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In England and Wales, Catholic Church names Muslim barrister
to lead child protection efforts
By CNA Staff
London, England, May 22, 2021 / 15:01 pm
Nazir Afzal, a prestigious Muslim barrister with a history of prosecuting gangs engaged in sexual abuse and grooming, is the head of the latest effort by the Catholic Church in England and Wales to ensure better prevention of sexual abuse of children and to address ongoing allegations in all Catholic institutions and groups.
"The Catholic Church has recognized the failures of the past and the need to put things right,” said Afzal, the new chair of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency. “This is what attracted me to the role.”
“To make a difference, you have to act differently. It usually takes great courage to do so,” Afzal, said May 17. “When I helped deliver justice to thousands of victims of abuse, I realized that they were the most courageous of all.”
Afzal’s previous roles include chief crown prosecutor for northwest England and chief executive of the Police and Crime Commissioners.
He prosecuted nine men who were part of a sex trafficking ring known as the Rochdale grooming gang. They were found guilty of 21 counts of sexual abuse. They abused girls as young as 13 between 2008 and 2010. Their grooming methods included targeting vulnerable girls with attention, often focusing on runaways or girls in social services. The gang would then ply them with alcohol, rape them, and drive them around the north of England.
The barrister also prosecuted Stuart Hall, a former television presenter convicted of several offenses against children.
Citing his last three decades responding to crimes in every community and institution, Afzal said he had learned that “victims have been failed by every institution who were responsible for safeguarding them.”
“I also understood how reputation was thought more important than exposing those who abuse. Nowhere was safe. Victims were not only abused by perpetrators but then again by those who should have protected them and acted to stop it. The effects of abuse are lifelong and often undetected with victims beset by feelings of shame, guilt and fear. That had to change.”
Vincent Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, said Afzal’s appointment is “a pivotal moment.” The cardinal said he has “a proven reputation for being a champion of victims and survivors of abuse in many different institutions and settings.”
“He had the experience required to make the establishment of the safeguarding agency a truly significant step,” said Cardinal Nichols. “Mr. Afzal’s firm and proven conviction that public confidence is created by clear, just and well-scrutinized processes will also be at the heart of the contribution he will make.”
The Catholic Safeguarding Project’s announcement included a joint statement from two members of Catholic Survivors England who had participated in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse.
They said they were “very encouraged by his track record with victims and survivors.”
“A seismic shift in culture is needed within the Church’s safeguarding processes and its interaction with victims and survivors,” he said. “We hope that Nazir and the new board will be able to make the changes which are so urgently needed.”
I agree completely, except I see Jesus standing outside the doors of the Catholic Church, knocking loud and clear. I see tears falling from His face as the church turns to a Muslim to rescue it. No criticism here for QC Afzal, he has done wonderful things and appears to be a great choice for the job. I just wish that this process would cause Catholic leaders to turn to Christ for repentance and redemption, but that doesn't appear to be happening.
DA: ‘Significant development’ in 1972 slaying of altar boy
Danny Croteau to close case
Updated 8:57 PM; Today
By Ray Kelly | MassLive
Danny Croteau, a 13-year-old altar boy from Springfield, was found dead on April 15, 1972 along the Chicopee River banks in Chicopee Falls. The case remained unsolved for decades.
SPRINGFIELD — Forty-nine years after 13-year-old altar boy Danny Croteau was left for dead on the banks of the Chicopee River, investigators appear ready to close the book on his killing.
Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni will announce Monday a “significant development” in the 1972 case in which there has been only one suspect acknowledged over the course of almost a half century of investigation — defrocked Catholic priest and admitted child molester Richard R. Lavigne, who died last week at the age of 80.
Gullini declined comment Sunday on the development, but said it “will result in closure of the case.”
Croteau’s body, his face and head battered by a blunt instrument, was found on April 15, 1972 along the river banks under the Robinson Bridge in Chicopee Falls. An autopsy showed he died of fractures of the skull and lacerations of the brain.
In the nearly 50 years since his murder, there have been allegations that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, then led by Bishop Christopher J. Weldon, and church allies shielded Lavigne from prosecution. In the past year, the diocese has deemed credible reports that Weldon was himself a child molester.
Croteau was an altar boy at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Springfield, where Lavigne served as assistant pastor.
Witness statements and case files, unsealed by a state Supreme Judicial Court ruling in 2004, revealed that during a youth camping trip to Goshen years before the killing, Croteau threatened to expose Lavigne as his sexual abuser, repeatedly saying, “I’ll tell… ! I’ll tell… !”
Lavigne was observed at the crime scene after Croteau’s body was found. His comments immediately drew police suspicions. “If a stone was used and thrown in the river, would the blood still be on it?” Lavigne asked one of the investigators at the scene.
The Rev. Richard R. Lavigne is seen here leaving St. Marys Church in Chicopee on Nov. 4, 2002.
He was defrocked by the Vatican a year later. (The Republican file photo)
Between 1966 and 1991, Lavigne was moved by the Springfield diocese to seven different parishes in the four western counties it includes. He was pastor at St. Joseph’s Church in Shelburne Falls when he was arrested and expected to face five separate trials involving five alleged victims of sexual abuse.
However, shortly before one trial was set to begin on June 25, 1992, Lavigne, who had denied all allegations, pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child that were said to have occurred in the 1980s and within the statute of limitations.
“I am sorry for the harm I have caused (the victims), and I ask for their forgiveness,” Lavigne stated in court to the two boys he violated. “As far as other accusers: If I have harmed them in any way, I ask for their forgiveness.”
As part of the arrangement struck in the judge’s chamber, the prosecutors agreed to drop two child-rape charges and eight charges of molestation and not to probe any other cases they knew about at the time.
Judge Guy Volterra declined to go with the recommendation of six months in jail, blaming the media for giving the case more attention than he felt it deserved. He sentenced Lavigne to 10 years’ probation and seven months in a church-run treatment facility with no jail time unless he violated probation, which ran into 2002. (The state Sex Offender Registry Board classified Lavigne as a sex offender with a high risk to offend again in 2003.)
The diocese had removed Lavigne from ministry at the time of his arrest. He would not be defrocked until a year after his probationary term ended.
In 1993, a day after Lavigne was released from St. Luke’s Institute in Maryland, 11 alleged victims, including one child, two nephews of the late District Attorney Matthew Ryan Jr. who had handled the investigation into the Croteau murder, and a cousin of the priest, came forward to claim Lavigne molested them.
The alleged molestations were said to have taken place between 1967 and 1990 and to have occurred at a Goshen camp, in Arizona, a Canadian motel, the Chicopee home of Lavigne’s parents, rectories in Springfield and Shelburne and inside St. Catherine of Siena Church.
In 1994, the diocese paid $1.4 million in the settlement of suits with 17 of Lavigne’s alleged victims.
Lavigne was publicly identified as a suspect in Croteau’s death in 1994 when then Hampden District Attorney William M. Bennett initiated an effort to link Lavigne to the murder through DNA testing. The effort failed, and Bennett announced the case was closed.
In May 2004, the diocese reported it was ending financial support to Lavigne, who had been defrocked by the Vatican in November 2003.
Croteau’s parents, Carl and Bernice Croteau, died in 2010 and 2016, respectively, waiting for their son’s murder to be solved. In an interview two years before his passing, Danny Croteau’s father told a reporter, “We just finally want answers.”
Child sex abuse survivors, supporters pressure Pa. Senate leader Kim Ward to bring bill to vote
Deb Erdley, Trib Live
| Wednesday, May 26, 2021 7:30 p.m.
Survivors of clergy child sexual abuse turned up the heat this week on state Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, depositing a pouch of silver coins on the Hempfield Republican’s desk and labeling her a “Judas.”
Ward’s failure to schedule a Senate vote on a bill that would provide a day in court for child sexual abuse survivors whose cases fall outside the Pennsylvania statute of limitations is a bitter betrayal, survivors said. They likened it to the 30-piece bounty that disciple Judas Iscariot accepted before double-crossing Jesus Christ with a kiss at (after) the Last Supper, according to the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible.
Ward, a devout Catholic, insisted she shares the survivors’ concerns and denied she is stalling. She said she is concerned the bill might not pass constitutional muster.
Tensions about the future of the so-called window of opportunity legislation, which passed the full House and then the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, grew Wednesday. That day, the Pennsylvania Inspector General released an investigation of the Department of State’s failure to advertise a constitutional amendment on the issue in time for the May 18 primary. The amendment, had it passed, would have provided survivors an opportunity to take their cases to court.
The Inspector General found no intentional wrongdoing. Rather, he concluded the Department of State lacked adequate training and procedures to ensure such measures are advertised in a timely fashion.
Now, it will take another two years before such an amendment can be placed on the ballot.
When they learned of the error last winter, state Reps. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, and Jim Gregory, R-Blair — a pair of abuse survivors who had collaborated on legislation on the issue — sponsored yet another bill that would have the same effect as amending the state constitution. The men say the Senate votes are there to pass, even with an endorsement from President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre County.
Time is of the essence in this battle, Gregory said. “Every day, more victims give up and die, and these abusers are still with us,” Gregory said. “I pushed forward with an alternative path (of legislation) at the encouragement of the president pro tempore. Pushing with the dual path (legislation and a constitutional amendment) is the answer to me. I can’t understand why it is not the answer for Ward.”
Rozzi has been promoting statute of limitation reforms for a decade and supported the constitutional amendment. He called Ward’s failure to schedule a vote on the bill “despicable.”
“She is just carrying the water for the Catholic Church,” Rozzi said.
Frustrations mount
On Tuesday, a group of survivors and advocates for the bill came away frustrated after a meeting with Ward in her Harrisburg office.
Debbie McIlmail, a mother from Montgomery County, lost her 26-year-old son to an overdose eight years ago — the night before his clergy sexual abuse complaint was scheduled to go to court. She said she and her husband, Mike, have been trying to talk with Ward for weeks. They were excited to finally get a meeting in her office.
They and a dozen others, including Johnstown native and abuse survivor Shaun Dougherty, were among those who attended.
“We decided in advance that we had one question for her. ‘Are you going to run the bill? Yes or no?,’ ” McIlmail said. “When she started out saying that she had to explain, we decided to walk out. My husband, who had small pack of silver coins, laid them on her table and said, ‘This is for you, Judas, you’re betraying us.’ ”
Dougherty said he is concerned the bill began to languish in the Senate just days after Long Nyquist, the powerful lobbying firm that represents the Pennsylvania Conference of Bishops, was among the hosts of a reception for Ward at the Harrisburg Hilton.
“I was in Harrisburg that day. I wasn’t invited (to the fundraiser), but I saw it on the schedule. It was on the public events schedule and there for everyone to see. It said, ‘Fundraising reception for Senator Kim Ward, hosts: Long and Nyquist.’ So, I sat in the lobby and watched as a ‘who’s who’ of Republican politics in Pennsylvania checked in,” Dougherty said.
Asked about the timing of the reception and the fundraiser, Ward spokeswoman Erica Clayton Wright said the bill was never on the schedule.
She declined to comment on any specific meetings, saying only that Ward had met and talked with many survivors. But she also had been approached by “disrespectful victims that have orchestrated political theater stunts and thrown props at the senator during their meeting,” Clayton Wright added.
“Additionally, they have issued false press releases and started rumors about fundraising events. All of these things are inaccurate and unsubstantiated,” she said. “Additionally, they have even gone as far as calling her a ‘coward, pedophile, grandmother and mother.’ ”
Clayton Wright dismissed claims that Ward is stalling action on the bill. She reiterated her concerns that the pending legislation might not pass constitutional muster and could open the door to lawsuits against a variety of institutions, including public schools.
“This is a very important and delicate issue,” Clayton Wright wrote in an email. “An issue we approach with great compassion and empathy. In fact, I would go as far as to say I think the victims and elected officials have a common goal.
“We are of the opinion that HB 951 carries with it constitutional consequences and has raised legal concerns,” she continued. “These concerns have never been deliberated in previous sessions because we were on the constitutional amendment path, and they deserve consideration by the Pennsylvania Senate.”
She did not say whether Ward plans to schedule any kind of hearings or a vote on the bill. She said Ward is working with Child USA and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape to explore case law on the issue.
Marci Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania law professor and the founder of Child USA, took issue with that. Hamilton, who has testified in multiple states and several foreign countries, said it is high time for the Pennsylvania Legislature to act.
A spokesman for SNAP, a national organization for clergy abuse survivors, added his group’s voice to the appeal.
“We again urge Senator Ward and President Pro Tempore of the Senate Jake Corman to allow this piece of legislation to make amends for the devastating mistake that kept the amendment off the ballot this month and which the Senate refused to correct earlier,” SNAP spokesman Mike McDonnell said.
Former U.P. priest sentenced to 8-15 years for sex abuse
Updated 4:02 PM;
By Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com
ONTONAGON COUNTY, MI – A former Upper Peninsula priest sat in court this week and heard from his victims before receiving a sentence of 8-15 years in prison for sexual abuse he committed in the 1980s.
Gary Jacobs, 75, pleaded guilty in Ontonagon County last month to three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in a plea bargain that dropped several other sex abuse charges.
He was sentenced Tuesday, May 25, by Judge Michael Pope in Ontonagon County Circuit Court to 8-15 years on each count, including the second-degree charge, which will be served concurrently, The Daily Mining Gazette reports. Jacobs’ sentence hearing served as a platform for his victims – now in their 50s and 60s – to speak.
One victim described “a life sentence of scars and painful memories,” the report said. Several victims described a situation in which Jacobs befriended their parents, which made some fearful of telling their parents about the abuse. Others told their parents but weren’t believed.
“Who would I be if I hadn’t been imprisoned for life as a child?” one victim said. “I would be a totally different man than I am today. Gary made sure that man never existed. He deserves far more than 15 years in prison for what he’s done. I’ve already endured more than 40.”
In addition to the prison sentence, Jacobs will be a lifetime registered sex offender, will have lifetime electronic monitoring and is required to attend sex offender counseling. He received credit for 455 days served in jail.
Prior to the plea agreement, Jacobs was facing four separate sexual abuse cases in Ontonagon County. The agreement required that he plead guilty to the highest charge in each case. Jacobs faces a fifth case in neighboring Dickinson County.
The charges in the five cases involved alleged sexual assaults between 1981 and 1984 in Ontonagon County and in early 1984 in Dickinson County when Jacobs worked for the Catholic Diocese of Marquette. Several charges involved a child between 13 and 16 and one charge involved a child younger than 13.
In court Tuesday, Jacobs said he has been a recovering alcoholic since 1988. He is now in a monogamous relationship with his husband and continues to work through his own past as an abused child, the newspaper reports.
“I am Gary Jacobs and I alone am to blame … I hope someday, those of you who I have harmed can find forgiveness in your hearts and peace in your hearts as well,” he said.
As of October, a two-year investigation into sexual abuse in Michigan’s Catholic churches had identified 454 accused priests and 811 victims, and led to charges against 11 clergymen. Aside from Jacobs, two other priests have been convicted thus far; their sentences were for 60 and 45 days in jail.
60 and 45 days - wow! That's like a vacation!
Ontonagon Co., Mi
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