Pedophile Priests

[Doug]

DUBLIN — Roman Catholic Church leaders in Dublin spent decades sheltering child-abusing priests from the law and most fellow clerics turned a blind eye, an investigation ordered by Ireland's government concluded Thursday.

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who handed over more than 60,000 previously secret church files to the three-year investigation, said he felt deep shame and sorrow for how previous archbishops presided over endemic child abuse – yet claimed afterward not to understand the gravity of their sins.

Martin said his four predecessors in Ireland's capital, including retired Cardinal Desmond Connell, must have understood that priests' molestation and rape of boys and girls "was a crime in both civil and canon law. For some reason or another they felt they could deal with all this in little worlds of their own.

"They were wrong, and children were left to suffer."

There was a similarly shocking investigation into decades of unchecked child abuse in Irish schools, workhouses and orphanages run nationwide by 19 Catholic orders of nuns, priests and brothers.

That report in May sought to document the scale of abuse as well as the reasons why church and state authorities didn't stop it, whereas Thursday's 720-page report focused on why church leaders in the Dublin Archdiocese – home to a quarter of Ireland's 4 million Catholics – did not tell police about a single abuse complaint against a priest until 1995.

By then, the investigators found, successive archbishops and their senior deputies – among them qualified lawyers – already had compiled confidential files on more than 100 parish priests who had sexually abused children since 1940. Those files had remained locked in the Dublin archbishop's private vault.

The investigators also dug up a paper trail documenting the church's long-secret insurance policy, taken out in 1987, to cover potential lawsuits and compensation demands. Dublin church leaders publicly denied the existence of the problem for a decade afterward – but since the mid-1990s have paid out more than euro10 million ($15 million) in settlements and legal bills.

See here.

[Doug]

HARTFORD, Conn. — Recently retired New York Cardinal Edward Egan expressed skepticism over sexual abuse allegations against priests when he was a Connecticut bishop a decade ago, saying he found it "marvelous" that so few priests had been accused over the years, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.

The files, including two depositions of Egan, were made public by a Connecticut court, which unsealed documents in lawsuits filed by 26 people against six priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport. The lawsuits were settled in 2001. Five of the priests were eventually banned from the ministry and one died.

"These things happen in such small numbers," Egan said in a 1999 deposition. "It's marvelous when you think of the hundreds and hundreds of priests and how very few have even been accused, and how very few have even come close to having anyone prove anything. So it is not a commonplace, by any means at all. It's a unique and unexpected occurrence."

The diocese, which covers some of the wealthiest towns in the country as well as Bridgeport, Connecticut's largest city, has paid out a total of nearly $38 million to settle abuse claims over the years involving allegations by more than 60 people who said they had been molested by priests.

The church had long fought news organizations to keep the material under seal, arguing unsuccessfully that the documents were subject to religious privileges under the First Amendment.

Jason Tremont, one of the attorneys for the clergy abuse victims, said the documents "confirm the mishandling and cover-up of sex abuse claims" by Egan and his predecessor, Bishop Walter Curtis, who died in 1997.

...In a July 1995 deposition, Curtis testified he kept "secret files" about priests under a double lock that could only be opened with two keys – one which was kept by him, the other by the vicar general.

He testified that he would destroy documents in those files when he determined they were no longer relevant, such as after a priest had died.

Curtis also testified that he did not view pedophilia as a disease.

"I don't think I saw it as a permanent condition," he said. "It was a – more incidental."

Attorneys for the abuse victims called the release "the tip of the information iceberg of child sexual abuse" in the Bridgeport Diocese.

See here.

[Doug]

New Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprock Once Blamed Devil For Sex Abuse Lawsuits

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A Chicago bishop who once blamed the devil for sexual abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church and proposed shielding the church from legal damages has been named to lead an Illinois diocese.

Thomas Paprocki, an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Chicago, was announced Tuesday as the church's ninth bishop of Springfield.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said it was disappointed with Paprocki's promotion.

"It says to us that the Vatican is more interested in doctrinal purity than child safety – or at least that child safety isn't the No. 1 priority," said David Clohessy, SNAP's executive director.

Paprocki, 57, said three years ago that the principal force behind the waves of abuse lawsuits was "none other than the devil."

He said the cost of litigation was making it more difficult for the church to perform charitable works. An attorney himself, Paprocki proposed that the courts revive an old policy of shielding nonprofit organizations from lawsuits over negligence and abuse.

See here.

[Doug]

(AP) SAO PAULO - A Polish priest accused of sexually abusing a former altar boy in Rio de Janeiro and turning his parish home into an "erotic dungeon" has surrendered and is now in police custody, a public safety official said Saturday.

State prosecutors have accused Marcin Michael Strachanowski of handcuffing the 16-year-old former altar boy to a bed three years ago in the parish house where the priest lived and threatening to kill the youth if he spoke of the abuse.

Strachanowski arrived at a police station Friday night, said a spokesman for Rio's state public security department. He spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with departmental policy. Images published in Brazilian newspapers showed Strachanowski being driven away in a police car.

The 44-year-old priest was suspended from duties after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro learned that a judge had issued an order Thursday for his arrest.

The archdiocese issued a statement Friday announcing the suspension and expressing regret over the alleged abuse.

Judge Alexandre Abrahao Dias said that investigators found "erotic material sent to the victim via Internet to seduce him" and that the priest also took other youths to the parish house, "which he converted into a kind of erotic dungeon where he submitted them, often with the use of handcuffs, to orgies."

See here.

[Doug]

Bible College Founder Arrested for Child Porn

Dr. Joel Church, the founder of Freedom Bible College and Seminary in Rogers, has been arrested after the Federal Bureau of Investigation discovered child pornography was being e-mailed to computers located at Church's home and business.

The Rogers Police Department arrested 69-year-old Church on Monday for distributing, possessing and viewing child pornography. The FBI says the images were sent to computers at Church's home on Turtle Creek and to the college on West Walnut Street. Officers executed search warrants and found several pictures and videos of nude children who appeared to be between the ages of 8 and 15. Several computers and compact discs were seized.

Distributing, Possessing, or Viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child is a Class C Felony. Church was taken to the Benton County Jail to await a probable cause bond hearing.

According to the Freedom Bible College and Seminary's website, the ministry has been in operation in Arkansas since 1996."

Video Link Here.

[Doug]

BRUSSELS — Police raided the home and former office of the recently retired archbishop of Belgium on Thursday, carrying off documents and a personal computer as part of an investigation into the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests, officials said.

Police and prosecutors would not say if former Archbishop Godfried Danneels was suspected of abuse himself or simply had records pertaining to allegations against another person.

Separately, police seized the records of an independent panel investigating sexual abuse by priests, some 500 cases in all. The head of the panel called the raid a huge violation of the privacy of people – mostly men now in their 60s and 70s – who have lived with the shame of abuse.

The raids followed recent statements to police "that are related to the sexual abuse of children within the church," said Jean-Marc Meilleur, a spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor's office. He would not offer specifics on the case.

...Vatican officials said that for the time being there would be no comment on the raids.

See here.

[Dardedar]

Another major hit:

High Ranking Catholic Priest Rapes his Own Sons.

Six minute ABC clip.

[Doug]

DUBLIN — Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has told priests that the Vatican has rejected the resignations of his two auxiliary bishops following their reported involvement in the Roman Catholic Church's cover-up of child abuse.

The Vatican's rebuff deals a blow to Martin, a veteran Vatican diplomat who was appointed in 2004 to lead Ireland's most populous diocese through a growing storm of child-abuse scandals. From the start he has clashed with predecessors who suppressed reports of child molestation and transferred abusive priests to new parishes in Ireland, Britain and the United States.

"Following the presentation of their resignations to Pope Benedict, it has been decided that Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Bishop Raymond Field will remain as auxiliary bishops," Martin said in a letter sent this week to priests and other Dublin church officials.

An Associated Press reporter saw a copy of the letter Wednesday. Aides to Martin confirmed the details of the letter. They said neither Martin nor the two auxiliaries were available to comment on the letter, which was a confidential church document and would not be published.

Analysts said the Vatican had sent a strong message to Martin not to criticize colleagues in public again.

See here.

[Doug]

BRUSSELS — Hundreds of sex abuse victims have come forward in Belgium with harrowing accounts of molestation by Catholic clergy that reportedly led to at least 13 suicides and affected children as young as two, a special commission said Friday.

Professor Peter Adriaenssens, chairman of the commission, said the abuse in Belgium may have been even more rampant than the 200-page report suggests.

Adriaenssens, a child psychiatrist who has worked with trauma victims for 23 years, said nothing had prepared him for the stories of abuse that blighted the lives of victims.

"We don't just talk about touching. We are talking about oral and anal abuse, forced masturbation and mutual masturbation. We talk about people who have gone through serious abuse," Adriaenssens said.

Most of the abuse happened during the 1960s and 1970s, he said.

The Roman Catholic Church in Belgium experienced the findings as "a body blow," Adriaenssens said.

...The report's findings are the latest embarrassment for Belgium's Catholic Church, which is still reeling after the April resignation of Bruges Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who admitted to having sexually abused a nephew for years when he was a priest and bishop.

Friday's report said 507 witnesses came forward with stories of molestation at the hands of clergy over the past decades. It says those abused included children who were two, four, five and six years old.

Family members or friends said 13 victims committed suicide that "was related to sexual abuse by clergy," the report said. Six other witnesses said they had attempted suicide.

See here.

[Doug]

San Diego Diocese Sex Abuse Case: Lawyers Release 10,000 Unsealed Documents
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/2 ... 73178.html

SAN DIEGO — Attorneys for nearly 150 people who claim sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests made nearly 10,000 pages of previously sealed internal church documents public Sunday, revealing at least one previously unknown decades-old case in which a priest under police investigation was allowed to leave the U.S. after the Diocese of San Diego intervened.

...The files show what the diocese knew about abusive priests, starting decades before any allegations became public, and that some church leaders shuffled priests from parish to parish or overseas despite credible complaints against them.

...In at least one instance, the files included documented abuse by a priest whose name had not before surfaced in any lawsuit or criminal case, the Rev. Luis Eugene de Francisco, who was originally from Colombia. Police investigated de Francisco for allegedly abusing children, but the diocese convinced authorities to drop the case if the priest would return immediately to his Colombian diocese and never return to the U.S.

...The papers also contain documents from the files of Rev. Anthony Rodrigue. In 1976, a group of parents at Rodrigue's parish in Heber, Calif., complained he had molested their children, according to court documents.

The priest was sent to a psychiatric facility in Massachusetts for treatment but was put back in ministry despite the recommendations of those who treated him.

Rodrigue later admitted he had molested between four to five children a year over a span of 22 years, said Irwin Zalkin, an attorney for the plaintiffs. About 30 people filed lawsuits against the diocese alleging sexual abuse against the priest, who died within the last year, he said.

"He was probably one of the most prolific abusers in this diocese. ... And they knew about this guy from his days in the seminary but kept him in ministry," Zalkin said.

Attorneys are still trying for the release of an additional 2,000 pages of documents.

[Doug]

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Will Lynch is looking for justice in an unusual way. Charged with savagely beating the priest he says molested him as a child, he plans to try to use his trial to publicly shame the Rev. Jerold Lindner in court and call attention to clergy abuse.

Law experts say he faces an uphill battle. But priest abuse victims are cheering him on and offering to donate to his defense fund. Several dozen supporters marched and waved signs Friday outside the Northern California courthouse where he was arraigned on an assault charge.

"Somebody needs to be a face for this abuse and I'm prepared to put myself on the line," Lynch told The Associated Press in the first interview since his arrest last month. "There's nothing they can take from me that they haven't already taken."

Lynch is accused of luring Lindner to the lobby of a retirement home in May and beating him bloody in front of horrified witnesses.

The 43-year-old has said he will plead not guilty, but he did not enter a plea during a brief hearing Friday before Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Jerome S. Nadler. Another hearing is set for next month.

Outside court, supporters marched in a circle and waved signs that read "Help Free Willy" and showed a childhood portrait of Lynch next to a photo of the priest.

Lynch accuses the 65-year-old Jesuit priest of sexually abusing him and his younger brother in 1975 during weekend camping trips in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The boys, 7 and 4 at the time, were raped and forced to have oral sex with each other while Lindner watched, Lynch said.

...Lindner's younger sister and several nieces and nephews have accused Lindner of abuse, as have several women whose families were friendly with him when they were children. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles also settled two cases involving Lindner in its record-breaking $660 million payout in 2007.

...In the meantime, Harris said he has received hundreds of inquiries from clergy sex abuse victims who want to contribute to a legal defense fund, and he is working on setting up a fund and establishing a website for Lynch's case.

See here.

[Doug]

See here.
DUBLIN — The Vatican tried to stop Dublin church leaders from defrocking a particularly dangerous pedophile priest and relented only after he raped a boy in a pub restroom, an investigation reported Friday.

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said he fully accepted the findings of the latest chapter in Ireland's investigation into child abuse by Dublin priests who were shielded from the law by Catholic leaders.

Martin called Tony Walsh an "extremely devious man" who should never have been ordained a priest, and said the report highlighted how the church had grown too powerful and arrogant in 20th century Ireland.

...A chapter dealing with Walsh was censored from the original report because he was still facing a criminal trial. The Department of Justice published the chapter Friday following the 56-year-old Walsh's Dec. 6 conviction for raping three boys over a five-year period three decades ago. He received a 12-year prison sentence.

The investigators – a judge and lawyers acting independently of the Irish government – concluded that Walsh actually raped and molested hundreds of boys and girls while serving as a Dublin priest from 1978 to 1996, a reign of terror that church leaders never effectively stopped.

They described Walsh as "probably the most notorious child sexual abuser" of the 46 cases they investigated covering the years 1975-2004. Walsh often performed as an Elvis impersonator in a traveling Catholic song-and-dance production popular with children called the "All Priests Show." The report found this increased his easy access to victims, as did his interest in scouting groups and taking altar boys on visits to the Dublin seminary, Clonliffe College.

Here's a video clip of Michael Palin's experience watching the All-Priests Show.

From the latter website:

Walsh’s fellow priests knew he was a rapist. His bishops knew he was a rapist. One of them, Kavanagh, dismissed the child’s mother, saying “these things happen” before offering the woman his ring to kiss.

[Doug]

No Peace Prize for You

BRUSSELS — A Belgian priest has confessed to a child sex-abuse accusation that came to light during a campaign to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work fighting globalization's impact on developing countries.

The confession was published in a Belgian newspaper Wednesday and confirmed by the organization the priest founded, deepening a sex-abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church in the country.

...In October, after supporters of 85-year-old Francois Houtart began working to nominate him for the Nobel, a woman contacted the nonprofit organization he founded and said the priest had abused her brother 40 years ago, according to its director, Bernard Duterme.

Houtart resigned the next month from the board of Cetri, which publishes reports critical of developed nations' actions in the Third World, Duterme said.

Houtart told the newspaper Le Soir that he twice touched "the intimate parts" of his cousin, an incident he called "inconsiderate and irresponsible."

...Houtart is in Ecuador and didn't immediately respond to phone calls and e-mail Wednesday, but he told Le Soir that he entered the boy's room, when he was staying with the boy's parents close to Liege, in eastern Belgium.

"Walking through the room of one of the family's boys, I effectively touched his intimate parts twice, which woke him up and frightened him," Houtart is quoted as saying.

The committee in November ended its campaign to nominate Houtart for the 2011 Nobel Prize, saying the priest had requested its termination because "his age and his personal projects would not allow him to fully assume the role requested in such circumstances."

See here.

[Doug]

Three priests and a schoolteacher have been charged with sexually assaulting two young boys over the course of several years, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office...

Priests Edward Avery, 68, and Charles Engelhardt, 64, allegedly assaulted a 10-year-old boy at St. Jerome Parish from 1998 to 1999.

Parochial [Catholic] schoolteacher Bernard Shero, 48, allegedly assaulted the same boy at the same Parish in 2000.

Priest James Brennan, 47, allegedly assaulted a 14-year-old boy in 1996.

Monsignor William Lynn, 60, the Secretary for Clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, has been charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Lynn was responsible for investigating reports that priests had sexually abused children between 1992 through 2004.

Lynn has been accused of endangering children by knowingly allowing dangerous priests to continue in ministry roles in which they had access to minors.

The three priests and the schoolteacher are all charged with rape, indecent sexual assault and other related crimes.

They face a maximum of 67 years in prison if convicted of all charges.

Lynn faces a maximum of 14 years if convicted.

See here.

[Doug]

The Philadelphia Story Continued...

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia archdiocese suspended 21 Roman Catholic priests Tuesday who were named as child molestation suspects in a scathing grand jury report last month, a move that comes more than eight years after U.S. bishops pledged swift action to keep potential abusers away from young people.

The priests have been removed from ministry while their cases are reviewed, Cardinal Justin Rigali said. The names of the priests were not being released, a spokesman for the archdiocese said.

"These have been difficult weeks since the release of the grand jury report," Rigali said in a statement. "Difficult most of all for victims of sexual abuse but also for all Catholics and for everyone in our community."

...The grand jury named 37 priests who remained in active ministry despite credible allegations of sexual abuse.

See here.

[Doug]

James Dean's short life is now known perhaps more in legend and lore than solid fact, but even he had a secret no one knew. Except for Elizabeth Taylor.

Kevin Sessums, writing for The Daily Beast, reveals that in a wide ranging interview with the just passed Taylor, the famed actress let him in on a secret about Dean that she had promised she'd keep forever. Sworn to secrecy until Taylor's death, Sessums revealed the hidden past of the Rebel Without a Cause.

"When Jimmy was 11 and his mother passed away, he began to be molested by his minister," Taylor said. "I think that haunted him the rest of his life. In fact, I know it did. We talked about it a lot. During 'Giant' we'd stay up nights and talk and talk, and that was one of the things he confessed to me."

See here.

[Doug]

CONCORD, N.H. -- The Republican leader of the New Hampshire House on Friday called Roman Catholic Bishop John McCormack a "pedophile pimp" who should have been led from the Statehouse in handcuffs after speaking at a rally criticizing a state budget proposal.

McCormack was among about a dozen speakers at Thursday's rally to protest deep cuts to social services included in the House's $10.2 billion budget. Rep. D.J. Bettencourt of Salem took issue Friday, writing on his Facebook page that McCormack had no business urging lawmakers to protect the vulnerable, given his role in the clergy sex abuse scandal in the last decade.

Before being named bishop of Manchester in 1998, McCormack served as a top aide to Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston, where the Catholic sex abuse scandal began and where he was in charge of investigating sexual misconduct allegations.

In 2002, McCormack averted unprecedented criminal charges against the New Hampshire diocese by agreeing that it had harmed children by moving abusive priests from parish to parish.

"Would the Bishop like to discuss his history of protecting the 'vulnerable?'" Bettencourt wrote. "This man is a pedophile pimp who should have been led away from the State House in handcuffs with a rain coat over his head in disgrace. He has absolutely no moral credibility to lecture anyone."

See here.

[Doug]

Dutch Catholic order hit by pedophile group scandal
Reuters. Mon May 23, 2011

(Reuters) - A Roman Catholic order of priests sacked its leader in the Netherlands and disciplined another priest Monday after the two publicly defended pedophile sex, an issue haunting the worldwide Church in recent years.

The scandal erupted over the weekend when RTL radio reported the priest, named only as Rev. Van B, had been a board member of a lobbying group advocating sex between adults and children. He told RTL that few children suffered from such relationships.

Asked about the case, Rev. Herman Spronck, leader of the Dutch Salesians, said he agreed pedophile sex could be accepted.

"Herman Spronck is no longer the delegate from the Salesian delegation in the Netherlands," his superior Rev. Jos Claes, leader of the Salesians in Belgium and the Netherlands, told RTL. "We fully distance ourselves from the words we find in your interview with Herman Spronck."

Rev. Van B "can longer perform any pastoral duties as of today," he added.

The Dutch Salesians used to run boarding schools where many of the 2,000 complaints of clerical sexual abuse of boys emerged when the scandal broke there last year. It has admitted to paying hush money to some victims.
See here.

[Doug]

Kansas City Priest Scandal
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CN) - A girl and her parents claim the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and a bishop covered up a pedophile priest and failed to report his manufacture and possession of child pornography for nearly half a year, allowing the abuses to continue until last month.
Jane Doe 173 and her parents sued the allegedly abusive priest, Shawn Ratigan, the Diocese and Bishop Robert Finn, in Federal Court.
Ratigan was arrested and charged with three counts of possessing child pornography in May this year, according to the complaint. But the Doe family says his abuses began long before.
Doe 173, who is still a minor, says Ratigan began sexually abusing her in 2006.
"While the minor plaintiff Jane Doe 173 was engaged in sexually explicit conduct, defendant Ratigan created visual depictions and/or photographs of the sexually explicit conduct," the complaint states. "Said photographs and images constitute child pornography.
"Upon information and belief, defendant Ratigan uploaded the sexually explicit images to his computer and defendant Ratigan distributed the sexually explicit images of the minor plaintiff over the Internet."
The Does say an employee "reported to the Diocese that she had observed suspicious behavior involving defendant Ratigan and a 4-year-old girl" in 2006. But "In response, the Diocese and defendant Bishop Finn concealed the report in order to protect defendants Ratigan, Bishop Finn and Diocese from scandal."
The Does say that in May 2010, "the principal at St. Patrick School in Kansas City, Mo., reported to the Diocese numerous incidents where defendant Ratigan had been inappropriate with children at school."
But again, the Does say, "In response, the Diocese and defendant Bishop Finn concealed the report in order to protect defendants Ratigan, Bishop Finn and Diocese from scandal."
Then in December 2010, "the Diocese discovered child pornography of plaintiff Jane Doe 173, as well as of other girls, on a computer owned by defendant Ratigan." But, the complaint continues, "Instead of reporting this to law enforcement, the Diocese made digital and/or physical copies of the child pornography of plaintiff Jane Doe 173, as well as a number of other girls found on defendant Ratigan's computer.
...The Does seek damages for emotional distress, humiliation, loss of self-esteem and disgrace and costs of therapy and counseling.

See here.