About 390 Catholic priests, 6 nuns in Illinois named as alleged sexual abusers on massive list
West Virginia suing Catholic diocese of violating consumer protection law by hiring pedophile priests
Some known abusers were moved to parishes "with direct access to children," according to the new report
Patricia Gallagher Marchant, a victim of clergy abuse, speaks during a press conference outside the Archdiocese of Chicago on Jan. 2, 2019 in Chicago. Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP - Getty Images file
By Corky Siemaszko
A law firm that represents clerical sexual abuse victims released a massive list Wednesday of Roman Catholic priests in Illinois, along with six nuns and a handful of lay people, who have been credibly accused of molesting children.
Some of the accusations in the 185-page Anderson Report on Child Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese and Dioceses in Illinois stretch back more than half a century. The 395 names listed are nearly double the number that church officials in the state had previously released.
“The data reveal the horrifying scale of priests sexually assaulting minors to the present day,” the report states. “Perhaps most shocking among the discoveries is that some perpetrators were intentionally transferred and retained in trusted positions with direct access to children even after they were known to sexually abuse children.”
But only one of the priests in the report, Father Michael O’Connell in Chicago, continues to tend to a flock, attorney Jeff Anderson said at a press conference in that city where the report was unveiled. The rest are either dead or no longer in the ministry.
“It’s incomplete, but it is a start,” said clerical abuse survivor Cindy Yesko. “What this means to me is transparency. These names are now brought to light.”
Image:Joe Iacono, right, pauses as he is comforted by attorney Jeff Anderson during a news conference on March 20, 2019, in Chicago. Kiichiro Sato / AP
Yesko first came forward with allegations in 2006 against two priests from the Diocese of Springfield who are named in the report, Father Louis Schlangen and Father Stanislaus Yunker. Both are now deceased.
“The priest that abused me was moved to eight different parishes,” said survivor Joe Iacano, who claims he was abused by a now-dead Chicago priest, Father Thomas Francis Kelly. “He abused in every parish he went to.”
Anderson’s report was unveiled four months after Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan revealed that officials have received allegations of sexual abuse against nearly 700 priests and clergy members in the state. Those complaints are now under investigation.
The Archdiocese of Chicago and the dioceses of Belleville, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford and Springfield orchestrated “an institutional coverup of enormous magnitude,” Anderson said.
Even with 395 names in the report, it’s an undercount, the report says.
“It is believed that the Dioceses in Illinois have not publicly made available the full histories and their knowledge of their sexually abusive agents and employees,” the report states.
Several of the names in the Anderson report had been released earlier by the Jesuits, including the names of several priests who taught at St. Ignatius College Prep, an elite Catholic high school in Chicago — Father Allan Kirk, Father James Condon, Father Stanley Wisniewski and Father Bernard Knoth.
Kirk, Condon and Wisniewski are dead. Knoth is living in Florida and declined to be interviewed.
The Anderson report listed 116 priests in the Archdiocese of Chicago who had been accused. In a statement, the archdiocese said “it reports all allegations we receive to the civil authorities.”
Asked specifically about the status of Father O’Connell, spokesman Alejandro Castillo said both allegations against him “were reported and were judged by civil authorities and the archdiocese to be unsubstantiated.” He remains a parish priest.
The Diocese of Rockford said in its statement that only one of the 22 priests named by Anderson, Ivan Rovira, had not previously been divulged. It said Rovira was a parish priest in the diocese for just two years.
The state attorney general accused the diocese and a former bishop of "intentional concealment."
Image: Bishop Michael Bransfield of the Wheeling-Charleston Roman Catholic Diocese leads mass in Montcoal, West Virginia, on April 6, 2010.
By Corky Siemaszko, U.S. NEWS
The West Virginia attorney general filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming that a local Roman Catholic diocese and former bishop failed to protect children from predator priests and teachers — and violated consumer protection laws by not alerting parents there were abusers on the payroll.
The suit takes what appears to be a novel approach by using state consumer protection laws, with parents as "purchasers" of services for their children.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey claims in the suit that former Bishop Michael Bransfield and the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese engaged in "intentional concealment."
"Omissions of these material facts caused the purchasers of their educational and recreational services to buy inherently dangerous services for their children for many decades,” the court papers state.
The lawsuit, which cites the specific West Virginia code that Bransfield and the diocese allegedly violated, is seeking a permanent court order “blocking the diocese from continuation of any such conduct.”
The attorney general told NBC News through his spokesman, “We believe this is the first lawsuit of its kind against the church.”
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey speaks at a press conference at the Department of Justice in Washington on Feb. 27, 2018. Toya Sarno Jordan / Getty Images file
Mitchell Garabedian, the lawyer featured in the film, “Spotlight,” who is best known for going after predator priests in Boston, agreed.
“I have never heard a similar action brought such as that in West Virginia,” Garabedian said in an email to NBC News. “The action certainly will raise concerns for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston because of the transparency which will be provided through litigation and because of the adverse economic effect on the Diocese the end result may provide.”
Marci Hamilton, a law professor and head of CHILD USA, a nonprofit that fights child abuse, said she too has not heard of anyone using this legal strategy against a Catholic diocese.
A database search of news stories found that in 1994 lawyers for a Michigan man allegedly abused by a local priest charged in a lawsuit that the Archdiocese of Detroit had engaged in fraudulent concealment, which is a legal strategy that is usually used in consumer protection cases.
Hamilton in that story said the tactic "has merit" but it was not immediately clear if the strategy employed by the lawyers worked.
Bishop Michael Bransfield speaks at a press conference in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 2004.Dale Sparks / AP file
In a statement, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston said it learned from the media that Morrisey had filed a lawsuit alleging the diocese had "violated the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act."
"The Diocese will address the litigation in the appropriate forum," it said. "However, the Diocese strongly and unconditionally rejects the Complaint’s assertion that the Diocese is not wholly committed to the protection of children."
Bransfield retired as bishop in September 2018 and could not be reached for comment.
In the lawsuit, Morrisey charged that the diocese’s advertised mission was to provide children a safe learning environment, but instead it knowingly hired priests who had been credibly accused of child sexual abuse and hired lay workers without doing adequate background checks.
Pedophile assigned to Elementary school
Among others, the complaint alleges that the diocese covered up for a priest named Patrick Condron, who worked in West Virginia in the 1980s and was accused of “grooming” a student for sex.
After Condron admitted that he sexually abused a student at St. Joseph Preparatory Seminary High School in the city of Vienna, the diocese sent the priest for treatment.
When Condron completed that, he was reassigned to Wheeling Catholic Elementary School from 1998 to 2001 — and parents were never notified that an admitted pedophile was teaching at the school.
Accused pedophile ordained
Another example cited in the suit is that of Victor Frobas, who worked for the diocese from 1965 through 1983. The diocese ordained him despite being aware that he had been accused in 1962 of sexually abusing a child in Philadelphia.
“Frobas was moved frequently due to suspicions of and sometimes allegations of sexual abuse of children,” the suit states.
One of those jobs was director of a Catholic summer program for children called Camp Tygart in Huttonsville, West Virginia, where he was accused of molesting more children.
After undergoing psychological treatment, Frobas got a new job in 1977 — chaplain at Wheeling Central Catholic High School, the suit states.
Frobas eventually moved to a Franciscan community in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was accused to molesting more children. He eventually served two years in prison before dying in 1993.
Morrisey charged the diocese also failed to adequately vet lay employees like Ronald Cooper, who was hired as a high school teacher in 2011 but failed to disclose that he had been convicted of third-degree rape in the Washington state back in 1985.
Cooper was eventually fired in 2013, but the diocese never told the parents of the children who attended Madonna High School in Weirton, West Virginia, that a convicted felon had been teaching their kids.
Pope rejects resignation of French cardinal
in sex abuse cover-up
Pope Francis has rejected the resignation of French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin who was handed a six-month suspended jail sentence this month for failing to report sex abuse by a priest under his authority, prompting surprise among Church leaders and condemnation from victims.
Cardinal Barbarin is the most senior French cleric caught up in the global paedophilia scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church (VATICAN MEDIA/AFP / HO)
The pope’s decision, announced by Barbarin in a statement and confirmed by the Vatican, comes ahead of a judicial appeal of the case.
But it also comes against the background of the Roman Catholic Church’s struggle to restore trust in its efforts to fight child abuse, with the pope saying last month that “no abuse must ever be covered up, as has happened in the past”.
In a statement issued from his see in the French southeastern city of Lyon, Barbarin said: “Monday morning, I handed over my mission to the Holy Father. He spoke of the presumption of innocence and did not accept this resignation.”
Astonishing! There is no presumption of innocence once you are convicted of a crime! Francis has made another serious error in judgement, IMHO.
Barbarin, the most senior French cleric caught up in the global paedophilia scandal, said he would remain in Lyon pending the court appeal, but added that “for a little while” he would step back from his job, allowing, at the pope’s “suggestion”, the local vicar general Yves Baumgarten to run day-to-day affairs.
The chairman of the Bishops’ Conference of France — which represents top French Catholic clerics — expressed surprise at the decision which creates an “unheard of” situation.
“I did not expect this scenario which falls between the two outcomes that we expected,” bishop Georges Pontier told AFP.
This “unheard of” situation results from the difficulty of “respecting the judicial process” along with the need to “look after the Lyon diocese”.
On March 7, a Lyon court had ruled that Barbarin, a cardinal since 2003, was guilty of failing to report allegations of abuse of boy scouts committed by a priest, Bernard Preynat, in the 1980s and 1990s.
Barbarin’s lawyer said he would appeal the guilty ruling which was hailed by abuse victims as ushering in a new period of accountability in the French Church.
The pope, who met 68-year-old Barbarin on Monday, had previously also defended him, saying in 2016 that his resignation before a trial would be “an error, imprudent”.
Victims of the sex abuse at the heart of the case Tuesday reacted with anger to news that Barbarin was staying put.
– ‘A mistake too many’ –
Francois Devaux, a co-founder of a victims’ organisation, said the pope has made “one mistake too many”.
“I think that man (the pope) is going to manage to kill off the church. It’s a mistake too many. It just shows how right we are and how this whole problem is part of the dogma,” he added.
Another member of the victims’ association, Pierre-Emmanuel Germain-Thill, termed the pope’s decision “shocking”, stressing that the initial condemnation by a court could not simply be ignored.
“We shall continue to fight,” he said, saying the situation was all the more difficult for the victims as Preynat, the priest at the heart of the abuse scandal, had not yet been judged,
He is expected to be tried later this year.
A slew of abuse scandals tainting the church has spanned the globe, from Australia to Chile and the United States.
Less than a week after Barbarin’s conviction, the Vatican’s former number three, Australian Cardinal George Pell, was sentenced to six years in prison by a Melbourne court for the “brazen” sexual abuse of two choirboys. AFP
Man Accusing Upper West Side Monsignor John Paddack Of Sex Abuse Speaks Out
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- An alleged victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted priest is telling his story.
Rafael Mendoza attended Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx where now-Monsignor John Paddack was a guidance counselor, WCBS 880's Marla Diamond reported.
Mendoza, 37, is one of five former Catholic school students who have accused Paddack of child sexual abuse.
The alleged abuse occurred when Mendoza was a freshman in 1996.
"He would take me to his office and he would tell me to remove my shirt, unbuckle my pants. I can remember the coldness of the knob of the stethoscope while he's checking my heartbeat and all around my chest and slowly going down to my genitals," Mendoza said. "Just seeing his face turn bloodshot red while doing this, I go back now and think he was getting something out of this."
Paddack with Cardinal Timothy Dolan (L); Church of Notre Dame on UWS
Paddack also worked at St. Joseph By the Sea on Staten Island and the Church of the Incarnation in Manhattan.
A 2012 accusation against him was found to be unsubstantiated. In an interview with the Daily News, the monsignor proclaimed his innocence.
Mendoza wants Paddack, who is Monsignor at the Church of Notre Dame on the Upper West Side, removed from the archdiocese, Diamond reported.
Jesuit Dallas Sued Over Alleged Child Sexual Abuse
By Former Priest
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas is at the center of a lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims the defendant, an unidentified child at the time, was sexually abused by former priest Donald Dickerson.
In a statement, Jesuit Dallas President Mike Earsing said regarding the John Doe lawsuit:
“We reported to the community in December that Don Dickerson was on a list released by the Jesuits’ Central and Southern Province against whom there were credible allegations of abuse of a minor. We continue to ask our community to provide compassion and support for all victims of sexual misconduct and abuse. I don’t believe it would be appropriate to discuss the specifics of this lawsuit.”
The attorneys for the plaintiff, Hal Browne and Lori Watson released a statement in response, saying:
“We are heartened by Jesuit Dallas’ President Earsing’s statement released today urging his community to “provide compassion and support for all victims of sexual misconduct and abuse.” Our hope is that Jesuit Dallas and the Jesuits will recognize the injury our client has suffered as a result of Dickerson’s abuse and work with us toward a resolution of the case, as they did with Dickerson’s other victims.”
Dickerson is deceased.
Former Catholic Priest now facing 139 charges
of historical child sex abuse in NSW
David Joseph Perrett charged with further New England historical child sex abuse offences by Armidale detectives
Breanna Chillingworth, The Northern Daily Leader
Behind bars: David Joseph Perrett outside Armidale Local Court in 2017.
He now faces 139 charges of historical child sex abuse.
A FORMER Catholic priest now stands accused of sexually abusing or molesting 37 children while he was working in the New England, NSW, after detectives laid more charges.
David Joseph Perrett is behind bars and now faces 139 separate historical child abuse allegations from when he was a priest in the Armidale, Walcha, Guyra and wider New England area, in the 1970s, '80s and '90s.
The now 81-year-old had almost two dozen extra charges, of indecent assault on a male and buggery, laid in court on Wednesday, after further investigations by police in conjunction with the DPP.
The Leader can reveal two of those charges relate to a new alleged victim, who has come forward claiming abuse at the hands of Perrett in Lower Creek, east of Armidale.
Perrett is accused of indecent assault - the charge in place at the time - of a boy who detectives claim was about 11 or 12 at the time, near George's Junction between 1970 and 1972, while Perrett took children on a camping trip.
It's the detectives' case that Perrett was a serving Catholic priest in the Armidale area at the time.
New England police have confirmed they have taken statements in relation to 40 separate complainants - three women and 37 men - who were all young children at the time of the alleged acts of abuse in the New England and North West.
Perrett only faces charges in relation to 37 separate complainants, and charges have not arisen from the three additional statements, but Strike Force Bennett detectives confirmed investigations were continuing.
Strike Force Bennett was established to investigate claims of historical abuse before Perrett, who is now retired, was extradited by Armidale detectives from Wallangara in May 2017.
Perrett is accused of charges including sexual intercourse with a child as young as five and, if found guilty of the offences, faces life behind bars.
The extra charges were laid in court on Wednesday by New England detectives, meaning Perrett faces 139 charges. He is yet to enter pleas.
Magistrate Michael Holmes has adjourned the case to next month for committal, to see it moved to the district court.
Perrett, who was denied bail in the NSW Supreme Court in October, made no application for bail and it was formally refused.
Perrett has been behind bars since August last year when he had his bail revoked, after a magistrate found he failed to show cause why his detention was not justified - a test under the state's bail laws.
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