Month: December 2011

Authorities in the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland were slow or did nothing to notify civil authorities and the Vatican of hundreds of allegations of clerical child sexual abuse over several decades, according to independent audits of six dioceses published simultaneously on Wednesday.

The church-sponsored National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland found allegations of widespread abuse in every diocese it investigated, saying that 85 priests in the six dioceses had been accused of 164 sexual assaults on children since 1975, but that only 8 were convicted. Of the 41 still alive, 30 no longer serve as priests.

Many victims, police investigators and advocates dismissed the report as another whitewash by the church. One victim, Martin Gallagher, said on RTE, the national broadcaster, that it was not “worth the paper it’s written on.”

The audits cover the Archdiocese of Tuam and the Dioceses of Raphoe, Derry, Dromore, Kilmore, and Ardagh and Clonmacnois. Most attention focused on the northwestern rural Diocese of Raphoe, where a notorious pedophile priest, the Rev. Eugene Greene, was based.

Father Greene was allowed to serve in eight parishes during 25 years of abuse he inflicted on children. In 2000, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to 41 charges of sexual assault against 26 victims from 1962 to 1985. He was released in 2008.

In the case of Raphoe, the church panel concluded that successive bishops — including the present one, Bishop Philip Boyce — had displayed “significant errors of judgment.”

“Too much emphasis was placed on the situation of the accused priest and too little on the needs of their complainants,” the report found. “Judgments were clouded, due to the presenting problem being for example, alcohol abuse and an inability to hear the concerns about abuse of children, through that presenting problem. More attention should have been given to ensuring that preventative actions were taken quickly when concerns came to light.”

In a written statement issued after the publication of the audit, Bishop Boyce acknowledged “very poor judgments and mistakes” and apologized for them.

“There were horrific acts of abuse of children by individual priests that should never have happened, and if suspected should have been dealt with immediately in the appropriate manner,” he said. “Insufficient emphasis was placed on the needs of victims, often in the misguided attempt to protect the reputation of the church.”

Although the board, under the stewardship of its chief executive, Ian Elliott, concluded that all of the dioceses concerned were now carrying out stringent child protection measures, the audits have been criticized for failing to specify the past errors referenced in the reports and, in large part, those responsible for them.

For instance, the audits failed to uncover any documents in diocesan files pertaining to Father Greene, something that Bishop Boyce described as “incredible.”

“It is hard to credit that no word was passed on to the authorities, and it was probably the culture of the time that people didn’t speak to anyone,” he said.

A former police detective who investigated Father Greene rejected this explanation and described the Raphoe report as “a whitewash and an insult to victims.”

The former detective, Martin Ridge, was quoted in The Donegal Democrat, a local newspaper, as saying, “What we witnessed in west Donegal was just carnage that you wouldn’t ascribe to any civilized society.”

Maeve Lewis, executive director of a victims’ advocacy group, One in Four, welcomed the audits’ findings of significant progress in “putting in place child protection measures in the six dioceses.” But she remained concerned about “the number of priests against whom allegations have been made who are still in ministry.”

The Catholic Church in Ireland has been devastated in recent years after reports detailed decades of clerical sexual abuse of children.

Complete Article HERE!

Fourteen Delaware men who said they were sexually assaulted as children have reached a $7 million settlement with three Catholic church institutions, sparked by the state’s sexual abuse law, two of the victims announced on Thursday.

The settlement includes nine alleged victims of former Capuchin Friar Paul Daleo and five victims of former St. Edmond’s Academy lay teacher and wrestling coach John Fleming, the victims said. Daleo also worked at Saint Edmond’s Academy in Wilmington, Delaware.

Matthias Conaty and Jeff Rose, who say they were abused in the late 1970s and early 1980s, announced the settlement outside the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington.

In February, the diocese paid a $77.4 million settlement to 146 victims of sexual abuse, forcing it to declare bankruptcy.

“It’s been a painful day, but in some ways it’s a day of triumph,” Conaty, 43, who wore a chain around his neck with a picture of himself from the period of abuse. “The voice I couldn’t use as a little boy was found.”

Former Capuchin Daleo told Conaty he loved him and subjected him to “every form of abuse,” Conaty said.

No one answered the telephone at Daleo’s home in Jersey City, New Jersey. Reached at his home in Pennsylvania, former lay teacher Fleming asked how much money the case was settled for and declined to comment further.

During the news conference Rose, 42, who says Fleming abused him in 1983, felt ill and had to be aided by others.

“It’s been pretty emotional,” he said. “I’ve kept it to myself for a long time.”

Child abuse accusations have rocked the Catholic Church in the United States since 2002, and the church has paid out some $2 billion in settlements to victims.

In addition to Wilmington, Delaware several other Catholic dioceses have filed for bankruptcy because of sexual abuse claims including Portland, Oregon, Milwaukee, San Diego, Spokane, Washington and Davenport, Iowa.

According to the Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests, an advocacy group, the settlement the Delaware settlement reached on Thursday was reached with institutions that hired and supervised the predators.

The institutions are New Jersey-based Capuchin Franciscan Province of the Sacred Stigmata of St. Francis, St. Edmond’s and the order that runs it, the Brothers of the Holy Cross of the Eastern Province of the United States of America Inc.

Conaty, who works in marketing, founded Child Victims Voice, an advocacy organization, and encouraged Delaware legislators to adopt the Child Victim’s Act of 2007.

The law eliminated the civil statute of limitations on sex abuse and allows a two-year window to file civil suits for victims for whom the statute of limitations had passed, which include the 14 men.

A similar window to report sexual abuse is being considered in other states, including Pennsylvania, where the Penn State scandal will hopefully influence its passing, Conaty said.

At Penn State, Jerry Sandusky, longtime former assistant to legendary football coach Joe Paterno, has been charged with sexually abusing eight boys over more than a decade. The case forced the firing of Paterno and the university president.

Under this settlement, the Capuchins and Saint Edmond’s must release documents outlining the “black-and-white, gory details” of the abuse and any cover-up, Conaty said.

James Green, an attorney for Saint Edmond’s, said complaints against Fleming in 1984 led to his termination. Fleming is now a registered sex offender.

Daleo left the school around the same time and there have been no allegations of abuse since then, Green said.

“Two people have ever been complained about in the history of Saint Edmond’s — Daleo and Fleming,” Green said in a telephone interview.

“There will be nothing else” in the documents, he added.

Nick Mormando, the newly elected provincial minister for the Capuchins, said by telephone: “I apologize to the victims and families that went through a lot of pain and suffering. I hope this brings peace.”

Calls to the Brothers of the Holy Cross were not returned.

Complete Article HERE!