Fayette Co., Pa priest charged with sexually assaulting 11-y/o boy
Patrick Varine, TribLive
A 65-year-old priest who worked in Fayette County is charged with the sexual assault of an 11-year-old altar boy in the early 2000s.
Father Andrew M. Kawecki of Scottdale faces two counts of indecent assault and one count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse in connection with a series of incidents between 2004-07, when the alleged victim’s family left St. Cyril and Methodius Church in Fairchance.
“With the release of our grand jury report on abuse two years ago, I promised we would hold anyone who was abusing children accountable, no matter how powerful the institution behind them,” said Attorney General Josh Shapiro, whose office is prosecuting the case. “Survivors experience a lifetime of anguish and trauma trying to overcome the impact of abuse, especially when it is committed by the hands of their own parish priest. No cover-up is too long, no institution too powerful to stop us from doing our job. We will not let predators get away with the sexual assault of children.”
The investigation into Kawecki was initiated in May 2019, and arose from a tip generated in the wake of the attorney general’s 2018 grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse in Pennsylvania.
The Diocese of Greensburg reported the allegations to PA ChildLine after the alleged victim applied to the Survivor’s Compensation Fund, set up by the diocese for victims of clergy sexual abuse.
“Father Kawecki was immediately removed from ministry, and his parishioners were notified about the allegation,” according to a statement the diocese issued Wednesday. “Father Kawecki denies the allegation.”
The alleged victim told investigators from the attorney general’s office that Kawecki would instruct him to be dropped off at the church at least an hour before Mass and would sometimes be asked to stay afterward.
“The victim explained that, as an athlete, he knew the difference when men touched him,” Special Agent Stephen Adametz wrote in the criminal complaint. “The victim said when his coach touched him, it was ‘not weird’ but when Kawecki touched him, ‘it was something else.’ ”
Kawecki would have the victim help with trivial tasks at the church before suggesting sexual acts that eventually led to forced masturbation and one instance of oral sex, Adametz wrote.
In subsequent interviews with the victim’s parents, “they reported … that the more the victim served Masses under Kawecki, the more problems they saw in their son,” according to the criminal complaint.
Kawecki’s personnel file from the diocese did not include any documented reports of child sexual abuse, investigators said, but did document “a long history of impulse control, honesty problems, deception and abuse of authority issues,” Adametz wrote.
This is a priest we're talking about?
Kawecki was arraigned Wednesday and released on $50,000 bond. He faces a Sept. 9 preliminary hearing in Judge Daniel Shimshock’s Masontown court.
He has been ordered to have no contact with minors and has surrendered his passport.
“The Diocese of Greensburg has and will continue to fully cooperate with authorities regarding the investigation involving Father Kawecki,” according to the diocese’s statement.
Shapiro encouraged anyone with information about clergy sexual abuse to call 888-538-8541.
Holy Innocents School, Minn, wants abuse lawsuit dismissed;
plaintiff wants jury to decide
Nora G. Hertel
St. Cloud Times
Buildings at the Holy Innocents School site are pictured Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020, in Waite Park.
A lawyer for the Holy Innocents School in Waite Park asked a judge Wednesday to dismiss a civil lawsuit filed by a former student alleging sexual abuse and negligence.
The former student, known in court documents as Doe 596, filed the lawsuit in December of 2018.
Her complaint alleged Robert Sis, Bernice Sis, and their three children, Maria Sis, Heidi Sis and Christopher Sis, all sexually abused her while she was a student at Holy Innocents from 1978 to 1984, when she was 5 to 11 years old.
"The allegations the plaintiff makes are extreme and they are scandalous. My clients are absolutely shocked by the allegations and appalled," said Stacey Sever, attorney for the school during Wednesday's Zoom hearing. "They deny that these things happened, however ... whether or not these things happened is not the question before the court today."
Sever argued the charges were past the statute of limitations. She said there wasn't any evidence to show the spanking and physical abuse alleged in the 1980s was continuing today.
Doe 596's attorney Josh Peck said the issues should be put to a jury. He said the claim is still relevant because some of the same people accused of abuse 40 years ago continue to work at the school.
The Rev. Lawrence Brey was also accused of sexual abuse in the case. He lived at the school in the 1970s and 1980s and has since died. Robert and Bernice Sis have also died.
Peck argued the "kids are secondary" at the school and none of the staff interviewed knew about the state's mandatory reporter law that requires some professionals, including teachers and child care providers, to report allegations of child maltreatment.
"I think there's evidence for a jury to say that nothing's changed," Peck said. He also argued the school did not repair a roof in recent years that led to a rotted floor and caving in walls.
Sever called those arguments red herrings.
Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver covered up systemic abuse, silenced survivors for decades, lawsuit claims
Archdiocese hopes 'publicity' will help give survivors 'confidence to come forward;
get the help they deserve'
Rhianna Schmunk · CBC News
A candleholder is pictured inside the St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Vancouver on Thursday. A woman who attended the parish as a child has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Vancouver, claiming the district 'fostered a culture' of abuse and buried allegations of misconduct for decades. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)
A woman who claims she was assaulted as a child at a Catholic elementary school in Vancouver is suing the local archdiocese for perpetuating and covering up decades of alleged systemic abuse by priests, bishops and other members of its clergy, forcing survivors into silence in order to protect their own.
The proposed class-action lawsuit filed this week said the Archdiocese of Vancouver not only knew for years about allegations of systemic sexual, physical and psychological abuse, but "fostered a culture" of misconduct and actively buried complaints filed against the clergy.
"The Archdiocese was aware of the abuse and allowed the abuse to continue ... This was especially true in instances of sexual abuse," the claim reads.
The specific claims in the lawsuit have not been proven in court and the archdiocese has not filed a legal response. The Archdiocese of Vancouver has admitted clergymen at the institution were involved in sexual abuse.
The B.C. Supreme Court claim is believed to be the first class-action filed against the archdiocese since the district released its own report in November 2019, confirming widespread sexual abuse from its clergy dating back to the 1950s.
If the claim succeeds, the lead plaintiff's lawyer said, dozens of survivors could be entitled to compensation from the archdiocese.
"I suspect we're looking at least into the lower hundreds [for claimants], but hard to say for sure," said lawyer Angela Bespflug. "You're dealing with various parishes and then, obviously, parish-run schools ..."
History of abuse
The lead plaintiff, identified only by the initials K.S. in the court documents, said the priest in charge of St. Francis of Assisi School, Father Michael Conaghan, sexually assaulted her while she was a student at the school in the '80s. She was around 11 years old.
The alleged assault "included painful vaginal intercourse," according to the documents. She claimed the assault was followed by intimidation.
"Conaghan told the plaintiff not to tell anyone about the abuse, threatening to have her put into foster care if she did," the filing said.
St. Francis of Assisi Elementary School pictured in Vancouver on Thursday. The lead plaintiff in a proposed class-action lawsuit, K.S., claims she was sexually assaulted by the head priest while she was a student. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)
9 Priests Convicted
As part of its own report into sexual abuse released in 2019, the archdiocese publicly named nine clergymen who were criminally convicted of sexual abuse or who had civil lawsuits related to abuse settled against them.
Conaghan was not among those nine clergymen. He died at the age of 83 on Aug. 20 — four days before K.S.'s lawsuit was filed.
In a statement, the archdiocese confirmed K.S. reported her case to the office in early 2019. It said staff suggested she file a police report, encouraged her to seek counselling and checked on Conaghan's status within the ministry, "in order to protect other individuals."
By then, it said, Conaghan was "infirmed" and not active in the church. The archdiocese said Conaghan's latest order, or organization, "confirmed that there had been no complaints ever received about him, including the incidents ... reported in this court case."
"We cannot make any further comments about this case as it is now before the courts," a representative for the archdiocese wrote in an email. "But we hope the attendant publicity will help give any other victims/survivors the confidence to come forward and get the help they deserve."
Archdiocese followed Vatican playbook: lawsuit
The claim alleges the Archdiocese of Vancouver followed marching orders from the Vatican for years on how to bury allegations of abuse within its parish.
According to the court documents, there was a firm "policy of silence and secrecy around sexual abuse claims," said to have been intended to shield members of the clergy from punishment.
And the church from bad publicity!
St. Francis of Assisi Parish pictured in Vancouver on Thursday. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)
Children and adults who reported being abused by members of the clergy in Vancouver were, until the mid-'90s, "required to take oaths of secrecy when making complaints to the Archdiocese."
Concerned clergy members who tried to speak out about priests' behaviour were penalized, according to the claim, sometimes to the point of excommunication from the church.
Pope Francis abolished the church's decades-old policy of secrecy in December, making it acceptable — though not mandatory — to report claims of abuse to secular law enforcement officials. The Catholic Church has been rocked by abuse scandals for the better part of 20 years, since allegations of rampant misconduct were reported out of Boston in early 2002.
The Archdiocese of Vancouver said it commissioned its own 2019 report on clergy sexual abuse in order "to reach and help more victims/survivors, address past wrongs and to show more transparency."
And possibly, to limit the damage to those who had already been convicted?
K.S. reported her assault on Jan. 19, 2019.
"She was finally in a place where, I think, she was tired of being silent," said Bespflug. "What she really wants to obtain justice not only for herself, but for all the individuals like her who have lived in silence for so long."
The office of the Archdiocese of Vancouver is pictured in Vancouver in 2019. The archdiocese said in November it was aware of 36 cases of abuse by its clergy dating back to the 1950s, including 26 involving children. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
The lawsuit asks for extensive general, special, aggravated and punitive damages against the archdiocese for "reprehensible ... systematic" negligence.
Certifying a class-action lawsuit can take anywhere from months to years. Given the impacts of the pandemic on legal proceedings, it could be an even longer road ahead.
K.S. left the St. Francis of Assisi school and parish around a year after the assault. She has never gone back to the Catholic church.
The lawsuit said she remains "terrified of priests and the power of the Archdiocese."
Abused and frightened, orphanage boys in Indonesia cry for help
but the state, church fail them
By MARGARET S. ARITONANGEVI MARIANITHE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
A proverb says that it takes a village to raise a child but oftentimes, it takes only a person to ruin a child’s life and in Depok, West Java, a whole community of powerful adults seems to have abandoned children who were allegedly molested in a locally run Catholic orphanage.
Far away from their parents, with no one to look after them except for the head of the orphanage, known as Brother Angelo Ngalngola, the alleged molester himself, the children cried out for help. A collaborative team between The Jakarta Post and Tirto.id has uncovered facts that confirm that both the state and the Catholic Church heard the boys’ cries but washed their hands of them, allowing the suspect to walk free from police detention to celebrate Christmas, and a few months later set up a new orphanage and live among vulnerable boys again.
In September last year, Brother Angelo, the head of the Kencana Bejana Rohani orphanage, was arrested by Depok Police for the alleged sexual abuse of several boys. The police released him in December after they failed to complete the dossiers for the prosecutors’ office to bring the case to court. As of August, Angelo was still the head of a new orphanage, albeit having changed his name to Brother Geovanny Ngalngola and was living among more than 20 children under his care.
The state-sponsored National Child Protection Commission (KPAI) and the Catholic Church initially helped the abused children in September last year but later they abandoned the boys during the police investigation. The boys told the collaborative investigation team that they did not receive any legal assistance or psychological counselling from the state or the Catholic Church after Angelo was arrested.
Terror of the ‘night bat’
Lukas Lucky Ngalngola, or Brother Angelo as he styled himself, from the Blessed Sacrament Missionaries of Charity (BSMC) congregation, based in the Philippines, has been accused of sneaking into the boys’ room at night dressed in all-black attire and molesting several of them. The victims who spoke to Tirto.id on Aug. 12 and Aug. 22 this year, alleged that Angelo would kiss them and engage in oral sex. Some boys were asleep and woke to find themselves naked, others were half-awake, some were not molested but saw him entering in the dark, approach a sleeping friend and heard the sound of him molesting the boy. He became known to the boys as the kelelawar malam (night bat).
There is much more to this disturbing story at AsiaOne.
Former Armagh teacher and convicted paedophile faces return to jail
for litany of child sex abuse
Having been led to the living room, instead of using her hand to touch his private parts, a former victim clenched her fist and, with the weight of years of torment and nightmares behind it, she punched him in the face
by Paul Higgins, ArmaghI
A paedophile pensioner and former teacher has been told to expect a jail sentence after he admitted 30 charges of historic child sex abuse.
Appearing at Newry Crown Court via videolink from his solicitor’s office, 75-year-old Phelim McGuigan entered guilty pleas to a litany of offences committed against a single female victim.
These include 24 counts of indecent assault, five of committing acts of gross indecency with or towards a child and one of taking an indecent photograph of a child, all committed over a six year time span between September 1984 and September 1990.
Following his confessions, prosecuting counsel Geraldine McCullough asked for a further nine similar offences to be “left on the books” while defence barrister Justin Byrne agreed that he was seeking a pre-sentence probation report and medical report ahead of sentencing.
Mr Byrne was granted his further application for McGuigan to be freed on bail pending sentence but Judge Gordon Kerr QC warned that though being freed, the pensioner “may anticipate and expect that one of the most obvious options, given the nature of this indictment, will be an immediate custodial sentence so he should prepare himself for that”.
McGuigan, from Rock Lodge on the Ashgrove Road in Newry, already knows what is ahead of him having been jailed in 2014 for previous offences committed against his goddaughter and niece when she was a little girl.
The teacher, who taught maths at St Brigid’s High School in Armagh, had pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent assault and a further count of committing an act of gross indecency with or towards the girl on dates between January 1, 1985 and December 31 1990.
Bravely waiving her right to anonymity to speak out so that her creep of an uncle could be publicly named and shamed, she described then how she was repeatedly sexually abused between the ages of six to 11-years-old with McGuigan forcing her to touch his private parts and take part in bizarre sex games.
“One of the first times the abuse began when I was around six,” she recounted at the time.
“I came out of the bathroom, was grabbed by the hand by McGuigan and led down the hallway to the living room at the very end. He basically set me on his lap and made me touch him. I didn’t understand what had happened, but I knew I didn’t like it.
“He seemed like a magician, appearing out of nowhere, leading me by the hand toward the living room, where it would start all over again.
“One of the strangest things McGuigan did was to take me to his bedroom and hide me behind the wardrobe. He never abused me there but I would just stand in there for what seemed like an eternity before running from the room, sweat pouring off me.
“Looking back, I still don’t understand this behaviour, other than giving him a sense of power but I do know that it made me feel humiliated.
“McGuigan once took me to the bathroom and asked me what clothes he wanted me to take off. I began with shoes, socks, etc…anything to avoid the underwear but when he got close to being down to his underwear, I went into a panic and grappled with the bathroom door handle until I was free.”
The abuse she had to endure came to an abrupt end however when she decided to fight back, literally.
Having been led to the living room, instead of using her hand to touch his private parts, she clenched a fist and with the weight of years of torment and nightmares behind it, and punched him in the face.
“I walked away and that’s when the abuse ended,” recalled McGuigan’s victim.
“I just remember thinking ‘I just can’t go through this again’ and I had landed the punch before I had anytime to feel anything.
“McGuigan looked shocked, there were no words spoken, just a lot of eye contact and an eerie silence, before he let go of my hand and walked away.
“I think he knew at that stage that ‘the game was up’ so to speak. I walked in the opposite direction knowing the nightmare had ended.”
After being handed a 21-month sentence in December 2014 when an order to spend nine months in jail and the rest on licence, McGuigan spent that Christmas behind bars.
He faces that prospect again with Judge Kerr ordering the pervert to stand before him for sentencing on 21 September.
Ex-priest is accused of abusing 4 kids. Missouri woman says
church ignored her pleas
Harrison Keegan
Springfield News-Leader
For at least the past 16 years, Elizabeth Mangler has kept a file saved on her computer:
"FatherGaryCarr.doc."
Mangler, 59, had a feeling that some day a man would come forward and accuse Father Gary Carr of child sexual abuse. And she wanted people to know that in Monett, they tried to stop him.
"We did follow the best chain of command the Catholic Church has to offer," Mangler said. And she's got the receipts.
This year, four men have come forward and accused Carr, 66, of sexually abusing them when they were kids.
And while all of the abuse allegations involving Carr stem from before his time in Monett, Mangler said she felt like the church was slow to act on the alarming information she and others brought forward nearly 20 years ago.
A newspaper article announces the reassignment of Father Gary Carr to St. Francis DeSales Oratory in St. Louis.
Despite the concerns of Mangler and others, Carr worked for the Catholic Church for another 15 years after leaving Monett in 2004.
Mangler said she hopes that by speaking out now, the church will take notice and act more decisively next time a priest raises suspicion.
Parents limited contact with priest
Mangler was a volunteer parent who helped with technology at St. Lawrence Catholic School in the early 2000s when Carr was placed there as the school principal.
It wasn't long before Mangler and other parents noticed red flags — like Carr parading around an elementary school Mardi Gras party in nothing but a makeshift diaper or wrestling shirtless with a group of fifth-grade boys.
Mangler said as parents at the school started trying to limit their children's contact with Carr, she started taking notes.
When something concerning happened, Mangler wrote it down. And when she met with Carr's bosses or sent them letters, she kept track of that, too.
"I knew if we didn’t write something down, we would forget," Mangler said.
Over the course of Carr's three years in Monett, Mangler said rumors swirled of inappropriate behavior.
As far as what she witnessed firsthand, Mangler said one day a student came running into the computer lab yelling something to the effect of "He’s a pedophile, get him away from me" as Carr followed behind. Mangler also said she remembered taking a phone call from the leaders of a boy home in Verona saying something had happened when Carr went there to drop off donated clothes, and he was no longer allowed on their property.
According to Mangler's notes, she brought up these issues and others in talks with the school board president, the St. Lawrence parish priest, the diocesan superintendent and a monsignor. She also sent a letter to her parish priest that was purportedly passed on to the bishop at the time.
"Our priest knew, the next priest knew, the bishop knew, the next bishop knew," Mangler said. "They knew this was going on."
But there was no noticeable action from the diocese while Carr was in Monett, Mangler said.
There is much more to this story at The Springfield News-Leader, including a list of places where Carr worked.
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