Victims' groups want Catholics to reverse abuse bill opposition

Columbus, Ohio --

Roman Catholic officials are fighting a legislative proposal that would allow lawsuits over decades-old allegations of child abuse.

Victims' groups are trying to counter the Roman Catholic lobbying, which has included two bishops meeting privately with the House speaker. The Senate approved the bill last month.

The provision will not promote healing for victims and could endanger the rights of the accused to defend themselves, Columbus Bishop Frederick Campbell said Wednesday. Campbell and Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair met with House Speaker Jon Husted last week.

'I don't think it promotes any form of justice,' Campbell said. 'The whole idea of the statute of limitations is to permit a right of defense, and after years and years and years the right of defense just evaporates.'

Read the article at ONN. Ohio News Now dated 04/30/05

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Maine high court orders release of priests' abuse records

Portland, Maine --

Maine's highest court has ruled that the state must make public investigative records about 18 now-deceased Roman Catholic priests who were accused of sexual abuse of minors.

In a 4-3 decision, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled on April 22 that the attorney general must release the files to Blethen Maine Newspapers, owner of the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel newspapers.

However, the names and identifying information of family members, friends and others associated with the cases must be removed from the records when they are released.

Justices struggled with balancing the public interest in the priest sexual-abuse scandal with privacy concerns for witnesses, family members and sexual-abuse victims through the decades.

Read the article at firstamendmentcenter.org: news dated 04/26/05

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Man Alleges Abuse Against Former Dowling Teacher

Des Moines, Iowa --

A Des Moines man is suing a former Dowling High School teacher, claiming sexual abuse when he was 15 years old.

The lawsuit claims the teacher, the Rev. Leonard Kenkel, engaged in improper, illegal and immoral sexual contact. Some of the details of the suit are graphic.

Kenkel is accused of showing his penis and fondling the boy's buttocks, NewsChannel 8 reports.

The alleged abuse took place at Dowling High School during the 1967-68 school year, when John Chambers was 15 years old.

Chamber's attorney, Mary McGee, said Chambers filed the suit to encourage victims to come forward, for closure, monetary compensation and to hold the Catholic Church accountable.

Read the article at TheIowaChannel.com dated 04/28/05

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Spokane Diocese Releases Abuse Documents

Spokane, Washington --

It is the most comprehensive snap-shot released publicly of the sex abuse scandal that has driven the Catholic Church in Eastern Washington into bankruptcy.

On Tuesday the Spokane Diocese released a detailed list of the 140 claims of priest sex abuse. The earliest claim stems from abuse dating back to 1932. The most recent claim reportedly happened in 1989. Fourteen priests are named, 6 clergy unnamed. Nineteen claims were resolved for 1.5-million dollars before bankruptcy. Fifty-seven more were in litigation with plaintiffs asking for more then 60-million dollars. Still another 64 victims have claimed abuse, but were not fighting the church in court.

Read the article at KXLY dated 04/27/05

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Alleged abuse victim 'revictimized'

Adrian, California -

A California woman who has accused the choir director of Adrian College of raping her when she was a student at a California Catholic high school met briefly yesterday with the college's president.

But Joelle Casteix, who said she wanted to share information with school officials about Thomas Hodgman, the choir director, said she walked out of the meeting in tears.

'I wasn't expecting the questioning of my story. I wasn't prepared for them to call it a consensual relationship even though I was a minor. … I was berated, belittled, and revictimized,' she said.

Read the article at toledoblade.com dated 04/29/05

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Popular Costa Rican priest jailed for sex abuse

San Jose, Costa Rica -

A Costa Rican Catholic priest, who attracted hordes of followers as the host of a popular televised prayer session, was jailed for 30 years on Thursday for sexually abusing minors.

In a case that triggered hysteria and anger among some of his fans, Enrique Delgado was found guilty of abusing three teenagers at his home on various occasions in 2002 and ordered to pay them the equivalent of $17,000 in compensation.

The 50-year-old priest, whose prayer show was one of the most-watched TV programs in the country, has always denied the charges and said his accusers were trying to persecute the Church.

The Catholic Church worldwide has been hit by an endless stream of child abuse allegations over the past few years.

Read the article at Asia News Yahoo dated 04/29/05

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Case accusing pope of conspiracy may be dropped

Houston, Texas -

A federal judge is considering whether to dismiss a case that accuses the new pope of conspiring with local Catholic officials to cover up the alleged sexual abuse of three boys.

U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal halted the case this week until she decides whether to grant a motion by Catholic officials to dismiss it.

The lawsuit was filed by plaintiffs known only as John Does I, II and III, who say they were molested as boys by a seminary student about 10 years ago.

Read the article at HoustonChronicle.com dated 04/29/05

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Man sues Des Moines Diocese over alleged abuse by priest

Des Moines, Iowa --

A man has sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Des Moines over allegations of sexual abuse by a priest while the man was a student at Dowling Catholic High School in the 1960s.
The lawsuit also names the Reverend Leonard Kenkel, who now serves parishes in Afton and Creston.

A spokeswoman for the diocese, Anne Marie Cox, says a committee reviewed the complaint, but didn't find sufficient evidence to confirm abuse.

The man's attorney, Mary McGee, says the diocese has not released the results of its investigation to her client, and the investigation was not what it should have been.

Read the article at WHO TV - Des Moines dated 04/30/05

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Punitive damages in priest abuse case allowed, court rules

Oakland, California --

Diocese had claimed anything beyond compensatory award was unconstitutional

An Arizona man had a right to seek punitive damages from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland for failing to protect him from molestation by an Antioch priest about 25 years ago, a state appeals court ruled Friday.

Bob and Tom Thatcher were altar boys at Antioch's St. Ignatius when the Rev. Robert Ponciroli molested them at ages 10 and 8. An Alameda County Superior Court jury awarded Bob Thatcher $875,000 in punitive damages April 13 in his lawsuit against the diocese, as well as $875,000 in compensatory damages; Tom Thatcher sought no punitive damages but won $180,000 in compensatory damages.

But the diocese months ago had appealed a judge's ruling clearing the way for Bob Thatcher to seek punitive damages. The diocese claimed letting him do so would violate the state and federal constitutions' ex post facto clauses, prohibiting retroactive application of a law to criminalize conduct that was legal when originally performed.

Read the article at Inside Bay Area dated 04/29/05

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Ex-priest may face new abuse charges

St. Louis, Missouri -

Federal and St. Louis prosecutors are weighing additional sexual-misconduct charges against a defrocked priest who could soon be freed from prison. James Beine's attorney questioned the scrutiny, calling his client 'a sacrificial lamb' in addressing sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy.

A Missouri Senate panel also took the first step Thursday in shoring up a statute the state's highest court narrowly deemed unconstitutionally broad two days earlier in scrapping the conviction of Beine, a former elementary school counselor also known as Mar James.

A U.S. appeals court threw out Beine's federal conviction of possessing child pornography and a sentence of nearly five years, ruling that investigators illegally seized evidence.

Read the article at News-Leader.com dated 04/29/05

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Priest gets 30 years for abuse

Costa Rica --

A ROMAN Catholic priest in Costa Rica has been sentenced to 30 years in jail after being found guilty of sex abuse against boys.

Enrique Delgado was also fined about �9000. Delgado, 50, was convicted of abusing the boys who were aides at a pastoral centre north-east of Guatemala City.

Read the article at Scotsman.com dated 04/29/05

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Diocese sets $20M ceiling for abuse claims

Tucson, Arizona --

Court papers filed in Tucson Monday indicate the Catholic Diocese of Tucson intends to spend no more than $20 million to settle all claims of priest sexual abuse.

That would put the average settlement amount per claimant at less than $50,000, not counting unknown future claimants who have yet to file for compensation.

Some claimants will be offered a payment of $15,000, according to the documents.

Previous claimants whose cases were settled in state court, before the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last fall, got an average of $2 million each from the diocese.

A revised proposed settlement agreement filed Monday would shield the $595,549 the diocese collected from the sale of its Regina Cleri property in Tucson to a nonprofit corporation that operates St. Augustine High School at the East Side site.

Read the article at TucsonCitizen.com dated 04/29/05

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Court: Priest abuse victims can seek punitive damages

Oakland, California -

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Oakland must pay $875,000 in punitive damages to an Arizona man who was molested as a boy by a priest, a California appeals court has ruled.

The Second District Court of Appeal said a trial judge did not err in allowing Bob Thatcher to seek punitive as well as compensatory damages in his lawsuit against the church. Thatcher was an altar boy at St. Ignatius Church in Antioch during the early 1980s when he and his younger brother, Tom, were sexually abused by the Rev. Robert Ponciroli.

Read the article at www.sanluisobispo.com dated 04/30/05

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Newspapers ask judge to unseal priest abuse records

Fort Worth, Texas --

Two newspapers have asked a judge to unseal records of sexual abuse allegations against priests who worked in the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese.
Tarrant County District Judge Len Wade ordered the diocese to surrender the records last year in a lawsuit that accused Bishop Joseph Delaney of employing known predators.

But the judge kept the records secret and ordered the plaintiffs to do the same.

The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram say the records should be unsealed because they concern public health and safety.

The diocese recently agreed to settle the lawsuit, without admitting wrongdoing, by paying two accusers of the Reverend Thomas Teczar more than four (M) million dollars.

Delaney employed Teczar from the late 1980s to the early 1990s after a Massachusetts diocese barred him from ministry because of misconduct with boys.

Read the article at KVIA.com dated 04/30/05

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