Sydney: Professor says church suppressed child abuse report

Sydney Morning Herald, August 30, 2011

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A LEADING child protection expert has urged the Victorian government to hold a public inquiry into the handling of child-sex cases by a Catholic religious order after the Catholic Church suppressed a report it asked him to write.

Sydney University law professor Patrick Parkinson wrote yesterday to the Victorian Attorney-General, Robert Clark, and Police Minister, Peter Ryan, seeking an inquiry into the behaviour of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

In his letter, Professor Parkinson says the church's actions have cast doubt on its commitment to protect children before it protects itself.

Professor Parkinson, who chaired a review of child protection laws in NSW and twice helped the church review its system for dealing with abuse complaints, said he wrote the report for the church's professional standards committee on condition it be made public. But more than a year later this had not happened, due to strong lobbying to suppress it by the Australian head of the Salesians, Father Frank Moloney.

Professor Parkinson told the Herald the issue was no longer his report but the protection by the Salesians of three priests - Fathers Frank Klep, Jack Ayers and Julian Fox - which could be resolved only by a public inquiry.

The Salesians moved Father Klep to Samoa in 1998 just before he was to face court on five charges of indecent assault, having served nine months doing community work in 1994. He returned to Australia in 2004 and was jailed in 2006 for five years and 10 months.

In 2000, the order made a settlement with a Melbourne man who said Father Fox - a former Australian head of the order - abused him at the Salesian College in Rupertswood, Sunbury, in 1978-79.

A later Australian head wanted Father Fox, now in Rome and still a Salesian priest, to return to Australia to face questions at the request of Victoria Police, but he was overruled.

The same year, the Salesians paid to settle a complaint from a Melbourne man who said he was abused at Rupertswood in 1967-68. Father Ayers, who has lived for many years in Samoa, is still a Salesian priest.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/professor-says-church-suppressed-child-abuse-report-20110829-1jied.html#ixzz1Wm0Zw9OM

Spanish man on pilgrimage to give thanks for recovery from car crash is run over and killed a mile into journey

The Daily Mail, August 30, 2011


A year earlier, he had been injured in a road accident and made a full recovery.

So the man decided to make a pilgrimage to a shrine to give thanks for his survival – only to be knocked down and killed by a car less than a mile into his trek.

The 40-year-old Spanish man died instantly after being hit by the vehicle just 20 minutes into his journey.

Full story:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2031530/Spanish-man-pilgrimage-thanks-recovery-car-crash-run-killed-mile-journey.html#ixzz1WXoeC3iw

New Jersey: US priest sex-abuse case settled for just over $1M

Associated Press


Lawyers for five men who say they were abused by a U.S. priest when they were boys say they have reached a seven-figure settlement with the church.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian says the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey will pay just over $1 million to five former altar boys at the Incarnation Church in Ewing.

The men say the Rev. Ronald Becker molested them in the 1970s and 1980s while they were 11 to 16 years old. Becker died in 2009. Lawyers claim one boy was molested about 150 times.


http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1681269

Ireland: Catholic clergy 'abused children for decades in County Donegal'

The Guardian, August 29, 2011

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County Donegal in Ireland is about to have its bucolic image shattered by a report into how paedophiles, both clergy and laity, abused children for decades.

An investigation into clerical sex abuse in the Catholic diocese of Raphoe in County Donegal is about to report its findings, which are expected to be damning. Meanwhile, new evidence has emerged from victims of a parallel paedophile ring operating in the same Gaelic-speaking corner of the Irish Republic.

A number of survivors of abuse have told the Guardian that lay members of the church as well as priests sexually exploited them for years in the county.

And as with the expected conclusion of the report into Raphoe, they say the national police service, the Garda, was complicit in a culture of cover-up that allowed the perpetrators to carry on abusing them.

Speaking for the first time about his abuse as a child and the subsequent cover-up, John O'Donnell revealed that he had been abused since he was nine by a lay member of a local church choir.

"He assaulted me from when I was nine until I was 15, until I was old enough to know it was wrong. This man took advantage because I was adopted and regarded as something lower than most kids in the area.

"The abuse took place at his home and in a shop he ran. It went on from 1965 to 1972."

Full story:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/29/catholic-clergy-children-donegal-report

Winnepeg: Church Closes Food Bank Because It Attracts Poor People

The Ottawa Citizen, August 26, 2011

A busy church food bank, known for offering warm drinks and snacks to its regulars, has announced it's closing because it is attracting too many people.

"It's attracting a lot of street people that made it uncomfortable," said Charlotte Prossen, Unity Truth Centre minister Thursday. "It's creating social unrest in the church."


Read here:
http://www.criggo.com/2011/08/cause-and-effect/charity/

Newburypoint, MA: List of accused local clergy

Newburypoint News, August 26, 2011


The following is a list of local clergy who are included in the Archdiocese's release of names of clerics who were accused of sexual abuse of a child. The dates indicate when they served locally; the Archdiocese did not indicate when, or where, the clergy were serving when the allegations of sexual crimes were made.

Newburyport

Robert E. Barrett, assigned to Life of Prayer and Penance 2004; Died 2008. Associate pastor, Immaculate Conception, June 1980-March 1981

Michael J. Carew, laicized 1971. Assistant, Immaculate Conception, April 1960-February 1963

Raymond C. Plourde, assigned to Life of Prayer and Penance 2004. Administrator, St. Louis De Gonzague Parish, March 1985-September 1985; Pastor, St. Louis De Gonzague Parish, September 1985-August 1993.

Amesbury

Philippe C. Breton, died 1984. Assistant, Sacred Heart Parish, January 1940-May 1943

Jeremiah J. Collins, died 1982. Assistant, St. Joseph's, September 1952-February 1958

Leo V. Dwyer, died 1989. Assistant pro tem, St. Joseph's, June 1932-September 1941

Harold J. Johnson, assigned to Life of Prayer and Penance 2004; died 2009. Assistant, St. Joseph's, Sept. 1967-April 1973

Samuel J. Lombard, died 1998. Assistant, St. Joseph's, February 1959-September 1967

Rowley

William V. O'Neill, died 1960. Pastor, St. Mary Parish, June 1957-December 1960

Full story:
http://www.newburyportnews.com/local/x640618094/List-of-accused-local-clergy

Boston: 40 North Shore Priests on Abuse List

The Salem News, August 26, 2011

The long-awaited list the Archdiocese of Boston published yesterday of priests accused of sexually abusing children, the most complete and detailed compilation since the sex abuse scandal exploded nearly a decade ago, contains the names of 40 clergy who served on the North Shore.

There are accused Catholic priests from Salem, Peabody, Beverly, Danvers, Ipswich, Marblehead and other area communities. In many cases, the alleged crimes took place decades ago and at other parishes.

Of the many North Shore names, one of the most recognized will be the late Rev. Joseph Birmingham, an accused serial pedophile who was charged with crimes across Greater Boston, including abusing many young boys in the 1960s at St. James Parish in Salem.

In all, the archdiocese released the names of 157 priests and two deacons, including some who served as long ago as the 1920s.

As lengthy as that list is, it does not include religious order priests, priests accused of sexually abusing an adult, or 91 archdiocesan priests, many of whom are deceased and were never publicly charged.

Two local priest abuse survivors accused the archdiocese of failing to list the most serious offenders: Catholic hierarchy who shuffled the pedophiles from parish to parish.

To date, 250 clerics of the Boston Archdiocese have been accused of sexually abusing a minor, according to the archdiocese. However, many are not on the list for a variety of reasons, largely because they died and were never publicly charged, or because investigations were either not conducted or never completed.

Full story:
http://www.salemnews.com/local/x975851535/40-North-Shore-priests-on-abuse-list

South Carolina: US preacher accused of raping women behind church

Press TV, August 22, 2011

A U.S. pastor has been charged with kidnapping and raping three women at gunpoint, two of them in a trailer behind the church, and kidnapping a fourth, who was not sexually assaulted.

Dale Richardson, is the pastor of the Freedom Free Will Baptist Church in Ladson, South Carolina, a position he has held since June of 2010.

And while the conservative preacher sits behind bars, his congregation is shocked and overwhelmed with disbelief.



Full story:
http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/195198.html

Vehari: Lesson learned: Cleric breaks 7-year-old’s leg for forgetting verse

The Express Tribune, August 20, 2011

According to residents of Vehari’s Ghara Mor village, a local prayer leader tortured a seven-year-old student for forgetting the words to a surah.

Busti Sheikhan Wali resident Muhammad Mumtaz’s son Muhammad Adnan, 7, was memorising the Quran at a mosque. On Friday, several of Adnan’s class mates said that he kept forgetting one verse of a surah and cleric Muhammad Latif beat him with a stick. “He then hung the boy upside down from a tree and beat him while screaming at him to recite the verses properly,” said Mansoor Shah, who was also present at the mosque.

“We protested to have the child freed but by the time he was taken to a hospital he had fainted from the pain,” he added.

Adnan’s father was informed of the incident and came to the Vehari DHQ hospital, where doctors told him that Adnan’s leg was broken. “The boy has suffered severe bruises and some internal injuries. His left leg has been broken and we cannot re-set the bones,” said Dr Altaf Momin.

Full story:

http://tribune.com.pk/story/235448/lesson-learned-cleric-breaks-7-year-olds-leg-for-forgetting-verse/

Diocese of Cloyne running out of cash in wake of sex abuse scandal

The Irish Times, August 20, 2011

"It has been a very difficult time for the Church’s finances." - Fr Brian D’Arcy

The Diocese of Cloyne is running out of money as it attempts to come to terms with the after-effects of the recent and controversial report into clerical sex abuse.

The Cork diocese made headlines across the world when the report highlighted a failure on behalf of church leaders to react in a proper manner to allegations of child abuse. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny went so far as to slam the Vatican after the report claimed that the diocesan leaders failed to report the allegations to the civil authorities.

Now it has transpired that the Cloyne diocese is in financial disarray, days after the Archbishop of Dublin confirmed that his own diocese was in danger of financial wipe-out.

A statement issued on behalf of the Diocese of Cloyne confirmed that it had sold property and used cash reserves to meet day-to-day expenses.“Those options are now almost exhausted,” said the statement as the diocese comes to terms with the findings of the Murphy Report into the handling of abuse allegations.

When contacted by the Irish Independent, seven dioceses admitted to being under financial pressure with Cloyne one of the worst affected as it now depends on weekly collections to make ends meet.

“The finances of the diocese of Cloyne have come under extreme pressure from a number of sources over the past few years,” said the statement.


Full story:
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Diocese-of-Cloyne-running-out-of-cash-in-wake-of-sex-abuse-scandal-128103013.html

Portland case forces Vatican to release priest abuse documents for first time

The Oregonian, August 18, 2011

A Portland man's lawsuit has forced the Vatican to turn over records for the first time in a case alleging sex abuse by a priest.

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman in April ordered the central authority of the Roman Catholic Church, called the Holy See, to release documents sought by a Portland man known as John Doe. Doe has accused the late Rev. Andrew M. Ronan of sexually abusing him in the 1960s, when Doe was just a teen. Ronan died in 1992.

The case, which has dragged on for years in Mosman's Portland courtroom, now hinges on whether Ronan was an employee of the Holy See. Lawyers for the Catholic authority say no; Doe's lawyers say yes, and they want the Vatican to pay for the harm done to their client.

A lawyer for the Holy See posted a statement Wednesday chastising Doe's lawyers for repeatedly claiming that officials in Rome transferred Ronan to Portland knowing that he posed a danger to children. "The Holy See was not involved in Ronan's transfers, including the transfer to Portland, and had no prior knowledge that Ronan posed a danger to minors," wrote Jeffrey S. Lena.

The Vatican took the unusual step of releasing dozens of pages of discovery in the case of John V. Doe vs. Holy See. The papers were posted on the Vatican Radio web site. Most were in Latin or Italian, while some were in English. Read the documents released by the Vatican.

Lena said the Vatican only learned of the accusations against Ronan in 1966 -- a year after Doe's abuse in Portland -- when he asked to leave the priesthood. Ronan spelled out why in a letter dated Feb. 14, 1966: "The reasons for my request are based on my repeated, admitted, documented, homosexual tendencies and acts against the vow of chasity (sic) and celebacy (sic) of the priesthood." Another letter, which reached Rome as part of Ronan's personnel file in 1966, came from the head of a Catholic province in Chicago.

The 1963 missive urged an official in Rome not to give Ronan a teaching position there. The Chicago priest wrote that he had removed Ronan from a teaching position in 1959 in Benburb in Northern Ireland "because of homosexuality with the students, which he freely admitted and confessed when the fact had been brought to the Prior by one of his students."

He transferred Ronan to the United States immediately, he wrote. Ronan worked in Chicago, then Portland.

Full story:
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/08/portland_case_forces_vatican_t.html

Ghana: Bishop Obinim's sex scandal can ruin wife's music career

Modern Guana, August 12, 2011

A clinical Psychologist, Mr. Emmanuel Bekoe, has said that the recent controversy that Founder and General Overseer of International God's Way Ministry, Bishop Daniel Obinim, has been involved in could adversely affect his wife's music career.

Bishop Obinim who has been embroiled in an ongoing sex scandal is married to popular gospel musician, Florence Obinim whose songs are enjoyed by both gospel and non gospel music lovers. She has had a very successful career since she burst onto the music scene and her songs like Osoro Ne Me Fie, Wagye Me and her recent collaboration with Nigerian songstress, Princess Ifeoma have been hits.

This is not the first time Bishop Obinim has been involved in a scandal; about two years ago, he was alleged to have buried human parts at the church of his rival, Ebenezer Adarkwa Yiadom of the Ebenezer Miracle Worship Centre to frame him but those allegations turned out to be untrue. This latest one has to do with a five-year affair he had with the wife of an associate pastor of his church by name Gifty Fobih which he has admitted to.

Although they are alleged to have had a child together, Bishop Obinim claims to have crippled the little girl with a curse to punish her mum for making their affair public.

Full story:
http://www.modernghana.com/news/345002/1/bishop-obinims-sex-scandal-can-ruin-wifes-music-ca.html

Oklahoma: Pastor renews call for database of clergy credibly accused of sex abuse

Associated Bible Press, August 11, 2011


ENID, Okla. (ABP) – An Oklahoma pastor says the Southern Baptist Convention should reconsider a database to help safeguard churches from clergy who are sexual predators.

Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, Okla., made a motion at the SBC annual meeting in 2007 calling for a database of Southern Baptist ministers who have been “credibly accused of, personally confessed to, or legally been convicted of sexual harassment or abuse.”

After study, leaders ruled the idea unfeasible, saying the convention lacked authority to investigate local churches, which are free to call their own ministers. Time Magazine ranked the decision as one of the top 10 under-reported news stories in 2008.

Burleson resurfaced the idea Aug. 10 in a blog posting about news of a former youth minister who recently confessed to inappropriate behavior with boys at two of his previous churches.

Full story:
http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/6640/53/

Missouri Priest Indicted on Child Pornography Charges

International Business Times, August 9, 2011

A Kansas City-area Catholic priest was charged on Tuesday with several federal counts of producing and possessing child pornography, including allegations that he took explicit photos of a 2-year-old and tried to take some of a 12-year-old girl on Easter Sunday.


A federal grand jury in Missouri indicted Shawn Ratigan, 45, on 13 counts, with six counts of production of child pornography, two counts of possession of child pornography and five counts of attempted production of child pornography, reports said.

The federal indictment charges Ratigan of taking or attempting to take explicit photos of at least five young girls he had contacted with from 2005 until April 2011.

The indictment alleged that some of the photographs, including those of a two-year-old, were taken inside the choir loft of the church in Easton, Missouri where he worked. One of the counts accused him of taking explicit photos of a 12-year-old girl, whom he is alleged to have taken similar photos of, when she was 6, Reuters reported.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/195298/20110809/missouri-priest-federal-child-pornography-charges-indicted.htm

Pennsylvania: Cardinal, 88, called to court in abuse case

Fox News, August 5, 2011


PHILADELPHIA – A judge on Friday summoned the 88-year-old former archbishop of Philadelphia to court next month to see if he should be deposed in a criminal priest-abuse case.
City prosecutors want to preserve Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua's testimony before next year's trial because he suffers from cancer and dementia. Bevilacqua is a potential trial witness.

Monsignor William Lynn, 60, the secretary for clergy under Bevilacqua, is charged with child endangerment and conspiracy for allegedly transferring predator priests to new parishes without warning. He is the first U.S. church official charged in the priest-abuse scandal. Three priests and a former teacher are charged with rape and are co-defendants in the case, now set for trial on March 26.

Lawyers for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia argued at a hearing Friday that Bevilacqua is too ill to testify, and noted that he did not testify before the grand jury in January because of his condition.

"The cardinal suffers from prostate cancer, dementia, anxiety, depression, (and) major sleep disorders and ... his mental/physical health continues to deteriorate," lawyers Thomas Bergstrom and Jeffrey Lindy wrote in their motion to block the testimony.

Bevilacqua, they said, did not recognize William Sasso, his lawyer of 20 years, at a recent meeting and requires round-the-clock nursing care. They argued that his testimony would be unreliable.
Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina asked for copies of Bevilacqua's medical records and ordered him to attend a Sept. 12 court hearing on the issue. She agreed Friday to the March trial date to give defense lawyers more time to prepare for what could be a four-month trial. But the delay makes it more important to preserve the cardinal's testimony if he is competent, but in declining health, she said.

His medical records will be filed under seal.

"We're certainly not going to have the cardinal's medical records floating around," Sarmina said.
Bevilacqua, trained as both a canon and civil lawyer, led the Philadelphia archdiocese from 1988 to 2003. The grand jury blasted his handling of priest-abuse complaints.

"The grand jurors have no doubt that his knowing and deliberate actions during his tenure as archbishop also endangered thousands of children," the report states. "Monsignor Lynn was carrying out the cardinal's policies exactly as the cardinal directed."

But prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to link him to the specific assaults in their criminal case.

Prosecutors instead charged Lynn with letting "a trio of pedophiles" rape a young altar boy, and another priest with raping a different boy as he slept.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/08/05/pa-cardinal-88-called-to-court-in-abuse-case/#ixzz1WY1jO3jj