaughter said the church sought dismissal of the lawsuits to deny John Does 6 and 7 "the forum for a jury to even consider their grievances."

Read the article at AP Wire dated 02/24/2005

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Priest convicted of sex abuse dies in prison

Berlin, New Hampshire —

A Roman Catholic priest convicted last year of raping three altar boys in Dover has died.

The Rev. Joseph Maguire died Wednesday in Berlin, about 10 months after he began serving a 44-year prison term. He was 73. Corrections spokesman Jeff Lyons said Maguire died of natural causes.

Maguire was convicted on 36 felony counts of abusing boys in the late 1970s and early 1980s at St. Joseph parish in Dover. He acknowledged abusing boys in Dover hotel rooms, during overnight trips and at St. Joseph´s rectory.

Read the article at MaineToday.com dated February 23, 2005

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Mendham Priest Target Of Extortion Plot

Mendham, New Jersey --

Another blow for a Roman Catholic church in Morris County that has been rocked by priest sex abuse allegations.

The pastor of Saint Joseph's Church in Mendham has resigned from that post after police say someone on the Internet tried to blackmail him online.

Police say the 58-year-old priest e-mailed a photo of himself to another person. The priest doesn't know how it ended up in the hands of another person, who sought payment to keep the photo private.

Philip Briganti is not a suspect, but he resigned from his post to shield the parish's 17-hundred families from more controversy.

Since 2002, as many as 21 men have alleged they were sexually abused by a former priest at Saint Joseph's between 1968 and 1982 when James Hanley also served a parish in Pompton Plains.

Hanley was never tried because the statute of limitations had expired. However, he admitted his guilt and was removed from the priesthood in 2003."

Read the article at 1010 WINS dated Feb 23, 2005

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AG's tally of abuse outpaces church's

Manchester, New Hampshire --

A discrepancy exists between the number of reports of child sexual abuse against Roman Catholic clergy in the Diocese of Manchester kept by church officials and the state Attorney General's Office in 2004.

A state prosecutor yesterday said it's "very plausible" the inconsistency may be because some alleged victims filed complaints only with the state and not the diocese.

Still, it underscores the need for his office to conduct annual audits of diocesan records and personnel — mandated as part of the agreement the Manchester diocese struck with the state in 2002 to avoid criminal prosecution for child endangerment — Senior Assistant Attorney General N. William Delker said yesterday.

"That is obviously one of the important issues that the audit is supposed to investigate. And until we are able to review their records and speak with personnel who do intake on these cases, we can't compare the information we have with their records," Delker said.

Read the article at The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News dated 24-Feb-05

Sex-abuse suits launched against Cornwall church, lawyer

Cornwall, Ontario, Canada --

Three men in Cornwall are suing the Catholic Church, a former Crown prosecutor and a priest, in the latest development of a sexual-abuse scandal that has long divided the eastern Ontario city.

Albert Lalonde and Robert Renshaw have each launched $3.1-million lawsuits against the Roman Catholic diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, alleging they were victimized by a former priest, Rev. Charles MacDonald.

The suits name current Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher and his predecessor, Eugene LaRocque, for alleged negligence.

Lalonde, who alleges he was abused when he was an altar boy, struggled to hold back tears at a press conference Tuesday as he remembered running into MacDonald in 1990.

"It was not long after that I started having full blown panic and anxiety attacks," he said.

A third plaintiff, Stuart Labelle, has launched a similar $3.1-million lawsuit against former Crown prosecutor Jacques Leduc, who also lives in the Cornwall area.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Cornwall has long been plagued by allegations of sexual abuse of children at the hands of some of the city's most prominent men, including officials, lawyers and clergy. Some of the alleged crimes dated back to the 1950s.

Read the article at CBC News dated22 Feb 2005

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Mendham pastor resigns suddenly

Mendham, New Jersey --

The Rev. Philip Briganti has resigned as pastor of St. Joseph's Church less than a year after he took over a parish that has been at the center of the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal in New Jersey.

Church officials said on Monday that Briganti, a longtime military chaplain, will be replaced immediately by Monsignor Joseph Anginoli, pastor of St. Simon the Apostle in Rockaway Township. They did not say why Briganti decided to step down but said it was the priest's decision and was not forced on him.

Briganti did not attend Mass at St. Joseph's this past weekend and parishioners said they were told he was ill. Church officials said on Monday that something came up in Briganti's personal life that made it difficult for him to continue as pastor. They would not be more specific.

"Father Briganti has encountered a distressful situation in his personal life which could render ineffective his mission as pastor," said Marianna Thompson, a spokeswoman for Bishop Arthur Serratelli of the Paterson Roman Catholic Diocese.

That "distressful situation" apparently involves a police investigation, according to church officials, but those who know about the investigation said it does not involve allegations of criminal wrongdoing against Briganti. They said Briganti was not a suspect in the investigation. Church officials said that any information would have to come from law enforcement authorities.

Read the article at Daily Record News dated 02/22/05

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Former Mass. Priest Named In Texas Sex Abuse Lawsuit

Worcester, Massachusetts --

A Roman Catholic priest living in Massachusetts has been accused of sexual abuse by two Texas men who also allege the dioceses in Worcester and Fort Worth, Texas, conspired to help the priest avoid arrest.

Two men, identified only as John Doe I and John Doe II in the lawsuit filed in Tarrant County District Court in Forth Worth, allege the Rev. Thomas Teczar sexually abused them while he was pastor of St. Rita's Church in Ranger, a small town in northern Texas.

Teczar, who now lives in Dudley and who served as a priest in the Worcester diocese until he was removed from his duties in 1986, denied the allegations, and said he does not know the man identified as John Doe II.

"I never met him. I never even talked to him. I never touched him," Teczar said in a telephone interview Monday with the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester. He also told the newspaper that he knows the man identified in the suit as John Doe I "only from the gas station" in Ranger, where the abuse is alleged to have occurred.

Read the article at TheBostonChannel.com dated February 22, 2005

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Superior Court judge makes landmark church official abuse ruling

Boston, Massachussetts --

A Superior Court judge has ruled that a Jehovah's Witness church in Boston can be sued for breaking its trust and legal duty to a girl who claims she was sexually abused by one of the church's ministerial servants.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Herman Smith Jr.'s ruling earlier this month is believed to be the first time a Massachusetts court has ruled that church officials have a "fiduciary duty" to members of their congregation. Lawyers and doctors already owe a similar legal responsibility to their clients and patients.

Smith's ruling also is expected to open another legal channel for attorneys to bring civil suits against churches for clergy abuse cases, according to Lisa Bruno, news editor for Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

"It gives another piece of ammunition to plaintiffs, another grounds for finding a church liable for the actions of priests and ministers," Bruno said.

Carmen Durso, a Boston lawyer who settled 40 lawsuits against the Catholic Boston Archdiocese in 2003, said he expects Smith's ruling to pave the way for more clergy abuse cases to proceed.

Read the article at Worcester Telegram & Gazette APN dated February 22, 2005

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Victims seek to end limits on sex abuse charges

Boston, Massachusetts --

David Carney remembers going to a cheap motel, drinking wine out of a Coke bottle and being raped by his high school chaplain. The next 23 years were filled with alcohol and drugs, a series of dead-end jobs and deep feelings of shame.

By the time Carney got sober three years ago, it was too late for him to seek criminal charges against the priest. The statute of limitations on the alleged crimes had run out. Like many other victims of sexual abuse, Carney gave up on the idea that the man who raped him would go to prison.

But now, some state lawmakers are hoping to change that for future victims. Spurred by the Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal and the recent child rape conviction of defrocked priest Paul Shanley, a group of lawmakers is pushing legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations on most sex crimes.

For people like Carney, the change would come too late. The legislation would not apply retroactively.

But victims and their advocates say the time limits need to be abolished to deal with the humiliation and embarrassment many victims of sex crimes feel, which can lead them to stay silent about their abuse for decades, Carney said.

Read the article at The Call dated 02/21/2005

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Priest Sex Abuse Investigated

Toledo, Ohio --

An investigation into a Roman Catholic nun's slaying 24 years ago has broadened with authorities now probing accusations that children were molested and raped by priests in ritual services decades ago, The Blade reported.

Spurred by leads that emerged since the arrest of the Rev. Gerald Robinson in the death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, police have searched an abandoned house in Lucas County where people reportedly took part in abuse ceremonies, the newspaper reported.

The newspaper said detectives have been looking for evidence of cult gatherings in church attics and basements and have talked with religious experts on subversive groups and church history. They also have interviewed the founder of a secret fraternity whose members dressed in nuns' clothing.

Prosecutors said they will continue to investigate, but trying to substantiate claims from so long ago is difficult. Police have not linked any ritual abuse to the 66-year-old Robinson, prosecutors said.

The Blade reported that its investigation, based on hundreds of police and diocese records and interviews showed that prosecutors are still studying details of Pahl's slaying, including a pattern of stab wounds resembling a cross.

The nun was found April 5, 1980, in the sacristy of Mercy Hospital in 1980. She had been strangled and repeatedly stabbed, her body posed to look like she was sexually assaulted.

Read the article at 13abc.com dated 2/21/2005

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Speaking Out About Priest Abuse

Iowa City, Iowa --

"Eastern Iowans speak out about more allegations of sexual abuse in the catholic church.

For many Eastern Iowans, the reports are no longer shocking. The latest audit by the catholic church shows nearly three dozen new complaints of sexual abuse by catholic priests in Eastern Iowa.

Going to church every Sunday is a ritual for some Eastern Iowans. But attending meetings to support victims of sexual abuse in the catholic church is a choice Mary and David Hacker make on a regular basis. David Hacker says, 'I was from a parish in Waterloo where there was abuse and some of it is starting to come out now. And also, I felt strongly that the people here in Davenport, the bishop was responding as a person who went through a lawsuit rather than as a Christian.'

St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Iowa City is part of the Davenport Diocese. Church members dealt with news of sexual abuse in the Davenport Diocese after thirty-eight men came forward saying they were abused by priests when they were children. Mary Hacker says, 'many catholics think since the suit is settled, the whole thing is gone, and we're afraid people will forget what happened to these people.'"

Read the article at Speaking Out About Priest Abuse dated February 20, 2005

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Games pedophiles play

Baltimore, Maryland --

A priest being convicted of child molestation may no longer be front page news, but that doesn't mean the problem can be relegated to the inside pages of our collective conscience.

Thursday defrocked Roman Catholic priest Maurice Blackwell was convicted of molesting an altar boy during the 1990s, while serving at a church in Baltimore.

Sadly, we have heard some version of this story so often that we are now desensitized. But the Blackwell story is not exactly the same old story. A decade after alleging Blackwell molested him, Dontee Stokes shot and wounded the priest on the street in a fit of rage when Blackwell refused to apologize, the Associated Press reported.

"In May 2002, as the sex scandal that engulfed the Roman Catholic Church was unfolding in Boston, a tormented Stokes shot Blackwell three times in the hip and hand on a city street," AP reported.

The condensed version of what likely happened is that current events forced Stokes to relive a painful past. His past was especially painful because after suffering at the hands of a respected representative of God and all that is supposed to be good, authorities took no real action when he reported the abuse.

"Stokes reported the alleged abuse in 1993, at age 17, but prosecutors declined to press charges. He testified that he did not report the abuse earlier because he didn't want Blackwell to be removed, because of his stature in the community," AP reported.

Read the article at Ledger-Enquirer dated 02/19/2005

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Several current, former Waterloo residents claim clergy sex abuse

Waterloo, Iowa ---

Three people claiming they were sexually abused by priests in Waterloo 25 to 40 years ago filed lawsuits Friday afternoon against the Roman Catholic Church's Archdiocese of Dubuque.

The people who filed Friday's lawsuits --- one current and two former Waterloo residents --- claim they were abused as teenagers in incidents from the early 1960s through the late 1970s.

Two accuse the same priest, the Rev. William T. Schwartz, who also was accused of sexual misconduct in an earlier lawsuit.

In that June lawsuit, a Cedar Rapids man, Daniel Ortmann, accused Schwartz of abusing him when he was an eighth-grade student in 1983. The archdiocese, a co-defendent with Schwartz, settled out of court for $100,000 in October 2004. The case is still pending against Schwartz, who was removed from priestly duties when he retired in 1993. He lives in Arizona, where he was treated in a clinic for sexual abusers, archdiocese officials have said. He can no longer represent himself publicly as a priest or reside within the Dubuque archdiocese.

Read the article at WCFCourier.com dated February 19, 2005

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Church Abuse Update

Covington, Kentucky --

The former No. 2 official with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington has been cleared of an allegation of sexual abuse, but has not received a new work assignment.

Diocese spokesman Tim Fitzgerald said a new assignment for the Rev. Gerald Reinersman is still under consideration. An ad hoc committee that Bishop Roger Foys formed to investigate the sexual abuse charge found no reason why Reinersman couldn't return to active ministry.

Reinersman wrote in a statement published in the diocese newspaper, The Messenger, that he was always confident a full and fair investigation would clear him.

"Thanks be to God, that day has finally come," he wrote.

Foys placed Reinersman on administrative leave in May, after a Lexington man accused him of repeated sexual abuse in 1979 at Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary parish in Lexington.

Read the article at lex18.com dated February 20, 2005

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At least 55 new claims of clergy sex abuse filed in Washington last year

Seattle, Washington --

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle said Friday that in 2004 it received 31 new complaints of sexual abuse by priests, while the Spokane Diocese said it received 24 new claims.

No new figures were immediately available for the Yakima Diocese.

Nationally, Catholic leaders said Friday that 1,092 new abuse claims were made against American priests and deacons last year, even after dioceses had already paid more than $800 million in settlements.

In the Seattle Archdiocese, the 31 new complaints last year were made against 10 priests - seven of whom had been previously accused.


Read the article at Seattle Post-Intelligencer dated February 18, 2005

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Trial Set For Former Daly City Priest Accused Of Abuse

Redwood City, California --

The February trial date set for a former Daly City priest accused of sexually abusing a young girl a decade ago has been vacated and rescheduled for May.

San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Stephen Hall granted a defense request to delay the trial for Jose Superiaso, 50, a former priest at St. Andrew's Catholic Church who acknowledged having sex between 30 and 40 times with a young girl he babysat in the mid-1990s.

The May trial will be the second prosecution of Superiaso, who will be retried on 18 felony counts.

On Sept. 17, a San Mateo County jury acquitted Superiaso on three of the original 21 charges against him and deadlocked on the remaining 18 counts, forcing Superior Court Judge Robert Foiles to declare a mistrial.

The girl, now 22, first reported the alleged crimes in May 2003. Superiaso was arrested on June 10 of that year, after the alleged victim lured him back to the county from New Mexico.

Read the article at CBS 5: Local Wire dated 02/18/05

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Priest sues own diocese, alleging abuse by priest as teen

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania --

A Roman Catholic priest is suing his own diocese, saying he was sexually abused as a teen by a now-deceased priest who taught at his high school.

The Rev. John Nesbella alleges that he was abused more than 25 years ago, when he was 16, at a rectory operated by the Altoona-Johnstown diocese, the diocese said in a statement.

Nesbella says he was abused by The Rev. Martin Brady, his teacher at Bishop Carroll in Ebensburg, according to lawyer Richard Serbin, who represents Nesbella. Brady died March 19, 2003, the diocese said.

"Having one of our priests be a litigant against his own diocesan church and diocesan bishop presents us with a number of difficulties," Bishop Joseph Adamec said in the statement. He said it could be difficult for the diocese to conduct a thorough investigation and for Nesbella to be an effective minister.

"The fact that the accused is deceased makes it next to impossible to confirm the allegation," Adamec said.

Serbin said he filed suit this week against the diocese, Bishop Joseph Adamec and former Bishop James Hogan, but has not yet filed a detailed complaint.

Read the article at PennLive.com dated 2/18/2005

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Priest told to step down after sex-abuse accusations

Denver, Colorado --

Amid hugs and tears, a popular Denver priest told his parishioners Sunday the archbishop has relieved him of his duties so he can concentrate on defending himself against sex-abuse accusations.

In an emotional statement at the end of Mass, Rev. Marshall Gourley spoke in Spanish and English as he told members of Our Lady of Guadalupe church his departure is necessary in the face of a $20 million lawsuit.

"Please, please don't be upset with the archbishop," Gourley, 48, said. "The process that the archbishop has undertaken is in accord with the norms established in this archdiocese and throughout the United States. The process is correct. And the process is necessary."

Gourley has said the molestation accusations are "distressing and not truthful" and he will vigorously defend himself against them.

Some church members said they disagreed with the decision by Archbishop Charles Chaput of the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver.

Read the article at Texas News dated October 6, 1997

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Fear kept many men from revealing past memories of priest abuse

Cedar Rapids, Iowa --

Daniel Ortmann was 34 and undergoing therapy before he told anyone he had been abused by a priest near his home in Palo when he was 14. Mike Dalton of West Branch gradually told friends and family over the years that he had been abused by a priest in Iowa City when he was 15 years old. But he wishes he had not waited 42 years to tell the church. Ortmann, now 36, and Dalton, now 58, have never met. Yet they have much in common. Their stories tell why a long-running, worldwide scandal in the Catholic Church has only recently come to light.

Read the article at Cedar Rapids: Gazetteonline.com dated February 17, 2005

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Diocese says 34 more individuals have reported abuse

Waterloo, Iowa -- Over the last two years, 34 individuals have reported incidents of child sexual abuse by priests to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque, officials said in a report on Friday.

"Each person comes forward with a story and often much hurt and pain," Archbishop Jerome Hanus said in a letter to Catholic households in the archdiocese, which covers 30 northeast Iowa counties and the cities of Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque and Mason City.

Hanus' letter was meant to update members of the archdiocese on its response to the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church.

The 34 incidents were among 1,092 new allegations of sexual abuse that have been reported against at least 756 priests and deacons across the country, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops said Friday.

In a previous report in December 2003, Hanus said that 26 priests had been accused of sexually abusing children between 1950 and 2002, involving a total of 67 victims 12 girls and 55 boys.

Read the article at Sioux City Journal dated 02/18/2005

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Alleged church sex abuse victims demand action from Yakima Diocese

Yakima, Washington --

Three women who allege they were sexually abused by a Catholic priest in the 1960s and a church abuse victims' support group on Wednesday urged Yakima's Catholic bishop to encourage more victims to come forward.

Other victims likely continue to suffer and the church should reach out to anyone who may have been abused or witnessed abuse, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests wrote in a letter to Bishop Carlos Sevilla of the Yakima Diocese.

The support group for victims of priest abuse has more than 5,000 members nationally.

"It's no secret that church officials for decades have aided, abetted and harbored known and suspected molesters in the church, and shielded them from prosecution by knowingly failing to report the alleged crimes to law enforcement," the letter said.

"It's also no secret that still today many church officials needlessly place children at risk of abuse by refusing to disclose the names of known and alleged molesters," the letter said. "This sends a very dangerous message to Catholics that the church officials continue to aid and abet alleged molesters."

Read the article at OregonLive.com dated 2/16/2005

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Advocacy group says priest violating terms of his suspension

Cincinnati, Ohio --

A Roman Catholic priest suspended by the church for sexually abusing children violated terms of his suspension by living near children and presenting himself as a priest at a funeral, an advocacy group for abuse victims says.

The Rev. Thomas Brunner is on paid suspension from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. He is living with a woman and her adopted son in the Dayton suburb of Riverside, said Christy Miller, co-leader for the Cincinnati chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Brunner is an abuser who should not have access to children, Miller said in a telephone interview Thursday. She faxed a letter of complaint to the Cincinnati archdiocese office on Wednesday.

"It seems that Tom Brunner is blatantly disregarding your authority and is mocking the directives of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati," Miller wrote to Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk. "Brunner, as you know, is still a priest employed by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, therefore still under your supervision."

Miller also sent the archdiocese a copy of a published obituary that reported Brunner had presided at a Dec. 3 funeral in Hamilton.

The archdiocese received the letter and is investigating, church spokesman Dan Andriacco said.

"If it is true, it is very serious," Andriacco said.

Read the article at ONN. Ohio News Now dated February 18, 2005

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Immigrant 'abused by Catholic priests'

Miami, Florida --

A man who immigrated to the US from Cuba 25 years ago has accused five Catholic priests, a seminary student and an archdiocese employee of sexual abuse, his lawyer said.

The man who was identified only as John Doe number 20 said the abuse took place after he arrived in the US as part of the Mariel boatlift in 1980 and sought shelter at the Catholic church of Opa-Locka north of Miami, according to attorney Jeffrey Herman.

The plaintiff insists one of the priests paid him $US 100 in hush money.

Read the article at The Australian dated February 17, 2005

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Blackwell found guilty on 3 sex abuse counts: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Baltimore, Maryland --

Maurice Blackwell, the former priest of St. Edward Catholic Church in West Baltimore, was convicted Thursday of molesting a parish choirboy, who years later shot him.

The defrocked priest, found guilty of three counts of sexual child abuse that took place in the early 1990s, could be sentenced to up to 45 years in prison on April 15 by Baltimore Circuit Judge Stuart R. Berger.

Blackwell, 58, was acquitted of one count of abuse for incidents that allegedly occurred in 1989.

The weeklong trial attracted national attention because the accuser, Dontee Stokes, shot him in May 2002 at the height of the national priest abuse scandal in the Catholic church. Stokes, now 29, was acquitted of attempted murder but convicted of weapons violations. He served home detention.

Blackwell became the 271st Roman Catholic priest convicted of sexual abuse since 1965. He was defrocked in October by Pope John Paul II and has not been a pastor since 1998, when he admitted having had a sexual relationship with another teenage boy in the 1970s.

Read the article at South Florida Sun-Sentinel dated February 17 2005

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N.Va. Priest Charged in Child Porn Probe (washingtonpost.com)

Leesburg, Virginia --

A longtime Catholic priest in Leesburg and other Northern Virginia communities has been indicted by a Loudoun County grand jury on a charge of possession of child pornography, which resulted from a worldwide crackdown, officials said yesterday.

The Rev. Robert C. Brooks, 72, who led St. John the Apostle in Leesburg for 14 years, registered with a child pornography Web site in 2003, attracting the attention of federal investigators, authorities said. Brooks stepped down in October after Loudoun officials told the Diocese of Arlington that they intended to charge him, authorities said.

Brooks was indicted Monday and released on bond yesterday. He joined the diocese in 1974, and before going to Leesburg, he was pastor of churches in Falls Church, Annandale, Vienna and Alexandria.

Loudoun Commonwealth's Attorney James E. Plowman, whose office is prosecuting the case, would not say whether Brooks downloaded or purchased illegal images. A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency overseeing the international investigation, said all suspects were identified from credit cards used to purchase subscriptions to child pornography Web sites from a company based in Belarus.

Read the article at washingtonpost.com dated February 16, 2005

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Priest accused of abuse by refugee

Miami, Florida --

A Pompano Beach, Fla., priest has retired after a former Mariel boatlift refugee accused him of sexual abuse in the early 1980s.

The allegations have been corroborated by a fellow priest, The Miami Herald reported Wednesday.

The Rev. Ricardo Castellanos had drawn thousands of worshipers to his church and a cable television show before announcing his retirement.

He is also fighting five other abuse allegations lodged earlier by former altar boys and youths and has been on administrative leave since 2002.

Mary Ross Agosta, spokeswoman for the Miami Archdiocese, said the Catholic Church is investigating the allegations, which have been reported to the State Attorney's Office. Castellanos will not be allowed to celebrate mass.

A fellow priest, Rev. Hector Gonzalez-Abreu, is helping the unidentified former Mariel refugee with his negligence case against Castellanos.

Castellanos has been pastor of San Isidro Catholic Church since 1982 and is host of the Trinity Broadcasting Network show, "In the Word with Father Ricardo."

Read the article at NewKerala.com dated Feb. 16, 2005

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Tales of abuse leave family with mixed feelings about church

Grand Forks, North Dakota --

Pat Dow is the kind of Catholic mother and nurse not easily fazed by trauma. She and her husband, who is deceased, "raised eight children and saw eight children graduate from college."

"This probably isn't the first crisis we've faced," she says. She is the mother to whom 12-year-old Dan Dow came in 1970 with a tale of being abused by his priest.

"I said 'Dan, that's not your fault. That man is sick.'"

It was shocking, but not a complete surprise to a mother who had seen slight changes in her son.

"It was suspicious before," she said. "He had refused to serve Mass."

She immediately called her husband up to the room, and she and Dan told him the story.

"He said, 'Dan, I'll take care of this.'"

He and another father insisted action be taken, and James Porter was transferred out of the diocese.

Read the article at Grand Forks Herald dated 02/16/2005

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Jury Deliberates in Priest's Abuse Trial

Baltimore, Maryland --

Jurors began deliberations Wednesday following closing arguments in the trial of a former priest accused of sexually molesting an altar boy, who shot the cleric on a city street a decade after the alleged abuse.

Maurice Blackwell, 58, who did not testify, faces up to 60 years in prison if convicted of molesting Dontee Stokes, 29, who served home detention on a gun charge for attacking the former Roman Catholic priest.

In their closing arguments, defense attorneys portrayed Stokes as a disturbed young man who made up the allegations to deal with a sexual identity crisis, and the prosecution called him a vulnerable victim preyed upon by a trusted father figure.

Read the article at ABC News dated Feb 16, 2005

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Court to rule on clergy abuse suits

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania --

A Pennsylvania appeals court will hear arguments today in a case that could determine whether dozens of lawsuits can move forward against the Catholic Church in sexual abuse cases.

Superior Court is being asked to decide whether the statute of limitations expired in a series of clergy sexual abuse cases dismissed by a Philadelphia judge. A ruling by the three-judge panel, which includes Judge Jack Panella of Northampton County, could affect clergy sexual abuse cases across the state.

The appeals court is being asked to decide whether the two-year statute of limitations bars victims from suing the church and top church officials for abuses that occurred years ago.

The issue isn't whether the alleged child molesters, including priests and Catholic school employees, can be sued. The victims have conceded that the perpetrators can't be sued because the abuses happened too long ago.

Rather, the appeals court is supposed to decide whether the Catholic Church and top church officials can be sued for allegedly fraudulently concealing abuses and allowing them to continue. The Philadelphia cases name as defendants the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and its former archbishop, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua.

Read the article at mcall.com dated February 16, 2005

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Police Will Not Investigate Abuse Allegations Against Former Priest

Orlando, Florida --

Tuesday afternoon, Orlando police announced they will not be investigating abuse allegations against a former Central Florida priest because the victims waited too long.

Father Richard Emerson had transferred to St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church from Indiana back in the late '80s to mid '90s. Two men told Orlando police that, starting when they were twelve, Emerson molested them and they say it went on for seven years.

The two men told police Emerson molested them in peoples' homes and on trips to Key West, Chicago, Colorado and Indiana. But police say the men had until they were 22 years old to report it to law enforcement. They are now in their 30s and it's too late. The four-year statute of limitations has run out.

Police say, if not for that, they would have investigated further. But, at this point, they would not say whether Emerson would have been charged.

Read the article at WFTV.com - News dated February 15, 2005

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News in brief from the San Francisco Bay area

Oakland, California --

An Oakland judge has rejected a motion seeking to delay a key clergy sexual abuse trial set for March 7, adding pressure on the Catholic Church to reach an out-of-court settlement in mediation talks.

Allen Ruby, a lawyer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, argued Monday that a negligence claim filed by a former altar boy at St. Ignatius parish in Antioch wasn't a good test case to determine liability in scores of other Northern California lawsuits. Those suits were filed under a 2002 state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on decades-old claims of priestly abuse.

But Judge Ronald Sabraw of Alameda County Superior Court Sabraw showed little interest in further delays in getting the Northern California abuse claims before a jury.

Read the article at AP Wire dated 02/15/2005

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Monument to honor sex-abuse victims in Davenport diocese

Davenport, Iowa --

A monument will be placed outside the Catholic Diocese of Davenport's headquarters to recognize victims of sexual abuse by clergy.

Diocese officials said the millstone marker will remind church officials of their commitment to protect children.

"This symbol is intended to help promote healing for the victims and all the faithful in our diocese," Bishop William Franklin said. "The diocese hopes that our efforts will be meaningful to the victims and that this process will help to ease their pain."

The monument is one of the terms of a $9 million settlement with 37 victims of clergy sexual abuse. Numerous lawsuits have alleged sexual abuse by priests, some cases dating back decades.

Read the article at Omaha.com dated February 15, 2005

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Sex Abuse Claims, Cases In The Boston Archdiocese

Boston, Massachusetts --

A brief history of sexual abuse allegations and cases in the embattled Archdiocese of Boston:

1962: The Rev. John Geoghan was ordained into the Catholic Church. Confirmed cases of abuse in the Boston area involving Geoghan began shortly after his ordination.

1973: The Rev. Ronald Paquin was ordained. According to the father of one Paquin's accusers, abuse began almost immediately.

1975: The late Boston Cardinal Humberto Medeiros was notified that the Rev. Paul Shanley was accused of molesting four young boys. No action was taken by the Boston Archdiocese.

1979: Shanley was moved to another parish where further abuse allegedly took place, despite warnings of previous sexual abuse allegations.

1983: Shanley allegedly began a pattern of rape of one boy and sexual molestation of other young boys. The behavior continued until 1990, his accusers say.

1984: In a letter directly addressed to Law, a Massachusetts woman accused Geoghan of abusing her sons. Law has said he doesn't remember receiving the letter, even though he admitted his handwriting was on the envelope. The writing was intended for a bishop within the archdiocese: "Urgent, please follow through."

Read the article at foxreno.com dated May 22, 2002

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Ex-Priest Is Sentenced to 12 to 15 Years for Sex Abuse

Cambridge, Massachusetts --

Paul R. Shanley, one of the few priests to face criminal charges in the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison today for repeatedly raping a boy in suburban Boston in the 1980's.

"It is difficult to imagine a more egregious misuse of trust and authority," said Judge Stephen A. Neel.

The defrocked Mr. Shanley, 74, who could spend the rest of his life behind bars, showed no emotion as the verdict was read.

He was convicted last week on two counts each of child rape and indecent assault battery of a child after the jury in the Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, Mass., deliberated for 15 hours.

The prosecutor, Lynn Rooney, had recommended a life sentence.

Mr. Shanley will be eligible for parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence, when he will begin serving 10 years' probation.

Read the article at The New York Times dated February 15, 2005

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Blackwell Defense Calls For Mistrial Due To Police Testimony

Baltimore, Maryland --

The detective who first investigated sexual abuse claims against a now defrocked priest testified Monday that he had reason to believe the alleged victim had been molested 20 or 30 times and that others also had been victimized, prompting the defense to ask for a mistrial.

"I found him to be credible," Lt. Frederick Roussey said, describing his interview with the alleged victim, Dontee Stokes, after being assigned the case in August 1993.

Roussey took the stand as the trial of the former priest, Maurice Blackwell, entered the second day of testimony. Testimony from Roussey and Detective Shawn Harrison prompted defense attorney Kenneth Ravenell to ask for a mistrial three times, arguing the comments were not fair to his client.

Judge Stuart Berger told the jury to disregard comments about other victims. He allowed the trial to continue, but asked jurors to leave the courtroom momentarily as he called attorneys up to the bench for a private conference to caution the prosecution and witnesses.

Testimony ended early on Monday because the prosecution's last witness, Monsignor Brian Ferme from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, was unavailable in the afternoon. Prosecutor Jo Anne Stanton said she planned to wrap up her case Tuesday.

Blackwell, 58, was once a popular and highly regarded pastor at St. Edward's Church. He is charged with four counts of sexual child abuse against Stokes, a former altar boy in the church.

Read the article at TheWBALChannel.com dated February 14, 2005

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Bishops Say Sex Abuse Claims Top 1,000

WASHINGTON -

Roman Catholic leaders said Friday they received 1,092 new abuse claims against American priests and deacons last year, even after they had already paid more than $800 million in settlements during the long-running crisis over predatory clergy.

Bishops said, however, that the flood of fresh allegations was not a sign abuse was rampant in parishes today. Most of the alleged incidents occurred decades ago and nearly three-quarters of the 756 accused clerics had died, been defrocked or been removed from public ministry before the claims were made in 2004, church leaders said.

Still, the financial fallout continues. Kathleen McChesney, head of the bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection, said the total payout to victims has now climbed to at least $840 million since 1950.

'The crisis of sexual abuse of minors within the Catholic Church is not over,' McChesney said. 'What is over is the denial that this problem exists.'"

Read the article at Yahoo! News dated Feb 18, 2005

Case against former priest, policeman continues in March

Kenora, Ontario, Canada --

Ralph Rowe faces over 70 sex charges

"Preliminary inquiry proceedings are scheduled to continue March 15, 16 and 17 against a former Anglican minister and OPP officer.

The preliminary inquiry for Ralph Rowe got underway Jan. 31. He faces over 70 sex charges for incidents he allegedly committed at nine locations in Northwestern Ontario between 1971 and 1987.

Rowe, who now lives in New Westminster, B.C., is charged with 38 counts of indecent assault and 34 counts of sexual assault against a total of 35 male victims in nine different settings, most of them northern First Nations."

Read the article at Kenora Daily Miner and News, Kenora, ON dated February 14, 2005

St. Louis archdiocese settles more cases of clergy abuse

St. Louis, Missouri -- The Archdiocese of St. Louis has agreed to pay $267,500 in mediation to settle seven more cases involving clergy sexual abuse, bringing to $2.4 million the payout covering 31 cases over the past 13 months, a lawyer for the archdiocese said Monday.

A claim in an eighth case apparently will be paid by a religious order."
The latest cases settled involved five archdiocesan priests, including three -- Michael McGrath, Donald "Father Duck" Straub and Robert Yim -- recently defrocked by the Vatican but never criminally charged.

Another newly settled case involved Romano Ferraro, convicted in May of raping a boy in Massachusetts in the 1970s. A St. Louis man sued Ferraro in January 2004, accusing him of raping him in the early 1980s when Ferraro lived here but was not assigned to any St. Louis parish duties. Ferraro -- suspended from priestly duties in 1988 -- is serving a life sentence in Massachusetts.

An eighth case resolved last month involved Vincentian Father Richard Lause. His claim will be paid by the Vincentians.

Read the article at STLtoday dated 02/14/2005

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New Zealand's leading news and information website

Sydney, Australia -

A Sydney court has ordered two St John's of God clergymen to be extradited to New Zealand to face historic child abuse charges.

However, lawyers for the two men are to apply for a review of the decision, meaning the duo won't be leaving Australia in the near future.

A third man, a 83-year-old brother was ordered free from returning to New Zealand to face the charges."

Read the article at STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS dated 14 February 2005

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Porter's death ignites emotions about his crimes, church response

Boston, Massachusetts --

Before hundreds of sexual abuse allegations shook the foundations of the Archdiocese of Boston, and lawsuits exposed a hierarchy that protected pedophile priests, there was James Porter.

The 1993 case of the former priest, who died on Friday at a Boston hospital at age 70, was an early bellwether of a broader scandal that would hit a decade later. His death evoked strong emotions among victims, his wife and others whose lives became intertwined with his.

Peter Calderone, 55, of Attleboro, Mass., a Porter victim, said he was glad that Porter's 'not a menace to society any longer.'

'It's going to take a long, long time for Porter's devastation to fade from history,' he said."

Read the article at Eyewitness News dated Feb. 13, 2005

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Gary priest denies abuse claim

Gary, Florida –

A Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing a Florida teenager more than a decade ago has denied the allegations through his attorney.

The Rev. Richard Emerson vehemently denies the allegations and, in fact, has an unblemished 26-year record as a priest, said his attorney, James F. Gilbride of Miami.

In January, a 29-year-old man filed a civil lawsuit seeking unspecified monetary damages from the dioceses of Gary and of Orlando, Fla. The man alleges that Emerson repeatedly molested him from the time he was 11 in 1986 until he was nearly 18.

Emerson was assigned to St. Charles Borromeo Church in Orlando when the abuse allegedly occurred on trips to Key West, Fla., Chicago, Colorado and Indiana over the seven-year period.

The lawsuit filed in Florida’s Orange County Circuit Court also alleges that the Gary Diocese received similar complaints involving other young boys, but concealed them and took no action.

Read the article at Journal Gazette dated 02/13/2005

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Vatican Defrocks Four Priests -Boston Archdiocese

Boston, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Four Massachusetts priests accused of sexually abusing children have been defrocked by the Vatican, the Archdiocese of Boston said in a statement released on Friday.

"The Holy See has determined that Robert Fay, Kelvin Iguabita, Bernard Lane and Robert Ward are no longer in the clerical state," the statement said.

The men will be forbidden from functioning as priests, and they will not receive any financial support from the archdiocese, the statement said.

Iguabita is serving a 12 to 14 years in prison for raping a 15-year-old girl.

Read the article at US News Article | Reuters.com dated Feb 11, 2005

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$5 million settlement near for sex abuse

Newark, New Jersey --

A $5 million settlement for 27 men who claimed they were molested by Roman Catholic priests could be completed by early next week, according to a person involved in the case.

If the settlement is signed by all the plaintiffs, the sum would be the largest payout by a New Jersey diocese in a clergy sex abuse case. The deal with the Diocese of Paterson also would provide four years of counseling for the men, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Most of the men claimed they were violated as boys from 1968 to 1982 by James Hanley, who served at three northern New Jersey parishes. He was removed from the priesthood in 2002, 17 years after church officials learned of complaints against him.

Read the article at APP.COM dated 02/11/05

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Accuser who shot ex-priest testifies

Baltimore, Maryland --

A man who shot and wounded a former Roman Catholic priest three years ago, accusing him of abuse, testified Friday that he was "in disbelief" when the alleged molestation began.

The former priest, Maurice Blackwell, is charged with four counts of child sex abuse.

His accuser, Dontee Stokes, served home detention for accosting him on a city street in 2002 and shooting him.

Using explicit language and demonstrating with gestures, Stokes, 29, said pats on the back and ear-tugging from the popular priest led to sexual molestation.

He testified he was "in disbelief" and "disgusted."

But the former altar boy acknowledged that he told no one about the abuse until a year after it ended.

Read the article at CNN.com dated Feb 11, 2005

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Who would you believe?

Cambridge, Massachusetts -

It's hard to feel anything but compassion and admiration for the 27-year-old Newton firefighter with courage enough to confront the man he says raped him over a period of years when he was a young boy. It's hard to feel anything but contempt for the man accused.
But in a court of law, one is innocent until proven guilty. Who would you believe if you were on the jury?
The young man says he repressed the memories of sexual abuse until two years ago when three other men -- who were parishioners of St. Jean's Parish in Newton between 1979 and 1989 just as he was -- filed charges that they were molested by the Rev. Paul Shanley.
He heard their stories, and a torrent of memories flooded in -- memories of being pulled from CCD classes and sexually abused in church pews, the bathroom and the confessional. He was 6 years old the first time it happened. It continued for six years.

Read the article at TownOnline.com - Shrewsbury Chronicle - Opinion & Letters dated Thursday, February 10, 2005

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Defrocked Priest Goes on Trial for Sex Abuse in Balto.

Baltimore, Maryland -

Dontee Stokes' link to the Rev. Maurice Blackwell began early. It was Blackwell who baptized him as a baby and later made him an altar boy.

But Stokes says his relationship with Blackwell changed. He alleges that years of sexual abuse culminated with rape when he was 17, prompting him to shoot Blackwell in 2002 with a .357 Magnum handgun.

Now Blackwell faces trial after being charged with four counts of sexually abusing Stokes between 1989 and 1992. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Thursday.

On Wednesday, the defrocked priest spoke publicly for the first time since the shooting, describing Stokes as a mentally disturbed young man who made the allegations in hopes of getting money out of him and the Catholic Church.

Read the article at WTOPNEWS.com

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NJ Clergy Abuse

Newark, New Jersey -

A $5 million settlement for 27 men who claimed they were molested by Roman Catholic priests could be completed by early next week, according to a person involved in the case.

If the settlement is signed by all the plaintiffs, the sum would be the largest payout by a New Jersey diocese in a clergy sex abuse case. The deal with the Diocese of Paterson also would provide four years of counseling for the men, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Most of the men claimed they were violated as boys from 1968 to 1982 by James Hanley, who served at three northern New Jersey parishes. He was removed from the priesthood in 2002, 17 years after church officials learned of complaints against him.
Lower Bucks Hospital

The lawsuit filed by the men 13 months ago claimed that church officials, including former Bishop Frank Rodimer, failed to take action to protect the youths.

Read the article at phillyBurbs.com dated February 10, 2005

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Records fight begins in priest sex-abuse lawsuit

Geneva, Illinois —

A legal fight is brewing over what information the Roman Catholic Church must disclose in civil lawsuits brought on behalf of two women who said they were sexually abused by a former Aurora and Geneva priest.

An attorney for the Rockford Diocese objected Wednesday to turning over the personnel file of Mark Campobello, arguing the request for information was either too broad or violated confidentiality rules.

Kane County Judge F. Keith Brown told the two sides to meet outside of court to discuss the issue, but the attorney for the two women said he might ask the judge to review documents and decide what the church should disclose.

"It shouldn't be the diocese that makes that determination," attorney Keith Aeschliman said.

Aeschliman represents two women who said they were sexually abused by Campobello when they were teenagers and he served in parishes and schools in Geneva and Aurora. The lawsuit, filed against Campobello, also accuses the diocese and Bishop Thomas Doran of negligence.

Campobello, 40, pleaded guilty last year to aggravated sexual abuse and was sentenced to eight years in prison. He has not responded to the lawsuits and was found in default.

Aeschliman said the diocese wants to withhold as much as 90 percent of the documents he seeks in relation to Campobello's record as a priest. The diocese's file could include medical records and correspondence, he said.

Diocese attorney Ellen Lynch declined comment.

Read the article at Records fight begins in priest sex-abuse lawsuit dated 02/10/05

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Lawsuit accuses Milwaukee Archdiocese of fraud

St. Francis, Wisconsin -

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee covered up for a priest convicted of sexual misconduct in the 1970s when church officials sent him to a new parish without warning of his past, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

A man who says he was abused by the late Rev. Siegfried Widera in the 1970s at the new parish filed the lawsuit against the archdiocese, seeking an unspecified amount of money.

The lawsuit said the archdiocese transferred Widera from Port Washington to the St. Andrew parish in Delavan in 1973, without warning anyone of his conviction of sexual misconduct earlier that year. The archdiocese later transferred Widera to California after he finished his three-year probation for the offense.

The lawsuit, filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, alleges the archdiocese's 'intentional nondisclosure' caused the altar boy's molestation by Widera.

'This archdiocese is a very scary place because the children are not safe here,' said Jeff Anderson, a Minnesota attorney representing the accuser. Anderson said the accuser is now in his 30s and lives in the Milwaukee area."

Read the article at AP Wire dated Feb. 10, 2005

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Catholic church says priest may have abused at least a dozen boys

Jefferson City, Missouri -

The Roman Catholic Church acknowledged Tuesday that a former priest may have sexually abused at least a dozen boys over a couple decades in several Mid-Missouri parishes.

The Jefferson City Diocese said the Rev. John Degnan had been accused in 2001 - about the time he retired from parish ministry - of sexually abusing a boy in the 1960s.

'Additional allegations surfaced in 2002,' the diocese said in a statement issued Tuesday in response to media questions. 'The investigation of this case by the diocese eventually suggested the probability of more victims of (father) Degnan in the same locations.'

Although church officials have heard of about 12 alleged victims, 'our sense has been there are others out there,' said Sister Ethel Marie Biri, the diocese chancellor.

Degnan, who turns 80 next week, could not immediately be reached for comment. Biri said that in 2002 Degnan was placed in a supervised residential center run by the St. Louis Archdiocese for priests who can no longer be assigned to parishes for fear they could harm others.

Degnan has not been criminally charged, Biri said. But the diocese has informed the state attorney general's office and several prosecutors about the allegations and has encouraged people alleging abuse to contact police, she said."

Read the article at News Tribune dated Feb 09, 2005

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Church Must Repent for Clergy Abuse, Holocaust Era Role

Los Angeles, California --

Cardinal Roger Mahony marked the start of Lent Wednesday by calling for the Catholic Church itself to do penance, in part for the abuse of children by clergy and for not speaking out 'forcefully enough' against Nazi atrocities.

Mahony, head of the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, made his comments in a message to parishioners on the first day of a 40-day season during which Catholics prepare for Easter by doing penance for sins and seeking spiritual renewal through prayer, fasting and good works.

'As we begin the Lenten journey this year, it is crucial to face the fact that the Church has not always been a light in the darkness. And so, penance and renewal are called for again and again,' he wrote.

The sins the cardinal cited included sexual abuse by clergy, the 'insufficient response' of the church, and its failure to speak more forcefully against the former system of apartheid in South Africa, the massacres in Rwanda a decade ago and the extermination of millions of people -- including six million Jews -- during the Nazi Holocaust.

Tod Tamberg, the cardinal's spokesman, said in a telephone interview that he has no recollection of Mahony having previously addressed the issue of the role of the church during World War II.

Tamberg said that, as Mahony writes his own messages to Catholics in his archdiocese, he did not know for certain what prompted the cardinal to discuss the issue. But he speculated the recent 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp may have been a factor.

What the Vatican did or did not do to oppose the crimes of the Nazis during the reign of Pope Pius XII is one of the most controversial issues confronting the Roman Catholic Church in the modern era."

Read the article at NBC 4 - News dated February 9, 2005

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Priest pleads guilty in Philly abuse case

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania --

A priest who taught at a Roman Catholic high school for boys pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually abusing a student in the late 1970s.

The Rev. James J. Behan, 61, an Oblate priest who now lives in Maryland, faces up to 25 years in jail for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and corruption of minors. He remains free on bond at an Oblate retirement home until his sentencing in May.

Behan performed oral sex on the teenager dozens of times from 1978 to 1980 when he taught at Northeast Catholic High School for Boys, prosecutor Maureen McCartney said. The victim, who was 15 when the abuse started, had thoughts of becoming a priest and spent considerable time with Behan, she said.

The sex acts took place at rectories and on overnight trips, but apparently not at the high school, she said.

'This is a person that was a priest. He taught at the same school, he took this student under his wing, and then he abused him,' McCartney said."

Read the article at Seattle Post-Intelligencer dated February 8, 2005

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Shanley conviction isn't end to clergy sex abuse crisis

Boston, Massachusetts —

The conviction of defrocked priest Paul Shanley was both a real and symbolic victory for victims of clergy sexual abuse. But the guilty verdict will not bring a quick end to the three-year scandal that has fractured the Roman Catholic church in Boston and across the country.

Although there is only one known criminal case pending against a priest within the Boston Archdiocese, there are more than 100 civil lawsuits accusing priests of sexually abusing children. And the pain felt across generations of children molested by their parish priest remains ever-present.

"Shanley's conviction was certainly a very important milestone in the ongoing battle. It has tremendous importance for all of us, but I know that there are still new victims coming forward," said Phil Saviano, who founded the New England chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

"I firmly believe there are victims from the '90s who we have not yet heard from. There were still a number of priests then who felt they had free reign and could act without consequences."

Read the article at Worcester Telegram & Gazette APN dated February 8, 2005

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Church 'learnt much about abuse'

Northern Ireland --

The Catholic Church has learnt a great deal about the measures needed to respond effectively to sexual abuse, Ireland's bishops have said.

It was important for that knowledge to be shared and 'the cry for healing needs to be heard from all victims of child sexual abuse', they said.

The bishops launched details of their Lenten pastoral reflection on Tuesday."

Read the article at BBC NEWS dated 8 February, 2005

The Dallas Diocese of the Catholic Church is under investigation

Dallas, Texas -

The Dallas Diocese of the Catholic Church is under investigation tonight.

The Dallas County District Attorney's office says it wants to learn all it can about the way the diocese has dealt with wayward priests..

The probe will try to determine if the diocese has received any allegations of abuse by members of clergy that have not been reported to law enforcement.

And... the D.A. wants to know what the diocese has done about any allegations against its priests.

The D.A.'s office is asking any victims to come forward. You can call your local police department... or the Dallas District Attorney."

Read the article at CBS 11 dated Feb 7, 2005

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Dallas probes reports of church sex abuse

Dallas, Texas -

The Dallas County district attorney is investigating whether the Catholic Diocese of Dallas has failed to report allegations of clergy sexual abuse to law enforcement officials.

The diocese declared in writing three years ago that no one in the ministry had violated any state law, but two recent cases have made prosecutors suspicious of that claim, Rachel Horton, spokeswoman for District Attorney Bill Hill, told Monday night's online edition of The Dallas Morning News.

Sunday, a pastor in Rockwall who had been accused in the early 1990s of sexually harassing boys at jobs in Dallas and Plano resigned. The pastor's accusers said they never saw any indication that the diocese investigated the allegations or reported them to authorities.

In the other case, police in Grand Prairie arrested a pastor on child pornography possession charges last week.

Both priests have declined to comment."

Read the article at Seattle Post-Intelligencer: AP - U.S. Headlines dated February 7, 2005

Convicted Pedophile Priest Dies in Boston

Boston, Massachusetts -

Former priest James Porter, whose widespread molestation of dozens of children foreshadowed the clergy sex abuse scandal that swept the Roman Catholic church, died Friday.

Porter, 70, died at New England Medical Center in Boston, where he had been treated since being transferred from a Department of Correction medical facility last month, department spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said. A cause of death was not immediately available. Porter's attorney had said he had incurable cancer.

Porter's case was the first high-profile one involving allegations that a priest had molested children in his parish — and that the church had simply moved him from parish to parish to avoid scandal.

"Father Porter came to symbolize the start of an era when people could talk about priest abuse," said attorney Roderick MacLeish, who represented 101 Porter victims in lawsuits in the early 1990s. "The irony is James Porter caused a lot of laws to be changed, caused a lot of people to come forward."

Porter pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 children, but once told a television reporter he molested as many as 100 children during his time as a priest in the 1960s and early 1970s in the Fall River Diocese.

Yahoo! News - Convicted Pedophile Priest Dies in Boston

Audit the Church

Athens, Greece -

The church is a perfect example of the dishonesty and inefficiency thatexists throughout the state because it is an extension of the state

THE CHURCH of Greece fully deserves the crisis in which it finds itself. For years we have heard about sexual depravities and property scandals unbecoming to the purported ambassadors of God on Earth. Now a new ring of corruption is unveiled, involving some of the highest enforcers of secular law in connection with at least one of the interpreters of divine will. The Holy Synod's recommendation that Archmandrite Iakovos Giosakis be suspended is welcome, but it is not nearly enough.

The problem the church faces today is its complete unaccountability, not only to anyone else but even to itself. Each of 100 metropolitanates nominally reports to the Archbishop in Athens, but in reality these administrative regions are run as autonomous Ottoman cifliks. This means that financial accounts and property dealings are difficult to centralise and monitor.

Archbishop Christodoulos now faces an enormous problem in disciplining his ranks. The truth is, he cannot do it alone. He needs the help of the state, which is, in turn, hobbled by the fact that it is inexorably fused with the church.

Read the article at Athens News

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Feds hiring private eyes to check abuse claims

Ottawa, Saskatchewan, Canada –

The federal government is about to spend millions of dollars to send private investigators to check out the claims of former students who say they were abused at Indian residential schools.

Ottawa has issued a request for proposals from private investigators across the country, hoping to hire 21 firms to track down alleged abusers and people who may have witnessed physical and sexual abuse.

The project is designed to verify about 13,000 compensation claims that former students have filed against the federal government over its role in setting up and running the schools, starting in the early 1900s.

Three of the private investigator firms are to be selected from Saskatchewan. More residential school claims come from Saskatchewan than any other province.

"It's important that people do have the right to tell their side of the story," says Nicole Dauz, who is with the federal department handling residential school claims.

Until now, Dauz says, government staff have tried to verify the information presented by former students who are asking to be compensated for the suffering imposed on them as young children. Using private investigators should speed up the process, she says.

Read the article at CBC Saskatchewan - Feds hiring private eyes to check abuse claims

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Priest Wants To Change Guilty Plea

Dayton, Ohio --

A former local priest wants to change his plea from guilty to not guilty on charges of public indecency and giving alcohol to teen-agers, News 5 has learned.

Father Thomas Kuhn, a former Elder High School principal, was scheduled to be in court today to find out if a judge would revoke his probation on those charges and send him to jail. Now there will also be a hearing on the plea change.

His lawyers said the terms of Kuhn's probation were too broad."

Read the article at channelcincinnati.com - News - Priest Wants To Change Guilty Plea

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Defrocked Priest's Conviction a Milestone

Boston, Massachusetts -

The conviction of defrocked priest Paul Shanley was both a real and symbolic victory for victims of child-molesting priests. But the verdict will not bring a quick end to the three-year scandal that has engulfed the Roman Catholic Church in Boston and across the country.

Although there is only one known criminal case pending against a priest in the Boston Archdiocese, there are more than 100 civil lawsuits accusing priests of sexually abusing children. And the pain felt by generations of children molested by their parish priests is ever-present.

"Shanley's conviction was certainly a very important milestone in the ongoing battle. It has tremendous importance for all of us, but I know that there are still new victims coming forward," said Phil Saviano, who founded the New England chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

"I firmly believe there are victims from the '90s who we have not yet heard from. There were still a number of priests then who felt they had free rein and could act without consequences."

Read the article at Yahoo! News dated Feb 8, 2005

Defrocked Priest Convicted in Sex Abuse Case in Massachusetts

Boston, Massachusetts -

Paul R. Shanley, the defrocked priest whose name figured prominently in the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston three years ago, was convicted on two counts of child rape and two counts of indecent assault and battery today, more than two decades after the victim said the molestation first occurred.

Mr. Shanley, who many said had reached out to wayward teenagers as a so-called street priest, is only the second priest to be convicted of sexual abuse in the wake of the 2002 scandal that resulted in the archdiocese's paying $85 million to settle almost 550 lawsuits by people who said that they had been sexually abused by a number of priests.

Until today, the only priest to be convicted was John J. Geoghan, who was found guilty of molesting a 10-year-old boy. Defrocked and sent to prison, he was strangled by a fellow inmate in 2003.

Mr. Shanley, now 74, could be sentenced to life in prison. After the jury of seven men and five women, which began deliberations on Thursday, delivered its verdict this afternoon, the judge revoked Mr. Shanley's bail. Sentencing is set for Feb. 15."

Read the article at The New York Times

Pope’s legacy: Changed the world, but not the Church

Vatican City -

Some conservative Catholics have longed to see Pope Pius XII named a saint of the Church. If the man who presided over the Church’s responses to World War II were canonized, so the hope goes, charges that Catholics had failed during the Holocaust or that Catholic anti-Semitism had helped prepare for it would be laid to rest once and for all.

In the late 1990s, rumors abounded that the Vatican was soon to beatify Pius XII, but in 1999 John Cornwell published “Hitler’s Pope,” a damning biography that detailed, among other lapses, the future pontiff’s early role as a Vatican diplomat doing business with and legitimizing the Nazi regime. The book caused a sensation, driving a stake through the pope’s reputation. Pius XII’s defenders dismissed Cornwell, but when new lists of people being promoted toward sainthood were published after that, Pius XII’s name was conspicuously and steadily absent. He isn’t mentioned much for sainthood anymore. Cornwell, a Catholic writer from Britain, may well have helped his church avoid the historic sacrilege of compounding its failures during the Holocaust with shameless denial by canonizing the man who embodied the shame of the war years.

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Psychologist Sues Catholic Church and Midwest Attorney Generals to Enforce Child Sex Abuse

Chicago, Illinois -

The Catholic church’s sex abuse scandal takes center stage Wednesday, February 16th at
10:30 before the Chicago federal courtroom of 7th Circuit District Court Senior Judge George
Marovich, when Illinois psychologist Dr. Theophilus Green takes on Chicago’s Cardinal Joseph
Cardinal George and asks the court to remove state and federal statute of limitations on child
sexual abuse. At this hearing, both are expected to be present.
Dr. Green sued Cardinal George and the Washington-based United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops on behalf on his clients, using a rarely used and little understood legal strategy
called jus terii. Simply put, it allows a third party stakeholder to sue on behalf of another, for
himself and the second party, when both are damaged and the latter is unable to sue the first.
As a psychologist, Dr. Green sued Cardinal George, a vice president of USCCB, Vatican
City’s legal representative in America, for not complying with child protection laws that could
have protected his clients from abusers church Mandated Reporters knowingly failed to report.
Dr. Green complains that when Illinois unlawfully placed sanctions on his license, following
compliance with child protection laws, and enforced them with other states, they interfered with
his ability to protect his clients locally and nationally.

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Catholic hero now faces Vatican inquiry

Vatican City -

"It was nearly 50 years ago, but Jos� Barba winces as he remembers Father Marcial Maciel, founder and icon of the Legion of Christ, the secretive Roman Catholic order said to be second only in papal influence to Opus Dei.

'Oh, I felt so very unhappy,' he said, after describing one incident just before the priest said Mass one Easter Sunday. 'I wanted to run, but he was everything to us. He was Our Father and we thought he was a saint. I went to my room and I cried and cried, and then I went to Mass.'

The fear, pain, humiliation and resentment that Barba says once tormented him have faded over the years, but for the Catholic church the abuse he and others claim to have suffered threatens to erupt into a child abuse scandal that reaches the highest Vatican ranks.

Barba wants the church to recognise publicly the crimes he and many others claim Maciel committed. 'We want people to know that the founder of an institution so close to the Pope and who has written so much about chastity is in fact a pederast.'"

Read the article at The Observer

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Vatican inquiry into child abuse may go ahead

Vatican City -

The legal investigation into serious allegations of child sex abuse against the leader of a Roman Catholic religious order, also a close ally of the Pope, is being re-opened – according to a report in today’s Observer newspaper.

Father Marcial Maciel, founding father of the Legion of Christ, an ultra-conservative group second only to Opus Dei in papal influence, received warm tributes on the 60th anniversary of his ordination from Pope John Paul II and others. But he has been dogged by persistent sex abuse allegations from eight plaintiffs since the 1960s.

A week after Maciel was honoured by the Pope, the plaintiffs received a letter from their Rome lawyer telling them that the case against him had been re-opened. It was shelved in 1999 on the extra-judicial grounds that their suffering could not compare with the threat of disillusion felt by millions of Catholics, says correspondent Jo Tuckman, writing from Mexico City.

Read the article at news from ekklesia dated 6/01/05

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