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Cardinal Blase Cupich is still keeping secrets on child sex abuse by order priests
Cardinal Blase Cupich is now including members of Catholic religious orders in the Archdiocese of Chicago’s online list of clerics deemed to have been credibly accused of child sex abuse. But there are omissions and inconsistencies in what’s been added. Ashlee Rezin / Chicago Sun-Times
By Robert Herguth | Chicago Sun-Times
Oct. 22, 6 a.m. CT
Several years after Cardinal Blase Cupich began cracking down on religious orders to report their sexually abusive clergy members who preyed on minors, the Archdiocese of Chicago has added dozens of order priests to its online posting of predatory clergy.
But Cupich is still keeping secrets on clergy sex abuse of minors, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.
Even though the archdiocese instantly nearly doubled the size of its list of clergy deemed to have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children, there are significant gaps in what’s been added.
Those include the omissions of some clergy members whose orders deemed them to have molested children or who were the subject of lawsuits over predatory sexual acts that church officials settled. Among them:
The Rev. John Baptist Ormechea, a priest from the Passionists order who was deemed by church authorities to have molested children while assigned to Immaculate Conception Church on the Far Northwest Side between the late 1970s and the late 1980s. The order and the archdiocese were both sued over his misconduct and settled cases.
Immaculate Conception Church at Talcott and Harlem avenues north of the Kennedy Expressway and the Rev. John Baptist Ormechea (inset), who was assigned there from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. Robert Herguth / Chicago Sun-Times, Passionists
The Rev. Terence Fitzmaurice, a Benedictine priest accused of molesting children while assigned to a Pilsen parish. Provided to the Chicago Sun-Times
The Rev. Donald McGuire, a now-deceased Jesuit priest who worked at Loyola Academy in Wilmette whose order says the “range of his abuse spanned multiple incidents over multiple years at multiple locations.”
The Rev. Donald McGuire, a serial sex abuser who was part of the Jesuit religious order and served primarily in the Chicago area, including working at Loyola Academy in Wilmette. Wisconsin Department of Corrections Sex Offender Registration
There is much more on this article at WBEZ Chicago
Former priest arrested again, charged with possessing child sex abuse videos
by Rayna McGlynn
Tuesday, October 25th 2022
Timchak | Photo Credit: PSP Megan's Law Website
LUZERNE, LUZERNE CO, (WOLF) — A former priest was arrested Monday after allegedly downloading videos of children engaged in sex acts.
According to the affidavit, 56-year-old Robert Michael Timchak Jr., a registered sex offender, told detectives that he downloaded the videos from websites associated with pornography.
One video Timchak downloaded involved a boy, according to court records.
Officials say Timchak was a priest in the Diocese of Scranton and also served at several churches and parochial schools in the region in the 1990s and 2000s.
He was initially arrested in Pike County where he was an assistant pastor at St. Vincent de Paul, Milford, and St. John Neumann, Lord’s Valley, in 2009.
At the time, State Police at Blooming Grove found child sexual abuse materials on Timchak’s computers he attempted to delete, according to previous reports.
Timchak pled guilty to sexual abuse of children and was sentenced to 6 to 72 months in state prison. He was also ordered to register his address as a sex offender for 10 years. He was released in June 2012.
For his latest arrest, county detectives say they received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that was linked to Timchak’s email. The tip alleged that the email was used to download two videos of child sex abuse materials.
When speaking with detectives, Timchak admitted to visiting pornography websites but said his preferred age is 18 years old.
“He stated that he likes ‘young’ but legal,” detectives stated in court records supporting Timchak’s charges.
Timchak was arraigned on four counts of dissemination of photos or films of children involved in sex acts, two counts of criminal use of a communication facility, and a single count of child pornography.
He was jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $20,000 bail.
Luzerne Co., Pa
Ottawa reviewing student-on-student abuse cases at St. Anne's residential school
Re-examination recommended by 2021 court-ordered review
Olivia Stefanovich ·
CBC News ·
Posted: Oct 25, 2022 4:00 AM ET |
St. Anne's Indian Residential School, which was run by the Roman Catholic Church in Fort Albany, Ont., was infamous for physical and sexual abuse. (Algoma University/Edmund Metatabwin collection)
Ottawa is finally moving almost a year later on a court's call for a review of 11 cases of student-on-student abuse at one of Canada's most notorious residential schools, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller says.
The federal government is looking at compensation claims from 11 survivors of the former St. Anne's Indian Residential School, which was run by the Roman Catholic Church from 1906 until 1976 in Fort Albany First Nation along Ontario's James Bay Coast.
"There is, for a very limited group of survivors, a potential of re-examination," Miller told CBC News.
Miller said the government would soon ask the court to appoint another independent official to review the 11 cases and recommend how they should be handled.
Evelyn Korkmaz, who attended St. Anne's from 1969 to 1972, said Miller should tell claimants whether their claims are among the 11 being reviewed.
"He's just putting like a piece of cookie out there for us to grab and say, 'OK, we're going to be satisfied with that,'" Korkmaz said.
"But there's more to this. Somebody needs to hold the government accountable for not complying with court orders. What good are court orders if you disregard them?"
Evelyn Korkmaz attended St. Anne’s Indian Residential School between 1969 and 1972.
(Submitted by Evelyn Korkmaz; Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)
The 11 cases initially were identified by an independent, court-appointed official, who examined 427 St. Anne's cases last year that were heard before the federal government turned over thousands of pages of police and court records to the residential school compensation process in 2014-2015.
For roughly the first seven years of the residential school compensation process, the federal government withheld records from an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigation in the 1990s into historical abuse at St. Anne's.
The court-appointed official released a report in December 2021 concluding that the outcome of the 11 compensation cases, which dealt with student-on-student abuse, could have been affected by the information in those withheld records.
Miller 'open' to meeting with St. Anne's survivors again
The issue flared up in question period on Monday when NDP MP Charlie Angus — whose riding of Timmins–James Bay includes the former St. Anne's institution — demanded that Miller "look" at him as he pressed for the government to enter into mediation with survivors.
Miller responded by saying he's asked his department to re-examine the 11 cases.
The Supreme Court of Canada rejected an appeal from St. Anne's survivors last Thursday in the years-long legal battle over Ottawa withholding thousands of OPP documents containing critical evidence from compensation claim hearings.
Speaker Anthony Rota calls out NDP MP Charlie Angus for demanding that Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller look at him during an exchange about St. Anne's residential school survivors.
Miller said the high court's decision clears the way for the government to complete the review of the 11 outstanding cases.
"The whole compensation process, no matter how you look at it, doesn't fully replace or compensate people for the immeasurable harm that they suffered," Miller said.
"While the particular legal recourse has been exhausted, we'll always be there."
Miller also said he had a "frank" conversation with some St. Anne's survivors over Zoom a few months before they filed their leave to appeal with the top court. He said his "door is always open" for a follow-up meeting.
"It really is up to them," he said.
Edmund Metatawabin, another St. Anne's survivor, called the review a "first step" toward acknowledging the damage that survivors of this particular abuse endured.
"The young people suffered abuse and, through time, they were taught this behaviour," Metatawabin said.
"Minister Miller is acknowledging the fact that this has happened in residential school."
The court-ordered report that recommended the federal government review those 11 case files was released by Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell, one of nine judges who oversaw the residential school settlement agreement.
Perell appointed retired justice Ian Pitfield to conduct the review. It concluded that Ottawa's refusal to release OPP and court documents for the first seven months of the residential school compensation process probably did not change the outcome for most of the 427 survivors.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said he is open to meeting with survivors of the former St. Anne's Indian Residential School. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
But Pitfield concluded a review would make a difference for those 11 cases involving allegations of student-on-student abuse.
"There is little or nothing to indicate that on the claims where evidence of knowledge was required to prove a student-on-student assault claim, either the claimant or counsel had attempted to work with Canada to develop admissions," Pitfield's 2021 report said.
"I recommend that the claims that were dismissed because of lack of knowledge should be reviewed against any resulting admissions and appropriate awards made where the student-on-student abuse was not subsumed by other more serious claims of sexual abuse."
Survivors seeking compensation for student-on-student abuse have to show that school officials knew or should have known that abuse was taking place.
Edmund Metatawabin, a survivor of St. Anne's Indian Residential School, called the review a first step to recognizing the pain that survivors of student-on-student abuse endured. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
The OPP records from that 1990s investigation showed that abuse was rampant at St. Anne's.
"The government is not transparent," Korkmaz said.
"We have to hold them accountable."
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