Minnesota Priest’s Memo Says Vatican Ambassador Tried to Stifle Sex Abuse Inquiry

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Jeff Anderson, a lawyer for victims of clergy abuse, with a photo of Archbishop John C. Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Jeff Anderson, a lawyer for victims of clergy abuse, with a photo of Archbishop John C. Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Update: This article has been revised to include a response from the Vatican that was received after the article’s initial publication.< The Vatican’s former ambassador to the United States quashed an independent investigation in 2014 into sexual and possible criminal misconduct by Archbishop John C. Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis and ordered church officials to destroy a letter they wrote to him protesting the decision, according to a memo made public on Wednesday. The detailed memo was written by an outraged priest, the Rev. Dan Griffith, who was working in the top ranks of the archdiocese and was the liaison to the lawyers conducting the inquiry. He wrote that the ambassador’s order to call off the investigation and destroy evidence amounted to “a good old fashioned cover-up to preserve power and avoid scandal.”

The document offers a grave indictment of the conduct of the Vatican’s ambassador, and will probably put pressure on Pope Francis to discipline him and Archbishop Nienstedt. The former ambassador, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, served as Pope Francis’ representative to the church until he retired in April.

Archbishop Nienstedt stepped down as leader of the Twin Cities archdiocese last year amid lawsuits and criminal inquiries into his handling of priests accused of sexually abusing children. But he remains an archbishop in good standing, and recently celebrated Mass at a California retreat for prominent Catholics.

With sexual abuse victims clamoring for Francis to take action against negligent bishops, the pope recently announced that an array of Vatican departments should keep bishops accountable.

“All roads of concealment and cover-up lead to Rome,” said Jeff Anderson, a lawyer who represents 350 suspected victims of clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul. He spoke at a news conference on Wednesday in which he made the memo public.

This memo, and many other documents, were made public Wednesday as the result of a legal agreement between the archdiocese and the Ramsey County attorney, John Choi.

Mr. Choi agreed to dismiss the criminal case against the archdiocese in exchange for its admission that it failed to protect three children from sexual abuse by a priest, Curtis Wehmeyer. The archdiocese and the county attorney had reached a civil settlement in December, but on Wednesday it was amended to say, “The Archdiocese failed to keep the safety and well-being of these three children ahead of protecting the interests of Curtis Wehmeyer and the Archdiocese.”

Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda, who replaced Archbishop Nienstedt last year, apologized in a letter on Wednesday, and said: “I know that words alone are not enough. We must do better.”

The archdiocese agreed to an additional year of oversight of its child protection efforts by the county attorney’s office and the court, until the year 2020.

Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, pleaded guilty in 2012 to molesting two children. Credit
Curtis Wehmeyer, a former priest in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, pleaded guilty in 2012 to molesting two children. Credit

In 2012, Father Wehmeyer pleaded guilty to child molestation and possessing child pornography, and it later emerged that diocesan officials had known for years of concerns about his sexual conduct. But he was not only retained, he was promoted, in 2009, to pastor of a parish.

The case brought new scrutiny to the archdiocese and prompted other people to come forward with abuse allegations. And it led indirectly to the archdiocese’s commissioning an inquiry of its own leader, Archbishop Nienstedt.

Father Griffith’s startlingly frank 11-page memo on the history of that investigation was addressed to two bishops in the diocese: Lee A. Piché and Andrew H. Cozzens. In a brief statement released Wednesday, Father Griffith said: “My memo speaks for itself. I stand by it.” He also said he had confidence in Archbishop Hebda.

The memo states that after the investigation uncovered embarrassing evidence about the archbishop, the pope’s representative in Washington ordered it cut short. It says that when bishops sent a letter objecting to that decision, the nuncio told them to destroy the letter. Father Griffith said in his memo that “destruction of evidence is a crime under federal law and state law.”

In February 2014, the archdiocese hired an outside law firm, Greene Espel, to investigate Archbishop Nienstedt. The existence of the investigation did not become public until July 2014, after it ended, and the memo was written a few days later.

The purpose of the inquiry, the memo said, was to investigate allegations of sex and sexual harassment by the archbishop, primarily with other priests or seminarians. But it was also to look into what the memo depicts as a close relationship with Father Wehmeyer, “which may have affected his judgment regarding Wehmeyer’s past misconduct.”

“Given the significant judgment errors in the Wehmeyer case, I believed this to be one of the most serious issues of the investigation, a conclusion also reached by our investigators,” the memo says.

The Greene Espel lawyers took affidavits from 11 credible witnesses who had known the archbishop, the memo said, containing evidence of “sexual misconduct; sexual harassment; reprisals in response to the rejection of unwelcome advances.” The lawyers “stated they had at least 24 more leads to pursue.”

The memo also said that many of the witnesses mentioned that Archbishop Nienstedt may have had sexual relations with a Swiss Guardsman in Rome.

Efforts to reach Archbishop Nienstedt were unsuccessful.

Bishops Piché and Cozzens, with Archbishop Nienstedt, traveled to Washington in April 2014 to discuss the initial findings with the papal nuncio, Archbishop Viganò. The memo offers the first account of what took place in that meeting to be made public, albeit secondhand, because the memo’s author was not present. The nuncio “ordered you to have the lawyers quickly interview Archbishop Nienstedt and wrap up the investigation,” it says. “The nuncio said that the lawyers were not to pursue any further leads.”

A spokesman for the Vatican, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said in an interview on Thursday, “This is a very complex issue and we need more information before we can make any comment.”

Father Lombardi said it was too soon to know whether the new Vatican protocols for judging bishops accused of negligence would apply to Archbishops Viganò or Nienstedt.

Child sexual-abuse victims and their supporters protest outside Basilica in Philadelphia

John-Michael Delaney, outspoken clergy sex-abuse victim, was supposed to meet with Archbishop Charles Chaput on Monday. Instead, state Rep. Mark Rozzi (left) flew him to Philadelphia to participate in a protest after that meeting was canceled. Behind Delaney stands sexual-abuse victim Kristen Pfautz Woolley.
John-Michael Delaney, outspoken clergy sex-abuse victim, was supposed to meet with Archbishop Charles Chaput on Monday. Instead, state Rep. Mark Rozzi (left) flew him to Philadelphia to participate in a protest after that meeting was canceled. Behind Delaney stands sexual-abuse victim Kristen Pfautz Woolley.

By Brian Hickey

A victim’s canceled meeting with Philadelphia archbishop prompts emotional rally outside cathedral

 
Monday could have been the day that clergy sex-abuse victim John-Michael Delaney finally got decades of frustration off his chest during a private meeting with Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput.

But in the days since Delaney told PhillyVoice of that meeting – something he’d avoided for decades on account of “not being able to be in the same room as a priest” – officials told the victim of one of the “archdiocese’s most brutal abusers” that the meeting was off.

Delaney said it was payback for going public; an archdiocesan spokesman said the meeting “will take place in due time provided all the parameters [of privacy] are respected.”

That didn’t sit too well with Delaney, who flew up from Tennessee this weekend to speak at a Monday afternoon press conference on the sidewalk outside of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul on Logan Circle.

There, abuse victims railed against the church’s opposition to House Bill 1947, which proposed an extension of statutes of limitation dictating how long they had to file complaints against their alleged abusers.

The event was spearheaded by state Rep. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks County), who has long championed the rights of victims of child sex-abuse crimes. In fact, Rozzi decided to fly Delaney to town for the event “and give him his voice,” he said.

“I just want to let the bishop know, and the church know, that as much as you try to victimize me, and us, we’re just going to keep coming back,” Delaney said in front of the Basilica’s front doors. “Like I told you on the phone last week, I told you I’d be in Philly. Here I am. You say you don’t want to talk publicly about a meeting with me, yet you oppose a bill publicly? That’s a lot of double standards.

“At least be man enough to sit in a room with a victim and hear what he’s got to say for 60 minutes, because I’m coming for more than 60 minutes this time. I’m going to keep coming back.”

Delaney didn’t speak for more than a minute at the event, where he was joined by several fellow victims – many of whom were not victims of clergy – and those who support their fight.

Rozzi noted that his political peers who battled against the amendment decided “to stand with pedophiles and the institutions that protect them, plain and simple.”

State Rep. Mark Rozzi holds up copies of clergy sex-scandal grand-jury reports before throwing them on the steps of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul during Monday afternoon's protest.
State Rep. Mark Rozzi holds up copies of clergy sex-scandal grand-jury reports before throwing them on the steps of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul during Monday afternoon’s protest.

At the end of the 15-minute event, where he was flanked by victims and supporters holding signs, including one that read “Sexual abuse of little boys and girls is SOUL MURDER,” Rozzi threw a stack of grand-jury reports onto the Basilica steps. He then yelled that they “now lay at the archbishop’s feet; he’s responsible for these victims” and for any who may file complaints in the future.

“To all victims of childhood sex abuse, I promise that I will continue to fight for you until my last breath,” he said at the event’s onset before delving into his plans with the stalled legislation. “Not only will I put the retroactive up-to-age-50 component back in House Bill 1947, we will also be sure to include a two-year window to give all victims of childhood sexual-abuse the ability to have those voices heard in a court of law.”

He then turned back to the building behind him, and claimed that, for more than 50 decades, its leaders and all dioceses across the commonwealth “believed they were above the law … and now, they hide behind our laws.”

“Today, I want to make my message clear: I don’t care who you are, what institution it is, I don’t care when the abuse took place, if you abuse children, we are coming for you,” Rozzi said. “If you’re an institution that protected and actively managed, pedophiles, we are coming for you. If you’re a legislator who decides it’s more important to protect pedophiles and the institutions that protected them, we are coming for you.”

When news of Delaney’s meeting broke last week, archdiocesan spokesman Ken Gavin noted that it’s common practice not to publicize such events and shared a fact sheet about all they’ve done for victims. On Monday, he was asked by PhillyVoice for comment on the event at the Basilica.

The Rev. Dennis Gill, rector and pastor of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, speaks to a protester before Monday afternoon's event got underway.
The Rev. Dennis Gill, rector and pastor of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, speaks to a protester before Monday afternoon’s event got underway.

“In the political debate about HB 1947, lawmakers are going to have to bridge the gap between emotion, and logic and the law,” he responded. “The archdiocese does not make its victims services programs available to survivors for political expediency, but out of genuine concern for the well-being of survivors. We offer to lift the burden of accessing resources, services, and support; and we always do this strictly adhering to privacy policies that have been carefully adopted in accordance with best practices in the victim-services field.”

Speakers at the event, however, clearly didn’t agree with this approach.

They included Marci Hamilton, a leading church/state scholar, who noted they’d tried for a decade to get justice for victims.

“It’s time for our elected representatives to start representing the common good, and it’s time for our religious leaders to start ministering to the victims,” she said. “Instead of shutting them out, instead of slamming the door on them in the legislature and in their own buildings, it’s time. Let’s heal the victims and let’s get justice. That’s why we’re here.

“The survivors here behind us are here because they have the strength to go forward. What’s sad is the ones who have suffered so much in this process,” she continued, referring to those who have committed suicide, including Brian Gergely. “We’ve got to start doing the right thing.”

Several victims who also spoke at the Basilica were at a statute-of-limitation reform-strategy meeting held at Hamilton’s University of Pennsylvania office on Monday morning. Both at the event – and in conversations beforehand with PhillyVoice – they spoke about how the legislative stalling affected them personally.

They included a 51-year-old man named Tim – who requested his last name be withheld – who spoke about abuse at the hands of the owner of the corner grocery store in Wyomissing, Berks County where he worked. He knows of at least two or three other young teens who suffered the same sexual abuse by a man who also served as a scoutmaster with a church in nearby Reading.

He said that before the Jerry Sandusky case broke, he’d written to his abuser asking him to pay for his therapy but that “he ignored it all.” The Sandusky case, however, showed him that other victims were seeking legal charges against their abusers.

“I started educating myself if what my options were, and there was not a lawyer who would take my case,” explained Tim, who said his lingering anger issues affect him, his wife and children. “Nothing gets told in Pennsylvania.”

So, he filed suit on his own but after a decade of legal work, it’s still pending as his alleged accuser has “convenient amnesia” as he battles the statute of limitations issues.

“It’s been both the experience of having been abused and then the experience of seeking accountability and justice that is currently ongoing,” he said at Penn. “I tend not to be public about my name. I filed it as John Doe and now I’m aware of John Doe B, C, D, E, I think I’m up to H against this guy.

“As a victim, you can’t just sit. You have to take action. It should have been filed decades ago. It’s not about the money, it’s about the healing of going through it. Money’s irrelevant. For me, and others that have done this that I’ve become aware of, it’s about the movement from being stuck in this position of being a victim and taking some action. At this point, I’m doing everything I can possibly do until a judge tells me it’s over.”

That includes “deposing the pedophile’s wife,” which has already happened.

“I need a window so that I have an opportunity to hold the abuser accountable for what to did to me,” Tim said outside the Basilica. “And that window has to be available for people like me, so we have an opportunity and not some arbitrary year, the age 50, where there’s a cutoff, which makes absolutely no sense at all.”

Other speakers included Sister Maureen Paul Turlish, a lifetime Philadelphian who has taught in archdiocese schools.

“It’s outrageous that the Roman Catholic Church of Pennsylvania is opposing legislative reform in HB 1947. Child abuse is an epidemic in this country,” she said. “By not supporting this bill, they are supporting pedophiles across Pennsylvania.”

Also speaking at Penn and then at the Basilica was Kristen Pfautz Woolley, who was sexually abused by a family friend when she was between the ages of 10 and 12. Now, she’s a clinician who works with child sexual-abuse survivors and recently wrote a column for the York Daily Record about her experiences.

“Having the right to call out your perpetrator in civil court protects future children from being violated,” she said, noting that her attacker has three daughters and grandchildren, but that she “cannot, because of the blocking of the Catholic Church, speak the truth of my perpetrator’s name to protect children even though my violation has absolutely nothing to do with the Catholic Church.

“There is no price tag on the protection of a child. It is very clear: You either stand for protecting children or protecting pedophiles. It’s as simple as that. So, while this is being blocked, I’d like to apologize to all future victims who my perpetrator will violate. My hands are tied until my day in court. Sorry I can’t protect you. I’m going to keep trying.”

Clergy sexual-abuse grand-jury reports were strewn on the steps leading into the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul during Monday afternoon's press conference.
Clergy sexual-abuse grand-jury reports were strewn on the steps leading into the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul during Monday afternoon’s press conference.

After the event, Rozzi said he’s received countless emails from Catholic parishioners who do not abide by the church’s lobbying push to strip the House Bill of the statutes-of-limitation amendment. He noted that he’s even willing – in case the House leaders get wary of supporting his mission – “to suspend the rules on the House floor and I’m going to put [the amendment] back in. I know I have the support on the House floor. The leaders will not be able to stop me.”

From here, “it’s about continuing to work the issue” as victims from other archdiocese are being interviewed about being abused and how this could end up affecting “the entire Roman Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania.”

“One day, it may not be in 18 months, I’m hoping within three years because good things take time, I know more is coming down the road,” Rozzi said. “You can only deny, deny, deny for so long. There comes a point where you need to be held accountable. You can run but, guess what: I can run faster than you. I can track you down. We are going to make you be held accountable. It’s not over by any means. If the [state] Senate wants to kill it again, let them kill it. The blood’s going to be on their hands again.”

Complete Article HERE!

Priest sex abuse victim angered by lack of recourse: ‘None of them are registered sex offenders’

By Ivey DeJesus

Shaun Dougherty was molested by priest from the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese for three years. The now-defrocked priest, George Koharchick, lives as a private citizen in Johnstown. Even though the FBI concluded he was a child predator, because of expired statute of limitations, Koharchick cannot be identified as a child predator.
Shaun Dougherty was molested by priest from the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese for three years. The now-defrocked priest, George Koharchick, lives as a private citizen in Johnstown. Even though the FBI concluded he was a child predator, because of expired statute of limitations, Koharchick cannot be identified as a child predator.

Shaun Dougherty’s story begins on page 66 of the grand jury report into widespread child sexual abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.

That page – one of 147 pages in the report detailing accusations against more than 50 religious leaders, priests and teachers – begins the account into the investigation of George Koharchik, a longtime priest, who among other diocesan assignments, was pastor at St. Clement Church in Johnstown for a decade.

That’s where Dougherty, then an altar boy, attended school and Mass with his parents.Shaun Dougherty2

The second youngest of nine kids, Dougherty was 10 and a fifth-grader at St. Clement School when he met Koharchik in 1980. Koharchik was his basketball coach and his religion teacher. The priest spent an inordinate amount of time with the boy.

By the time the priest had finished “grooming” him, Dougherty was allowed to “drive” the priest’s car. Koharchik would sit the boy close to him — or on his lap — and give him control of the steering wheel. Whether Dougherty, or one of his friends in the car, whoever had his hands on the wheel could count on Koharchik’s hands to grope their body and eventually their penis, Dougherty said.

“My first erection was at the hands of Koharchik,” he said. “My first memory of an ejaculation was with Father Koharchick.”

Dougherty played racquetball, cycled and played soccer with the 40-something priest.

“Any activity that required a shower afterward,” Dougherty said. “He bathed me. He cleaned my entire body.”

What began as tickling led to fondling and by the time Dougherty was 13 to digital penetration, he said.

“I remember shooting him a look,” Dougherty said. “But nothing was said, nothing was ever discussed about it.”

Koharchik sexually molested him for three and a half years, Dougherty said.

A preferential sex offender

Koharchik on March 17, 2015, testified before grand jury investigators that he had sexually molested boys while at St. Clement. In a contentious exchange, Koharchick told investigators how he had for years slept and showered with minors, how he had children sit on his lap and how he “patted” the buttocks of young boys.

Koharchik offered only clipped answers to the aggressive questions from investigators.

“I didn’t think of it certainly as predatory,” he told the investigators. “I  don’t know that I would speak of it as acts of love.”

Investigators in March concluded Koharchik was a “child predator” who  molested children after “desensitizing” them to sexual topics for his own sexual gratification.

A special agent from the FBI assigned to investigate the allegations designated Koharchik as a “preferential child sex offender,” who was able to use the trust and authority of the priesthood to “secretly engage in molestation, digital penetration and anal sex with children.”

Koharchik had normalized the conduct, nudity and contact to “confuse and condition” the boys for sexual assault, investigators concluded. Koharchik also groomed their families. He bowled with Dougherty’s parents every Thursday night for years.

Now 46, Dougherty is married and a successful chef and owner of the Crescent Grill in Long Island City, N.Y. He splits his time between homes in New York and Johnstown.

Gone is the mop of red hair that framed his freckled face as a boy. Gone is his faith in his religion, and most of his faith in God.

Dougherty says he is no different than other victims of child sexual abuse. He has endured the pain, the trauma, substance abuse, a suicide attempt. But he counts himself among the lucky ones who have negotiated the ravages of abuse to forge a life.

The torment and the pain are just beneath the surface, though.

In recent months, the venom of his abuse has resurfaced amid the reports from the investigation by the Attorney General’s Office into systemic child sexual abuse and its cover-up in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese. Investigators combed the secret archives of the diocese and heard testimony from victims, as well as church officials and priests, concluding that hundreds of children across the diocese had been sexually molested by priests and church officials from the diocese starting as far back as 1950.

The grand jury report could not recommend criminal charges against any individuals associated with the diocese as all criminal statute of limitations had expired. The same was true for civil cases.

“None of them are registered sex offenders. None of them,” Dougherty said. “They can move next to anybody. They can move next to any school. Plus the Senate just gave them a green light said: ‘Here you go. Here you go. You are free. We are on your side.'”

 

‘We have them…..today’

Dressed in jeans, a Polo plaid shirt and blue jacket, Dougherty was in Harrisburg this week, primarily to try to understand the looming fate of a bill that could, after 36 years, allow him to seek justice against his predator.

For the past several months, Dougherty has been following the reports on House Bill 1947, the reform legislation that is poised to overhaul Pennsylvania’s child sex crime laws. The bill – which sailed out of the House in April by a 180-15 vote – passed the Senate last week, but only after being stripped of the retroactive measure that would have allowed Dougherty to seek legal recourse against Koharchik.

“Whoever is in this report that’s molesting a child today, we won’t know about it for 20 years,” says Dougherty slamming his hand on the thick grand jury report. “We have them … today. We have the system, today. We have them admitting it, today. We’re just going to open the door and let them all out. ‘Here you go.’ No sex offense charges.”

Like almost all victims of clergy sex abuse, Dougherty blames the church for the fate of the bill. He said the church, and its powerful legislative arm, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, have the ear of lawmakers in the General Assembly .

“I struggle with a belief in God but I have a belief in our government system,” Dougherty said. “I don’t believe it was fairly done.”

Dougherty railed against Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, who introduced the amendment to stripped the retroactive measure from the bill. Scarnati argued that it was unconstitutional to revive expired statute of limitations, the conclusion delivered by the state Solicitor General Bruce Castor during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill.

“That is his interpretation,” Dougherty said of Scarnati’s opinion on the  constitutionality of the bill. “He is not a judge. He is a legislator. It should have gone to the Senate floor clean. Let the courts decide.”

PennLive submitted a request to interview Scarnati. The request has not been granted.

The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference notes that the Catholic community “has consistently enforced strict safe environment policies” and offered assistance to survivors and their families.  To date, dioceses across the state have spent more than $16.6 million on victim/survivor assistance services to provide “compassionate support to individuals and families.”

“The Catholic Church has a sincere commitment to the emotional and spiritual well-being of individuals who have been impacted by the crime of childhood sexual abuse, no matter how long ago the crime was committed,” reads the conference’s official statement.

A priest defrocked

In 2012, contacted by detectives investigating allegations of child sex abuse against Koharchik, Dougherty provided information to the Cambria County law enforcement officials. Dougherty is convinced his responses were read to Koharchik in front of the grand jury.

“I believe with all of my heart that my name is one of those redacted,” Dougherty said. One week after speaking with detectives, Dougherty was contacted and told the information was being turned over to the state.

Koharchik was placed on leave in August 2012 amid accusations of sexual misconduct involving minors dating back more than 30 years. At the time, he was pastor at St. Catherine of Siena in Mount Union, Huntingdon County.

“At that time those accusations had just been presented. It was not like an old case that was being reviewed,” Tony DeGol, the spokesman for the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown said. “When  accusations were brought, (Bishop Mark Bartchak) immediately placed George Koharchik on leave.”

On Jan. 22, 2016, Koharchik was defrocked.

“The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome requested that George Koharchik seek laicization,” DeGol said, reading from the former priest’s file. “When he did, it was granted by Pope Francis.”

Koharchik lives in Johnstown as a private citizen. His home is less than a 5-minute walk from Johnstown Public Middle School on Garfield Street.

PennLive on Thursday reached Koharchik at his home. He declined to answer  any of the questions to put to him. “I  have no comment,” he repeated on the phone.

Dougherty, who retains a youthful spark in his eyes and fills a room with his voice, succumbs to tears recalling how his father told him he finally believed him before he died.  He chokes up recounting the call from his mother, now 83, a few years ago telling him she believed him. Koharchik was all over the local paper. The diocese was taking action against him amid accusations of child sex abuse.

Koharchik bears no hard feelings for his parents. They were devout Catholics living within the teachings of the church, he said.

“Give us our shot”

On Monday evening, Dougherty read PennLive’s report on the suicide death of Brian Gergely, who like him, was one of hundreds of victims of clergy child sex abuse from the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.

Dougherty said that even though he never met Gergely, he felt as if he had lost a relative. He checked into a hotel and bawled his eyes out.

“I felt so absolutely defeated and so absolutely pissed off,” Dougherty said. “Just exactly the way Brian felt. They are doing it again … except this time they did it blatantly in the paper. They publicly (expletive) us again, they just did it publicly.”

A successful businessman, Dougherty said he would not sue to seek money, but rather for moral principle.

“If I  was a sitting senator for 30 years, I  would be standing on my Senate desk on the floor screaming at the top of my lungs, ‘Help me please! They have duped all of us. The children in my district are being raped by people who were supposed to teach them the teachings of Jesus Christ … show some teeth, senator.”

He implored lawmakers to salvage the retroactive measure of the bill, which moved from the Senate last week back to the House for a concurrence vote. If, down the road, the courts rule the bill unconstitutional, Dougherty said, he’ll take that loss and move on.

“Give us our shot,” he said. “Give us our shot.”

Complete Article HERE!

Pope accepts resignation of Brazilian bishop in sex abuse case

By Philip Pullella

Archbishop Aldo di Cillo Pagotto of Paraiba, Brazil, resigned July 6 facing accusations of sheltering sexually abusive priests.
Archbishop Aldo di Cillo Pagotto of Paraiba, Brazil, resigned July 6 facing accusations of sheltering sexually abusive priests.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a Brazilian bishop who was accused of turning a blind eye to suspected pedophile priests in his diocese, the Vatican said on Wednesday.

The Vatican said Francis had accepted the resignation of Bishop Aldo di Cillo Pagotto of Paraiba, 66, citing a section of Church law under which bishops are obliged to tender their resignation if they are ill or if there is “grave cause”.

Under normal circumstances, he would have remained bishop until he turned 75.

Last year, the Church stripped Pagotto of his power to ordain priests while the accusations against him were being investigated.

Pagatto had been accused of allowing men into seminaries in his diocese to become priests even though they had been rejected from other places in Brazil because they were suspected child abusers.

In a letter posted on the diocese’s website, Pagotto said:

“I welcomed priests and seminarians with the intention of offering them new opportunities in life. Some were later suspected of committing serious wrongdoings … I made mistakes by trusting too much, with naive mercy.”

Last month, Francis issued a new decree saying bishops found to have been negligent when dealing with cases of sexual abuse could be investigated and removed from office if they did not offer to resign..

The decree requires the Vatican to launch an investigation if “serious evidence” of negligence is found. The bishop is given the opportunity to defend himself. Ultimately, the Vatican can issue a decree to remove him or ask him to resign within 15 days.

A Vatican spokesman said Pagatto’s case was handled under the previous, existing, procedures.

The Catholic Church has been rocked over the past 15 years by scandals over priests who sexually abused children and were transferred by bishops from parish to parish instead of being turned over to authorities and defrocked.

In some developed countries, particularly in the United States, the Church has paid tens of millions of dollars in settlements to victims.

 Complete Article HERE!

Deep pocketed interests denied justice to church abuse survivors

By Sister Maureen Paul Turlish

child sex abuse

I have said it before and I will say it again:

Accountability and transparency for the crimes of childhood sexual abuse today and in the future absolves no one from the accountability and transparency for the sexual crimes committed against children in the past.

Deep pockets denied the rights of all those who were sexually abused as children.

Their right to access justice in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was denied them by groups that had much to lose; the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese along with the other Pennsylvania dioceses as well as the insurance industry and  and several business lobby groups.

Mostly, however, the opposition to the retroactive measure, statute of limitation reform, was led by Archbishop Charles Chaput, by way of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference which he leads, and the heads of the Pennsylvania dioceses who dutifully follow orders.

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish

And why? Is it money? Hardly.

Keep in mind that about $10 million dollars has been spent defending Msgr. William Lynn.

One can only guess at how much the public relations firm and the lobbyists from the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference are costing [the church]. That will likely never be known.

Then what is it?

It’s the fact that the bishops, the members of the hierarchy, will continue to do whatever they have to do, and what they have done for decades if not centuries.

And that is to do whatever it takes to protect a powerful institution and its secrets.

The safety and protection of the most vulnerable, the children, was never their priority regardless of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Complete Article HERE!