Oakland diocese names 45 priests accused of
child sexual abuse
Ex-coach of St. Thomas Aquinas hockey club
charged with child porn in Florida
child sexual abuse
By John Woolfolk and Erin Baldassari
East Bay Times
OAKLAND, Calif. — In a move aimed at reassuring parishioners amid renewed scrutiny of the Roman Catholic Church, the Diocese of Oakland named 45 priests Monday who had been credibly accused over the years of sexually abusing children within its bounds.
The Oakland diocese, which spans Alameda and Contra Costa counties, is the second in the Bay Area to take the extraordinary step, following a similar move by the Diocese of San Jose in October. Dioceses in Stockton and San Diego also have publicly named accused priests, and the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which once encompassed Oakland and San Jose, is considering doing so as well.
Bishop Michael Barber called the release an “Act of Contrition” in a Monday letter to parishioners.
“These are monstrous crimes, committed by priests who are supposed to model virtue and grace, not sin and harm,” Barber wrote. “My first reaction in seeing the list of names of priests who have abused, is one of deep shame. … I hope this will help bring healing to those who have suffered.”
An act of contrition, or an act of admittance that was long overdue?
The list includes 20 diocesan priests accused of abusing 174 children. It also includes three priests from other dioceses and 22 priests, deacons or brothers affiliated with religious orders like the Salesians and Franciscans who had worked within the Oakland diocese. Unlike the San Jose diocese, Oakland did not describe the allegations against the named clergy.
So much for contrition; it barely qualifies as an act of admittance.
Victim advocates said five of those named had not been identified before — diocesan priests Thomas Duong Binh-Minh, Hilary Cooper, Patrick Finnegan and Daniel McLeod, plus Virendra Coutts, a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco religious order.
Others have been known for years, like Monsignor Vincent Breen, who was accused of molesting at least eight girls during his time at Fremont’s Holy Ghost parish, resulting in lawsuits and criminal investigations. He died in 1986.
Of the diocesan priests identified, just six are still alive. One, Ronald J. Lagasse, was excommunicated in 2008, and another, Stephen M. Kiesle, was laicized in 1987. Both are no longer affiliated with the diocese. Four others — Binh-Minh, Cooper, Jeffrey N. Acebo and Francisco Tarcisio Lanuevo — are still alive but removed from ministry since at least 2002 and directed to “lives of prayer and penance” with “minimal sustenance” from the diocese.
None of those still living was immediately available for comment.
Victim advocates said that while they applaud more disclosure, the diocese’s list fell short. They noted that websites like bishopaccountability.org and law firms that have represented abuse victims list more accused priests affiliated with the diocese, and said the diocese should have named these priests years ago.
“They knew most of this but they didn’t tell anybody,” said Dan McNevin of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, who was molested as an altar boy by the Rev. James Clark, one of those named Monday, at Corpus Christi parish in Fremont. “They robbed families of 15 years of knowledge that would have allowed them a leg up on healing and finally getting some closure knowing what these men had done.”
Diocesan spokeswoman Helen Osman said that others may be using different criteria for determining credible accusations, but that anyone with information about priests not on the diocese’s list “should report to law enforcement and, if they are willing, contact the Diocese.”
Barber said in his letter that there “has been no credible incident of abuse” involving a child by a deacon or priest in the diocese since 1988, and there are no active priests or deacons in the diocese who have been credibly accused of abusing children.
The list, however, did not include the Rev. Alex Castillo, whom the diocese announced Jan. 31 was put on administrative leave and removed from priestly duties after an accusation of “inappropriate conduct with a minor” that is being investigated by Oakland police.
Castillo, who came to the U.S. from Costa Rica in 2008, was ordained in 2011 and served at Saint Anthony Parish in Oakley and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Fremont. In October 2017, Barber appointed him director of the Department of Faith Formation and Evangelization, overseeing adult ministry.
So the 'no credible incident of abuse since 1988' is completely false, and apparently, quite deliberately so. I think Bishop Barber should Google the word contrition.
The diocese explained that Castillo was left out because the allegation remains under investigation, and Barber said the “living list” of names “will be updated as needed.” The diocese also revealed that although state law requires church officials to immediately report suspected child abuse, it learned of the allegation against Castillo three days before reporting it to police.
“I examined the reports, made sure the data was accurate because of the implications, and took the appropriate actions,” said Stephen Wilcox, the diocese’s chancellor, who is in charge of handling accusations. He said he’s now met twice with Oakland police to discuss both the evidence surrounding the case, as well as his own actions responding to the accusation against Castillo.
“When that accusation becomes credible,” Wilcox said, “then he’ll be added to the list.”
The list includes only clergy accused of abusing children under 18 within the jurisdiction of the Oakland diocese, which includes 84 parishes and 54 schools in Alameda and Contra Costa counties serving some 500,000 Roman Catholics. The diocese noted that the determination that an accusation was credible does not necessarily mean a crime was committed.
Monday’s disclosure is the latest in the Oakland diocese’s long odyssey of confronting the abuse scandal that has plagued the Roman Catholic church now for decades.
The church has come under renewed scrutiny since the 2015 “Spotlight” film about the Boston Globe’s 2002 expose of priest abuse and Pennsylvania authorities’ report last summer detailing decades of molestation and cover-ups among several dioceses. Other states have since launched investigations of their own. On Saturday the Vatican announced it has defrocked the former Cardinal and Archbishop of Washington, D.C., Theodore McCarrick, over sexual abuse.
In San Jose, Bishop Patrick McGrath and Coadjutor Bishop Oscar Cantu on Sunday applauded that move, saying it “signals the Church’s resolve to hold bishops accountable for abuse or mismanagement.”
The Oakland diocese said in 2004 that 29 diocesan priests had been accused of sexual misconduct since 1950, and that 24 of those allegations were deemed credible, three of them before the diocese cleaved from San Francisco in 1962.
The Oakland diocese named the following diocesan priests as credibly accused of child abuse:
Jeffrey N. Acebo, Thomas Duong Binh-Minh, Vincent I. Breen, Donald E. Broderson, Kenneth J. Cabral, James A. Clark, Edmond G. Cloutier, Hilary Cooper, Pearse P. Donovan, Joseph Ferreira, Patrick Finnegan, George J. Francis, Robert E. Freitas, Stephen M. Kiesle, Ronald J. Lagasse, Francisco Tarcisio Lanuevo, Daniel McLeod, Robert F. Ponciroli, Arthur A. Ribeiro and Gary B. Tollner.
The named priests and deacons from other dioceses were:
Roberto Bravo, Mario Cimmarrusti, Virendra Coutts, Bernard Dabbene, J. Patrick Foley, Jerold Lindner, Gary M. Luiz, Ruben Martinez, James McSorley, William Odom-Green, Cornelius Pedraig Leehan, Richard Presenti, Alexander Pinter, Anthony Slane, Robert Van Handel, Stephen Whelan and Gordon Wilcox.
The named religious brothers were:
Salvatore Billante, Donald Eagleson, Joseph “Jesse” Gutierrez, John Moriarty, Lawrence O’Brien, Raimond Rose, Francis Verngren and Terrence Wong.
charged with child porn in Florida
BY CARLI TEPROFF
Fort Lauderdale, FLA
A former volunteer hockey coach with St. Thomas Aquinas High School’s hockey club was arrested Wednesday, accused of possessing child pornography, after detectives found dozens of images of boys who appeared to be between 10 and 14 years old in “lewd poses or engaged in sexual acts,” the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.
Nicholas Gullman, 32, was being held Thursday in Broward’s main jail on a $150,000 bond. He has been charged with 19 counts of possessing images that depict child sex conduct and one charge of entering child pornography on a computer.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office said they also found “numerous files of what appears to be surreptitiously recorded images from inside a locker room which shows a group of high school age males in various stages of undress.”
“Uniforms from a Specific Broward County private Catholic high school can be seen in the footage,” a detective wrote in Gullman’s arrest report.
Gullman stopped working with the club in early 2018, BSO said. Thursday night, Mary Ross Agosta, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Miami, said in an email that the “STA hockey club is just that — an organization for interested players which practices at two area hockey rinks.“
Ross Agosta said Gullman was not an employee or volunteer of the school and the team is not associated with the school’s athletic department.
“That said, any time news of such alleged behavior should be of high concern for all parents and take an opportunity to speak with their children — of all ages — about stranger danger, warning signs, uncomfortable situations.”
According to the report, an investigation began in January after an internet service provider alerted detectives with the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force that Gullman, who lives in Lauderhill, was uploading images of child pornography.
Detectives were able to find about 50 inappropriate images of young boys. There were also several pictures of young children that were considered “child erotica.”
On Wednesday, armed with a search warrant, detectives showed up at Gullman’s home. Gullman denied having child pornography, BSO said.
During the search, detectives found several hard drives that had “numerous images of child pornography,” including short videos of children “engaging in sexual acts.”
They also found the locker room photos, which “appear to have been secretly recorded.” BSO said in a news release that “detectives are concerned that there may be local victims.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Jennifer Montgomery at 954-888-5239 or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477).
'That is so sick': Sex charges in northern Canada
against fugitive French priest stayed
Elyse Skura · CBC News 
Johannes Rivoire, an Oblate priest, moved to Nunavut in the 1960s and stayed there until returning to France in 1993. (Submitted by Lieve Halsberghe)
The arrest warrant for an Oblate priest accused of abusing children in Nunavut has been stayed by the government of Canada, documents obtained by CBC News through access to information reveal.
For nearly two decades, people in Nunavut have been pushing for the extradition of Father Johannes Rivoire from France.
He served as a priest in several northern communities beginning in the 1960s and was facing three sex-related charges connected to his time in Naujaat and Rankin Inlet.
But it now appears Canada has given up on the idea of bringing Rivoire to trial in this country. "That is so sick," said Theresie Tungilik, whose younger brother Marius was one of Rivoire's alleged victims. "I think that they are heartless to be able to do this."
"Were their families never treated that way? Is that why they don't understand the importance of him facing justice?"
Piita Irniq, left, and his friend Marius Tungilik on a trip to the floe edge outside Rankin Inlet. It's alleged Tungilik was one of Rivoire's victims. (Submitted by Piita Irniq)
Marius was "a really happy kid," she said. But Theresie said the abuse changed him. As an adult, he drank heavily and his family struggled to understand his changing moods.
"He missed a lot of good love because he had to hide for so long. And to keep a secret for so long."
Canada won't confirm extradition order
In a statement to CBC News, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) said a 2017 assessment of Rivoire's case found "there was no longer a reasonable prospect of conviction regarding the charges."
The department, which makes extradition requests to Justice Canada on behalf of Nunavut, said "continuing the prosecution was no longer in the public interest."
RCMP issued a warrant for Rivoire's arrest in 1998, five years after the priest returned to France. Both Justice Canada and PPSC refuse to say if Canada has ever sought extradition.
'The system failed'
By staying the charges, Theresie Tungilik fears the victims have been robbed of their only "chance for peace."
Piita Irniq, a former Nunavut politician and friend of Marius Tungilik, agrees. "The system failed," said Irniq. "The government of Canada failed us terribly as Inuit."
"They should have been helping us. They should have been speaking for us. They should have been speaking to the government of France and got this man extradited to Canada so that he could face his justice here in Canada."
According to Rivoire's arrest warrant, three male victims and one female victim came forward to RCMP, but Irniq believes there are others who still remain silent or died without ever discussing what happened to them.
For what is the point of coming forward, opening those old wounds, when nothing will be done to heal them. This is very disappointing. How can there ever be closure for these victims or their families?
"This trial would have given a lot of courage for people to speak. It would have given them an opportunity to tell the world about what happened to them."
Political pressure mounted before stay
In the months prior to staying the charges, the federal government was facing renewed pressure to prosecute the case.
Another Oblate priest, Eric Dejaeger, was extradited from Belgium to Nunavut, where he was tried and convicted of 32 sex-related charges in 2014.
Buoyed by that success, advocates in Canada and abroad called for similar actions to be taken with Rivoire. There were letter-writing campaigns and petitions. Politicians at the territorial and federal levels likewise tried to exert their influence.
Rivoire, shown in Arviat, Nunavut, in 1979, is still alive, in his late 80s, and living in an Oblates home in Strasbourg, France, CBC has confirmed. (Library and Archives Canada)
The government refused to answer, citing client-solicitor privilege and the confidentiality of state-to-state communications. Within three months of Patterson's question in the Senate, the warrant was stayed.
"The Crown stayed the charges against Mr. Rivoire on October 4, 2017," wrote a staff member with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada in emails obtained by an access-to-information request. "He is no longer subject to an arrest warrant in Canada."
Further emails show the department opted not to issue a media release at the time of the stay, leading Nunavut residents, including the territory's then Premier Paul Quassa, to continue pleading for Rivoire's extradition more than a year later.
Rivoire "has never faced trial in Canada for his alleged crimes," Quassa wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in January 2018. "This fact weighs heavily on the minds of those who have accused him, as well as their friends and families."
Why is conviction considered so difficult?
CBC has confirmed Rivoire is alive, in his late 80s, and living in an Oblates home in Strasbourg, France. Asked if his advanced age factored into its decision, PPSC refused to say more.
Further complicating the matter is the fact French law bars the extradition of its citizens. At best, Rivoire would be tried in that country.
France is hiding that man ... they should just kick him out of
their country and bring him back here to Canada.
Piita Irniq, friend of Marius Tungilik
Irniq bluntly says it's time for France to decide if harbouring accused pedophiles is the right thing to do. "France is hiding that man... they should just kick him out of their country and bring him back here to Canada."
The issue of extradition between Canada and France, and particularly the imbalance in the amount of evidence required by each country, has been contentious in recent years.
One of the most high-profile cases of this is Hassan Diab, an Ottawa academic who was extradited to France in 2014.
An Ontario Superior Court justice granted France's extradition request in 2011, despite his assessment of France's case as "very problematic", because he said Canada's law compelled him to extradite Diab.
Diab is now calling for Canada's extradition laws to be reformed.
Marius Tungilik's memory lives on
Marius Tungilik died in 2012, at age 55, without seeing any resolution to his case against Rivoire.
Marius Tungilik in Iqaluit, shortly before his death in 2012. (Submitted by Piita Irniq)
"The moment he wasn't alive any more, I pointed at the church," Theresie Tungilik said, stifling tears, "because no one else could have killed him that soon."
Patterson says people in Nunavut, especially the alleged victims and their families, deserve to know more about this decision.
"I don't know what factors are being considered by the government of France. But I do know that people are hurting in Nunavut and are demanding justice. And it's very difficult for them to understand why there has been no response or no action on this."
Attorney General launches review of Colorado Catholic Dioceses’ handling of sex abuse
BY JOE ST. GEORGE, FOX31DENVER — Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced Tuesday there will be a third-party review of Colorado’s Catholic Dioceses and their handling of child sex abuse.
The review will be led by former U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer. “This is the process we will be going through to get to the bottom of the pain,” Weiser said.
Weiser made clear during a news conference on Tuesday that state law does not allow him to convene a grand jury under these circumstances. However, any criminal negligence found will be open to possible criminal prosecution, he said.
Denver’s Archbishop Samuel Aquila was at the announcement and promised to accept the findings of the report, which is expected to be published in the fall. “Helping people to restore their trust to live their faith is essential,” Aquila said.
The archdiocese currently has a website aimed at informing Colorado Catholics about how it has addressed the sex abuse crisis.
The final report, published in the fall, will detail the names of priests accused of abuse, where the priests went after accusations of abuse were made, and diocesan procedures. This has the looks of what Pennsylvania did last year that ultimately took down Cardinal Wuerl https://t.co/XPj3lhwvem
The final report will detail the names of priests accused of abuse and how the Catholic dioceses in Colorado handled their accusations.
Will it list what abuse the priests are accused of? Will it include lay Catholics in churches and schools?
The archbishop announced the creation of a fund to pay any survivors of abuse. Payments will be determined by an independent review led by former U.S. Attorney Hank Brown.
For survivors of priest abuse, this news is a long time coming. “Today is a major step forward,” said Jeb Barrett, leader of SNAP in Denver, a priest abuse survivor network. “I have a record of over 30 priests abusers that I will turn over.”
While Barrett is grateful for the process, he remains skeptical anything will change within the Catholic Church. “People have been trying to change the Catholic Church for 1,000 years, so I am not very hopeful,” Barrett said.
Vatican confirms secret Catholic Church guidelines
for priests who father children
CBS News has confirmed that the Vatican has secret guidelines for priests who father children, despite their vows of celibacy. Vincent Doyle, the founder of a support group for children of priests, told CBS News that a Vatican official showed him the confidential instructions.
Doyle said he's been pushing the Church to publicly support those children, who often grow up living in shame and secrecy. CBS News correspondent Roxana Saberi spoke with him and other children of priests fighting for recognition from the Catholic Church.
Sarah Thomas is one of those children. She told CBS News that she's proof priests sometimes break their vows to the Church, which for nearly nine centuries has forbidden its clergymen from sex and marriage.
"My mother had been told to keep it a secret by the Church," she told Saberi.
Thomas was 14 when she first met her father, a priest in England.
"It soon became apparent that he couldn't or wouldn't or wasn't allowed to be any sort of father to me in any meaningful sense," Thomas said, adding that the hardest part of her youth was "feeling very isolated. I literally thought I was the only priest child in the world."
But she now believes there could be thousands of children like her, and they're slowly being recognized -- starting in Ireland.
In 2017, Ireland's Catholic Church published ground-breaking guidelines for priests, declaring that if "a priest fathers a child, the well-being of his child should be his first consideration," and he should "face up to his responsibilities -- personal, legal, moral and financial."
Doyle told Saberi that he pushed for the guidelines after learning that his late god-father, an Irish priest, was his real father.
The guidelines were the first time the Catholic Church had publicly admitted that there even are priests' kids.
But they are guidelines -- not requirements
Doyle accepts that but said, "the first problem with children of priests is they're not recognized. When you're hidden… you are characterized by secrecy," he added. That, he said, "eats away at their sense of worth."
Nearly two years after the Catholic Church in Ireland approved the guidelines for priests with children, Church officials around the world are taking notice.
The Catholic Church in America is looking at a similar model, and the Vatican confirmed to CBS News on Tuesday that guidelines already exist for all Catholic clergy.
Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti confirmed to CBS News the existence of "a document for internal use, which summarizes the practice formed over the years in the Congregation and is not intended for publication."
Gisotti said "the fundamental principle behind these lines is the protection of the child. For this reason, the document ordinarily requires that the priest present a request for dispensation from the duties of the clerical state and, as a layman, assume his responsibilities as a parent by devoting himself exclusively" to their child.
But they are guidelines -- not requirements
Doyle has pressed Pope Francis to announce such guidelines himself, publicly, and on Tuesday he said that while the Vatican guidelines "are an acknowledgement of a global problem, I now call on The Congregation for Clergy (Vatican office) to release them without delay."
Asked what he wants from the pope, in particular, Doyle told CBS News it would only take, "two words, three words, four words, that these children are recognized; 'we acknowledge your pain, we condemn this pain, and we want to fix this pain.'"
To help them with their pain, Doyle created the website "Coping International," offering resources and counseling. Now there's a worldwide community of people, growing.
Thomas is part of that community and is doing a PhD on it.
"What's coming out more and more is that these children are ready for some change," she told Saberi. "Change is very difficult for the Catholic Church, but change is happening."
Still, being merely guidelines, which, obviously, many priests ignore, like their vows of celibacy, means the church still has a tolerance for priests who make vows to Jesus Christ and them break them. Jesus is full of grace and mercy, but I think He takes our vows more seriously than we do.
Judgement is coming, and I am glad I am not Catholic!
Women accuse late bishop, 2 priests & janitor
of child sexual abuse in Long Island parish
By: FOX 5 NY Staff
ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island is now at the center of a clergy child sex abuse scandal. Two women, now in their 60s, are accusing three different priests and a janitor at St. Agnes Cathedral Parish in Rockville Centre of sexually abusing them when they were both 11 years old.
Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney representing the women, said that the late Bishop John McGann sexually abused one client over five years and his other client once back in the 1960s. He is asking the Diocese of Rockville Centre to compensate the women by paying them each $10 million.
Newsday reported that the diocese is taking "all allegations seriously" and reported them to the Nassau County District Attorney on Friday.
McGann died in 2002. Two other priests named in the case are also dead.
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