It's shocking how depraved some priests can be,
but, occasionally, even I am astounded
Catholic priest charged in Texas for allegedly molesting woman during last rites
A 75-year-old Catholic priest in Austin, Texas, has been arrested and charged for allegedly molesting a woman in hospice care while administering the last rites, the special prayers for Catholics who are gravely ill or dying.
The woman, who was in hospice care following diabetes complications, is accusing the priest of touching her breast and of attempting to put his hand down her diaper while she was thought to be dying.
Rev. Gerold Langsch was charged on Thursday with Assault by Contact. The alleged incident occurred last October and the unnamed victim reported the incident five days later. Austin police said the investigation was delayed due to the woman’s poor health.
The alleged victim says that Langsch molested her while administering the last rites, claiming he anointed her chest with holy water and then began to massage lotion onto her breasts, at one point pinching her nipple and asking her: “Does that feel good?”
The woman, who picked Langsch out of a police lineup this month, reportedly told investigators that the incident left her feeling shocked and confused.
Langsch is no longer serving as a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Austin and lost his position at St. Paul Catholic Church after an “unrelated report that he had failed to maintain proper boundaries with an adult,” according to a statement from the diocese on Wednesday. They added that the misconduct in that report didn't involve physical contact.
Langsch is currently out on $15,000 bail bond and, if convicted, faces a year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000. Austin police are now asking any other possible victims of his to come forward.
Irish priest accused of raping his own 5 y/o neice
By ANNE SHERIDAN FOR MAIL ONLINE
Deceased Bishop Eamonn Casey faced at least three allegations of child sexual abuse before he died - with two high court cases being settled.
One of the women who have accused him was his niece, while another received a settlement under the controversial Residential Institutions Redress Board.
Documents obtained by the Irish Mail on Sunday confirmed the Redress settlement, and a second settlement was confirmed by the Limerick Diocese when the MoS directly asked them.
Patricia Donovan, the niece of the late Bishop Eamonn Casey has claimed she was raped and sexually abused by him from the age of five for more than a decade.
Speaking for the first time, his niece Patricia Donovan, now 56, said: ‘It was rape, everything you imagine. It was the worst kind of abuse, it was horrific.
'I stopped being able long ago to find any words in the English language to describe what happened to me. It was one horrific thing after another.’
The Irish Mail on Sunday can also reveal that two other complaints of child sexual abuse related to incidents in the 1950s and 1960s.
Ms Donovan, who lives in England, brought her allegations to police in the UK in November 2005, and later to gardai.
Limerick detectives travelled to the UK to take a statement from her in January 2006, but by August of the same year, the Director of Public Prosecutions directed that no charges be brought on 13 sample allegations.
Irish DPP have been cruelly reluctant to bring charges against paedophiles, whether priests or otherwise.
But in the course of seeking documentation relating to her case, Ms Donovan received case notes that confirm that Bishop Casey made a Redress board settlement with a woman in 2005.
Due to restrictions in the redress legislation on information sharing, Gardai or the Director of Public Prosecutions would not have been aware of any such settlement while involved in the investigation, or determination of charges.
This is the first time it has ever become public knowledge that Bishop Casey is among those named to the redress board. The Government is now proposing to seal those documents on alleged child abuse in religious institutions for a period of 75 years.
OMGosh! Why would they do that? Haven't they protected enough paedophiles?
This controversial move by the State, under the Retention of Records Bill, is due to come before the Dail this week.
After Ms Donovan made her allegations to authorities in England, he left England, and was sent back to the Galway diocese.
Canon Kieron O’Brien, Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, has confirmed to the MoS that the diocese followed all proper channels at that time, and had Bishop Casey removed from England after Ms Donovan’s allegations.
In 2016, Limerick based solicitor Tommy Dalton came on record for one woman who took her case against Bishop Casey to the High Court.
However, in the midst of proceedings, Bishop Casey died on March 13, 2017, and the matter was listed as being ‘struck out’ after compensation was paid.
The Limerick Diocese has now confirmed that a settlement was paid to this woman, among three complaints of child sexual abuse brought to their attention between 2001 and 2014.
The Galway diocese confirmed they knew about an allegation that fits Ms Donovan’s - but the Kerry Diocese this weekend refused to be drawn on if they are aware of any allegations against Bishop Casey in their diocese.
Ms Donovan also wrote personally to the then Bishop of Galway, Martin Drennan, after the Galway diocese initially agreed to pay for counselling for her and her two children. The funding later ceased in 2007.
When contacted by the MoS, Bishop Drennan said: ‘I can confirm that I was in correspondence with Patricia for a period of time. I heard her plea of suffering and alleged abuse, but I was not in a position to verify any allegations against any named individual.
‘I am very sorry to learn that Patricia is still suffering. I hope she finds peace through forgiveness, as she said is her wish. Though I am now retired, I believe, as Pope Francis said, the Church should reach out to help people find the healing and peace that they deserve, rather than waiting for them to come forward.’
Ms Donovan also contacted a UK based group for abuse survivors founded by Wicklow native Dr Margaret Kennedy.
She told the MoS: ‘I was aware of a number of allegations made by several women against Bishop Casey. He was certainly on our radar.’
In 2010, Ms Donovan was also concerned when she learned that Bishop Casey was due to officiate at a baptism of a relative.
She again contacted a number of child protection bodies expressing her concern, and eventually the Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh was contacted, as the Christening was due to be held in his diocese.
Contacted by the MoS, Bishop Walsh, 84, who has also retired, said: ‘I can confirm that I advised Eamonn that he should not do the Baptism.’
Deceased Bishop Eamonn Casey faced at least three allegations of child sexual abuse before he died - with two high court cases being settled.
One of the women who have accused him was his niece, while another received a settlement under the controversial Residential Institutions Redress Board.
Documents obtained by the Irish Mail on Sunday confirmed the Redress settlement, and a second settlement was confirmed by the Limerick Diocese when the MoS directly asked them.
Patricia Donovan, the niece of the late Bishop Eamonn Casey has claimed she was raped and sexually abused by him from the age of five for more than a decade.
Speaking for the first time, his niece Patricia Donovan, now 56, said: ‘It was rape, everything you imagine. It was the worst kind of abuse, it was horrific.
'I stopped being able long ago to find any words in the English language to describe what happened to me. It was one horrific thing after another.’
The Irish Mail on Sunday can also reveal that two other complaints of child sexual abuse related to incidents in the 1950s and 1960s.
Ms Donovan, who lives in England, brought her allegations to police in the UK in November 2005, and later to gardai.
Limerick detectives travelled to the UK to take a statement from her in January 2006, but by August of the same year, the Director of Public Prosecutions directed that no charges be brought on 13 sample allegations.
Irish DPP have been cruelly reluctant to bring charges against paedophiles, whether priests or otherwise.
But in the course of seeking documentation relating to her case, Ms Donovan received case notes that confirm that Bishop Casey made a Redress board settlement with a woman in 2005.
Due to restrictions in the redress legislation on information sharing, Gardai or the Director of Public Prosecutions would not have been aware of any such settlement while involved in the investigation, or determination of charges.
This is the first time it has ever become public knowledge that Bishop Casey is among those named to the redress board. The Government is now proposing to seal those documents on alleged child abuse in religious institutions for a period of 75 years.
OMGosh! Why would they do that? Haven't they protected enough paedophiles?
This controversial move by the State, under the Retention of Records Bill, is due to come before the Dail this week.
After Ms Donovan made her allegations to authorities in England, he left England, and was sent back to the Galway diocese.
Canon Kieron O’Brien, Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, has confirmed to the MoS that the diocese followed all proper channels at that time, and had Bishop Casey removed from England after Ms Donovan’s allegations.
In 2016, Limerick based solicitor Tommy Dalton came on record for one woman who took her case against Bishop Casey to the High Court.
However, in the midst of proceedings, Bishop Casey died on March 13, 2017, and the matter was listed as being ‘struck out’ after compensation was paid.
The Limerick Diocese has now confirmed that a settlement was paid to this woman, among three complaints of child sexual abuse brought to their attention between 2001 and 2014.
The Galway diocese confirmed they knew about an allegation that fits Ms Donovan’s - but the Kerry Diocese this weekend refused to be drawn on if they are aware of any allegations against Bishop Casey in their diocese.
Bishop Eamon Casey outside his home in Firies near Killarney in 1974 with his car known locally as 'The Flyer'
Ms Donovan also wrote personally to the then Bishop of Galway, Martin Drennan, after the Galway diocese initially agreed to pay for counselling for her and her two children. The funding later ceased in 2007.
When contacted by the MoS, Bishop Drennan said: ‘I can confirm that I was in correspondence with Patricia for a period of time. I heard her plea of suffering and alleged abuse, but I was not in a position to verify any allegations against any named individual.
‘I am very sorry to learn that Patricia is still suffering. I hope she finds peace through forgiveness, as she said is her wish. Though I am now retired, I believe, as Pope Francis said, the Church should reach out to help people find the healing and peace that they deserve, rather than waiting for them to come forward.’
Ms Donovan also contacted a UK based group for abuse survivors founded by Wicklow native Dr Margaret Kennedy.
She told the MoS: ‘I was aware of a number of allegations made by several women against Bishop Casey. He was certainly on our radar.’
In 2010, Ms Donovan was also concerned when she learned that Bishop Casey was due to officiate at a baptism of a relative.
She again contacted a number of child protection bodies expressing her concern, and eventually the Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh was contacted, as the Christening was due to be held in his diocese.
Contacted by the MoS, Bishop Walsh, 84, who has also retired, said: ‘I can confirm that I advised Eamonn that he should not do the Baptism.’
In scrubbing dead priests' bios, victims say Buffalo Diocese obscured depth of crisis
By Jay Tokasz The Buffalo News
Monsignor J. Grant Higgins was a Catholic priest for 60 years, but when he died in 2016 at age 90, the Buffalo Diocese tried to make it seem as if he wasn't a priest.
A paid death notice for Higgins omitted the honorific title of "Reverend" that is standard in priest death notices and obituaries. The Mass of Christian Burial for Higgins was held at a church in North Buffalo, more than 25 miles away from his last parish assignment in the Village of Angola, where he was well-known and had served for 14 years. The diocese did not publish an obituary on Higgins in its own Western New York Catholic, a monthly newspaper that assiduously chronicles the deaths of area priests, deacons and nuns. Nor did the diocese send The Buffalo News the priest’s assignment history, as it usually does when a priest dies, so that The News could write an obituary.
When Higgins died, diocese officials gave area Catholics no explanation as to why they were obscuring his life as a priest.
They did it because Buffalo Bishop Richard J. Malone decided in 2013 that funeral arrangements for priests credibly accused of molesting children needed to be handled differently.
But for nearly five years after that, the bishop was unwilling to publicly identify priests, living or dead, who were accused of sexually abusing minors. Malone didn’t name names until 2018, after a clergy abuse scandal erupted.
Monsignor J. Grant Higgins died in 2016. The Buffalo Diocese publicly identified him as a priest who had been credibly accused of sexual misconduct with a minor in 2018. (Buffalo Diocese's 1995 Priests' Pictorial Directory)
That's the first time parishioners found out about Higgins.
Malone explained in a 2013 internal memo obtained by The Buffalo News that the new funeral policy was to be more sensitive to survivors of clergy sex abuse.
But now some abuse survivors and their advocates said the guidelines helped shield clergy abuse cases from the public, even in the aftermath of reforms that called for bishops to be more transparent about abusive priests.
"This, it seems, is another method to keep it under cover. To me, it's a consistent policy of the church, going back decades, of hiding and covering up," said Tim Lennon, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a national organization. "At all costs, the reputation of the church is more important than anything."
Diocese spokeswoman Kathy Spangler offered no comment on the policy when contacted by The News.
In the 2013 memo, Malone set new internal diocese guidelines on handling funeral arrangements for priests who, due to substantiated child sex abuse allegations, had been “restricted from public ministry but not dismissed from the clerical state.”
The guidelines banned the title of “Reverend” or “Father” in death notices for such priests. The bishop also prohibited a Mass of Christian Burial for offending priests to be held in a parish where that priest had been assigned.
The guidelines allowed the titles of reverend or father to be used on grave markers, and Higgins' tombstone identifies him as Rev.
The diocese was obligated to act “in such a way as to show the greatest sensitivity to any who have been harmed by priests in the past,” Malone said in a memo to Buffalo diocese priests.
Events such as the death of an abuser may trigger survivors to experience again the trauma of their abuse.
Or it may awaken their memory of such abuse hidden by trauma scars for decades.
But some advocates for abuse survivors said Malone implemented the guidelines because he was concerned with limiting public knowledge of the extent of the abuse in the Buffalo diocese – more than he was with helping victims.
The diocese’s silence and lack of clarity on clergy abuse cases make it easier to keep victims silent about what they experienced, said Judith Burns-Quinn, who lives in Hamburg and has met with clergy abuse victims for decades.
“If it’s kept quiet, they just fade into the night,” said Burns-Quinn.
Terry McKiernan said dioceses around the country have tried to be more considerate of the feelings of survivors and parishioners when it comes to putting out death notices and obituaries and arranging the funerals of offending clergy.
But it’s a tricky balancing act, and dioceses tend to “edge across into a cone of silence,” said McKiernan, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, which chronicles the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal across the U.S. and in other countries.
“This dovetails with that whole question of ‘What do you do with memorials named after priests?’” said McKiernan. “An approach that seems tactful for survivors can shade into rewriting history.”
Parishioners in Western New York didn’t know at the time of his death that Higgins was accused of abuse, nor did they know about the funeral arrangements policy.
It wasn’t until March 2018 – 16 months after Higgins died – that Malone released an initial list of 42 priests identified by the diocese as child sex offenders. Higgins was on the list.
Since November, Malone has added the names of 38 more priests to his initial list of priests against whom allegations had been substantiated, for a total of 80 priests. But he has refused to release any more information about the priests, such as where they were assigned, how many children they abused, and what sort of discipline they faced.
Most of the 80 priests on the list are either still alive or died prior to the 2013 guidelines on funeral arrangements. But the policy makes it clear that at least some, if not many, accused priests were never removed from the priesthood, despite substantiated allegations.
Besides Higgins, at least three other priests who died since the adoption of the guidelines were listed without titles in paid death notices in The Buffalo News. Those priests were Roy K. Ronald, Loville N. Martlock and Charles M. Werth. In addition, Robert D. Moss died March 29, 2018, but did not have a death notice in The News. It's not clear if Moss was still a priest at the time of his death.
The diocese also did not publish obituaries on Ronald, Martlock, Werth or Moss in Western New York Catholic.
Like Higgins, Ronald and Werth were first identified publicly as abusers by the diocese in 2018. Ronald died in 2013, Werth in 2017.
NAMES OF MILWAUKEE ARCHBISHOPS WHO COVERED UP SEXUAL ABUSE REMOVED FROM CATHOLIC BUILDINGS
by Wisconsin Public RadioThe Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee removed the names of two former Milwaukee Archbishops, William Cousins and Rembert Weakland, from buildings as part of the church’s response to sexual abuse by clergy on March 19.
The Archbishop Cousins Catholic Center, which was named in honor of William Cousins, will be renamed on Friday. And Rembert Weakland’s name has been removed from the parish center at St. John the Evangelist in downtown Milwaukee. Cousins and Weakland led the Milwaukee Archdiocese between 1958 and 2002 and helped cover up clergy sexual abuse of children.
“If these names have caused angst, anxiety, stress, hurt, harm for themselves, for their families, from those who have walked with them in this journey, as they have moved forward from the abuse they have experienced, then removing these names is something we want to do as a church and extend ourselves forward to reconcile whatever way possible with abuse survivors,” said Jerry Topczewski, chief of staff for current Archbishop Jerome Listecki. “This is a moment where we can say bishops share the blame very clearly in decisions that were made in the past. Again, not to keep judgment on what motivated those decisions, but simply to say if this helps in the healing of survivors then we want to do it.”
Topczewski said he hopes the name removals provide healing for victims. He explained that while the church cannot judge the decisions made decades ago, the role bishops played in the sex abuse scandal is clear. Topczewski said that the goal of removing the names was not to erase history.
“So if you go to Saint Paul’s outside the walls in Rome around the top of basilica is a portrait of every pope. You’d be hard pressed to say that every pope was without scandal over the church’s history, right? So we don’t want to change history, it’s part of who we are. So the images in the cathedral of all our archbishops will remain. But things that I think people thought were honorific we felt should be removed,” Topczewski added.
Peter Isley said it was about time. He is a member of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
“You know we’re not going to have the name of bishops who have covered up for child rapists on our church building is the kind of minimal step that we’ve been asking for a long time,” Isley said. “You’ve got to take the names off of these buildings of bishops who have covered up child sex crimes. It’s kind of like not very good public relations, if I could put it that way, to honor and have the names of these bishops up on our headquarters and buildings.”
Lawsuits claim sex abuse by priest at Indianapolis church and high school
John Tuohy, Indianapolis Star
Three men have filed lawsuits alleging that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette covered up sexual abuse by a priest at Brebeuf high school in Indianapolis and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in the 1970s and 1980s, and clerical abuse watchdogs fear there could be many more victims.
The accusers, identified in court papers as John Does 1, 2 and 3, were 12 or 13 years old at the time and said they met Father James Grear at Mount Carmel, where he celebrated Mass.
One of the men claims he was violently assaulted in the gym at Mount Carmel during a youth rally. When he told a bishop in his home parish, he was cautioned not to report it and to ask for God’s forgiveness, the lawsuit said. The two other men said Grear while dean of students at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School took them on trips, gave them gifts and molested them in his apartment across the street from the high school on 86th Street.
The lawsuits claim the diocese knew Grear had been abusing children and assigned him to Mount Carmel and Brebeuf anyway without warning parents and others. The lawsuits also point to how often Grear was reassigned.
The plaintiffs' lawyers said they will soon be sending out 2,000 letters to former students who attended Brebeuf while Grear was assigned there to ferret out any other instances of alleged abuse.
"We don't know how extensive this was and we hope this will give us some idea," said Patrick Noaker, a Minnesota lawyer who represents the men. "This could be the tip of the iceberg."
A member and former executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests agreed. "I believe that the number can rise much higher," David Clohessy told IndyStar. "That is a high number to start. Usually you have a single allegation, and here is a slow drip,drip drip."
Accused priest 'removed from public ministry' in 2001
Two of the lawsuits were filed in Marion County in November and one in Hamilton County in September. They all name Grear, the Diocese of Lafayette and Our Lady of Mount Carmel as defendants. Brebeuf was not named in the suits.
The complaints allege fraud, negligence and failure to warn on the part of church officials. The victims claim they suffered emotional distress, damaged self-esteem, embarrassment, humiliation and loss of earnings. The victims said they have had to seek counseling.
James Duffy of Lafayette, a lawyer for the diocese and Mount Carmel, declined to answer questions about the lawsuits. But in a response to the complaints, Duffy, in a court filing, denied that the diocese knew about any misconduct by Grear and therefore could not have knowingly covered it up.
Brebeuf officials did not respond to requests for comment. A call by IndyStar to a listed phone number for Grear was not returned.
On March 11, the Hamilton and Marion courts sent a summons to Grear, who is 77 years old and living in a house in Philadelphia, demanding that he respond within 20 days.
Grear was among 12 priests that the Lafayette Diocese named last fall as having “substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor” dating back to 1946. He was ordained on May 30, 1970, and was "removed from public ministry" and "priestly faculties" in October 2001, the diocese said in the announcement.
It was unclear whether any of the men suing the church were victims of the substantiated allegations against Grear that were cited by the diocese.
Greg Otolski, a spokesman for the Indianapolis Archdiocese, said he had no knowledge of the Grear allegations because the priest was in the Lafayette diocese and Brebeuf is a privately run Jesuit school not under the control of the archdiocese.
The Lafayette diocese oversees Catholic Church operations in 24 Indiana counties, including Hamilton but not Marion. Grear's appointment at Brebeuf was considered a special assignment by the Lafayette diocese.
Lawsuit: 'Father Grear’s assignments were suspect'
The lawsuits name the diocese and at least 100 unidentified employees and others affiliated with the dioceses, referred to as John Does 1-100, who allegedly helped cover up the abuse.
Noaker said Indiana law allows the victims to sue long after the statute of limitations has passed if it can be shown that the defendants covered up misconduct until only recently.
Noaker pointed to a pattern of transfers throughout Grear's tenure. Church officials commonly transferred abusive priests rather than address the problem, he said.
“They had favorite places they liked to ship them out to,” Noaker said. Among the locations that church hierarchy routinely whisked away accused priests were to inner-city or poor, rural communities, parishes in Alaska and Indian reservations in the Southwest, SNAP's Clohessy said.
“Often these minority communities were chosen because the victims were less apt to tell on the priests, to be believed or to go to police,” Clohessy said.
Grear was incardinated in 1970 in the Lafayette diocese and was moved around frequently almost immediately. From 1972 to 1978, Grear was assigned to Ball State University, St. Francis of Assisi University Parrish in Muncie, Brebeuf, St. John’s Indian School and the Diocese of Phoenix. From 1980 until 1985 he was not listed in the Catholic Directory, which Noaker said is another indication he might have been an abuser. In 1986 he was working somewhere outside the diocese that was not identified. In 1987, Grear was sent to Guam, and in 1990 he was assigned to the South Bronx.
“From the beginning Father Grear’s assignments were suspect,” the lawsuit contends.
The allegations
John Doe No. 1 said he was abused by Grear in 1982 while visiting Our Lady of Mount Carmel for a youth rally in 1984. He said when he returned home to Monterey, he told Bishop Raymond Gallagher about the abuse during confession at St. Ann’s Church, according to the lawsuit. Gallagher, who is deceased, allegedly told him to “forget about it,” to ask God for forgiveness and to refrain from disclosing the abuse to anyone else.
John Doe No. 2 said he was a student at Mount Carmel grade school when Grear tried to recruit him to Brebeuf. He said Grear “spent lavishly” for “expensive gifts,” according the lawsuit. He also took the boy on trips and to the movies, bowling and restaurants. The accuser’s parents trusted Grear and had him over for dinner, according to the lawsuit.
He said he was taken to Grear’s apartment at least three times for “sexual contact.”
The boy's parents said they reported the abuse to Mount Carmel in 1975 but the church never took action.
John Doe No. 3 was also a student at Mount Carmel. He, too, claims Grear gave him gifts in an attempt to recruit him and took him to his apartment three times for sexual contact.
Tom Doyle, a former priest and expert on clerical abuse, said Grear exhibited "classic grooming behavior."
"You build the kid's trust and the trust of their parents who think it's a great honor that the priest gives so much attention to their child, and the last thing they think is going to happen to them is they are going to be assaulted," he said.
"A lot of times the parents won't believe the children when they tell them what happened."
Why didn’t Columbus diocese include parish, school assignments of priests ‘credibly accused’ of child sex abuse?
It would appear that not everyone is on-board with this transparency thing
or, maybe Columbus is just really administratively incompetent
By Danae King
The Columbus Dispatch
After being criticized for taking months longer than the other five Ohio dioceses to release its list of priests accused of sexually abusing children, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus said it didn’t include information on where and when each priest worked in the diocese because it would have further delayed the list and might have exposed victims.
Yet the diocese releases that information when it receives an allegation against an individual priest and has done so in recent years — and doesn’t express the same concerns in that process.
When asked why the processes for reporting the abuse of a single priest versus releasing a list of all “credibly accused” clergymen are different, the Rev. Monsignor Stephan Moloney, vicar general and victims assistance coordinator for the Diocese of Columbus, said “it just is.”
“It was just a decision that was made,” he said.
Good grief! No reason! No logic! Just a decision that was made and I don't have to justify that to you! What incredible arrogance!
Advocates for survivors say that a priest’s history within a diocese could help trigger victims’ memories of their abuse and prompt them to report it.
“They need to have the assignment history in there because there’s still victims out there suffering in silence and shame,” said Judy Jones, Midwest regional director for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
Yet Moloney said seeing “the names will give those victims courage to come forward.”
Columbus is one of many dioceses across the country that have released lists in the wake of a July Pennsylvania grand jury review that revealed allegations of more than 1,000 children being sexually abused by more than 300 priests.
The level of detail provided on other dioceses’ lists vary widely, but some do include the assignment history of the priests, said Terence McKiernan, co-president of Bishop Accountability, a national group that works to track allegations of abuse by Catholic officials and publishes that information on its website.
The best practice is to release “a more extensive list than the Diocese of Columbus has provided,” he said.
“The Columbus list is pretty minimalist, and there are other lists that are kind of as sparing with the details,” McKiernan said. “But on the other hand, there are plenty of lists ... (that) provide information like assignment histories, where the priest was throughout his career, and sadly which also means where he had access to children.”
When an allegation of abuse against a specific clergy member comes in, the Columbus Diocese releases information about where the accused clergyman worked and when as part of its normal process, Moloney said.
That information is sent to parishes where the accused priest served, posted on the diocese’s website, printed in The Catholic Times, a diocesan publication of which the bishop is the publisher, and sent to media organizations just days after an accusation comes in, said George Jones, diocesan spokesman.
Yet diocesan officials didn’t include the same information when it released a list of 34 clergy members accused of sexually abusing minors, which it posted online March 1 and amended with the addition of two more priests on March 5.
They said the Columbus Diocese can still add more information to the list. But they want more time to determine what, if anything, it would add.
As it stands, the list only states accused clergymen’s names, ordination dates and status in the diocese, such as whether they are dead, left the ministry or were removed from the ministry. More than 60 percent of the priests on the list were dead, and, of those alive, none perpetrated abuse within the state’s statute of limitations for prosecution, Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien has said.
Aussie priest accused of child sex abuse found dead
Western Australia by Jaydan Duck
A CATHOLIC priest investigated over child sex abuse allegations has been found dead in Western Australia.
It’s understood the priest was being investigated over allegations he sexually abused a young teenage girl.
The priest was informed of the allegations before his sudden death, the Australian Associated Press reported.
“Police commenced an investigation relating to an allegation of child sexual abuse by a priest from a Catholic Church located in the southern suburbs,” a WA police spokesman said.
“During the investigation (on Thursday) the priest was located deceased.”
In a statement on Saturday, the Catholic Archbishop of Perth said the news was “heartbreaking”.
“This news is heartbreaking for everyone involved,” Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said.
“The young girl who with her family found the courage to go to the police must be supported in every way, and the Archdiocese stands ready to help in whatever way we can.”
The archbishop said the priest’s family will be “devastated” by his death and “horrified by the circumstances”.
WA Police confirmed the priest’s death is not being treated as suspicious.
Suicide is not a way of escaping responsibility for one's sins. It simply advances your Judgment Day. It's astonishing a priest would not know that.
Pope Francis accepts resignation of Chilean cardinal accused of covering up sexual abuse by priests
World Agence France-PresseVatican City: Pope Francis on Saturday accepted the resignation of Chilean cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, who agreed to step down after being accused of covering up sexual abuse by priests, the Vatican said. Ezzati, archbishop of Santiago, is the seventh senior Chilean church official to resign over a scandal which the pope insists must be remedied. To date, 77-year-old Ezzati, the Catholic Church's highest official in Chile, has insisted he is innocent. He has promised to cooperate with the investigation into his activities: if the authorities first clear him.
"It's not enough for to say, 'You're an accomplice.' It needs to be proven. And I am going forward with my head held high," Ezzati said in a declaration to Chilean media. He presented his resignation to the pope in May 2018 along with all of Chile's 34 bishops. So far the pontiff has accepted seven of the resignations. The latest move in the Vatican's attempts to deal with abuse within the higher echelons of the Roman Catholic Church comes just days after disgraced Australian Cardinal George Pell received a jail term for sexually abusing two choirboys.
Pell, formerly the Vatican number three, has maintained his innocence and says he plans to appeal his conviction on five offences including oral rape and molestation of the boys in 1996-1997.
The decision over Ezzati was made after Chile's court of appeal on Friday confirmed he would face trial for not calling out sexual abuse by three priests, one of whom was his close aide. Ezzati was made a bishop by Pope John Paul II in 1996. He served as the bishop for Santiago from 2010, and four years later Pope Francis made him a cardinal.
Chile is one of the countries most caught up in the widening scandal of sexual wrongdoing by priests. The pope, who is Argentine, was accused of not taking appropriate steps after a controversial visit he made in January 2018. Afterwards, Francis listened more acutely to Chilean victims and made an apology before summoning all of Chile's bishops to the Vatican in May 2018 for discussions that led to their resignation letters. One of the victims, Jaime Concha, told AFP that the ousting of Ezzati "is late... and not enough."
The pope's action on Ezzati contrasted with his rejection last Monday of a resignation offered by French cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who was handed a six-month suspended jail sentence earlier this month for failing to report sex abuse by a priest under his authority. Barbarin has appealed. Vatican-watchers noted that the matter related to Barbarin occurred under his predecessors and it was likely that the pope did not want to create a precedent even as he seeks to clean up historic scandals.
The pontiff stated last month that "no abuse must ever be covered up, as has happened in the past" as the Church struggles to restore trust in its efforts to fight child abuse, given the slew of cases.
In October, Francis did, reluctantly, accept the resignation of US cardinal and Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, accused of helping to cover up hundreds of child abuse cases in his former diocese. And in February the pontiff defrocked former cardinal American Theodore McCarrick, 88, who a Vatican court found guilty of sexually abusing a teenager 50 years ago.
McCarrick became the first cardinal ever to be defrocked for sex abuse.
But not likely the last!
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