Clergy Abuse Survivors – Page 135

September 14, 2015

Chile Catholic Church rocked by e-mail scandal

Pope Francis walked with Chile's Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati to a session of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican last fall. Private e-mails show that Ezzati and his predecessor, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, tried to block a victim of sex-abuse by a pedophile priest from joining the papal commission. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) — Pope Francis walked with Chile’s Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati to a session of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican last fall. Private e-mails show that Ezzati and his predecessor, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, tried to block a victim of sex-abuse by a pedophile priest from joining the papal commission.

By Eva Vergara

The Catholic Church in Chile has been rocked by another scandal surrounding its most infamous pedophile.

Leaked e-mails between the archbishop of Santiago and his predecessor show how they conspired to block a well-known abuse survivor from being named to Pope Francis’ sex abuse commission, fearing it would damage the Church.

Local newspaper El Mostrador this week published the e-mail exchanges between the current archbishop, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, and his predecessor, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz. The Santiago archdiocese confirmed their authenticity.

In the e-mails, dated 2013 and 2014, the two men discussed the key Vatican cardinals they needed to consult to try to prevent Juan Carlos Cruz from being invited to speak at a meeting of Anglophone bishops on sex abuse.

“I hope we can prevent lies from finding space between those who belong to the same Church,” Ezzati wrote to Errazuri.

Cruz was sexually abused by the Rev. Fernando Karadima, a charismatic preacher whom the Vatican sanctioned to a lifetime of penance and prayer for having abused young boys.

Karadima had a huge following and led a parish in Santiago for nearly six decades before allegations against him came to light in April 2010. Two months later Errazuriz forwarded allegations to the Vatican.

Victims say allegations against Karadima were first reported to Errazuriz in 2003, but that he ignored them. Errazuriz, who is one of Francis’ nine key cardinal advisers, has acknowledged in court testimony that he failed to act on several abuse allegations because he believed them to be untrue.

Cruz has been outspoken in accusing Errazuriz of covering up for Karadima’s crimes.

Cruz’s activism prompted Marie Collins, an Irish survivor of abuse and one of the founding members of Francis’ sex abuse advisory panel, to propose him for membership in the group.

On Friday, she said she was “disgusted” at the cardinals’ attitude and said it would be discussed by the commission.

“Personally I am disgusted at the attitude displayed by these leaders in the church to the Pontifical Commission and to a survivor of abuse,” Collins said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Ezzati’s office has said the e-mails were a private exchange of opinion, though it acknowledged the decision on the nomination was the Vatican’s to make.

The e-mails have been harshly criticized in Chile, with some politicians calling on Ezzati to cancel his annual “Te Deum” address, when Church leaders traditionally tell politicians what is ailing society. Others have urged him to resign.

The e-mail scandal comes months after Francis himself was criticized by Collins and other commission members for nominating a Karadima protégé to be bishop of the southern Chilean city of Osorno, even though victims said the prelate knew of Karadima’s crimes and did nothing.

Complete Article HERE!

August 28, 2015

Vatican ex-envoy Wesolowski dies ahead of abuse trial

Jozef Wesolowski, a former archbishop and Vatican envoy to the Dominican Republic, has died before he could be tried for child sex offences.

He had been taken ill just before the start of his Vatican trial in July.

He was accused of paying for sex with children in the Dominican Republic.

Wesolowski, 66, would have been the first high-ranking church official to be tried on paedophile charges. His case was seen as a test of the Vatican’s pledge to stamp out abuse.

Last year, the Pope compared the actions of those who commit such crimes to a “satanic mass”.

Vatican court where Wesolowski was due to have been tried — Wesolowski was due to have been tried at a court set up by Pope Francis

Wesolowski was reportedly found dead early on Friday morning. A Vatican statement (in Italian) said preliminary indications were that he had died of “natural causes”.

Wesolowski was charged with abusing children in the Dominican Republican between 2008-13.

He was also charged with possession of child pornography, dating from his return to Rome in 2013.

He was due to have been tried under a new court system, set up by Pope Francis, to try clerics and employees of the Church who have been accused of exploiting minors.

If convicted, he could have faced between six and 10 years in jail.

Wesolowski had already been convicted over abuse by a church tribunal and defrocked as archbishop.

Complete Article HERE!

August 22, 2015

Resigned priest had student images on computer

A Louisville Catholic priest resigned from his church after child pornography and hundreds of images of schoolchildren from his parish were found on his computer, archdiocese officials said Friday.

Stephen A. Pohl resigned as pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish, the Archdiocese of Louisville said. The eastern Louisville church has a private school on its campus.

Archdiocese officials said FBI investigators found 200 images of students from the school on Pohl’s computer. The students were clothed but some of the images were “inappropriate.” Officials say they also found child pornography on the computer, but no charges have been filed against Pohl.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz said at a news conference Friday that the archdiocese is cooperating with the investigation.

“Pastorally, I’m feeling the grief that I can only imagine parents are feeling,” Kurtz said Friday.

Pohl was placed on administrative leave after he told archdiocese officials he was visited by the FBI’s Cyber Crimes Unit. He submitted his resignation on Thursday.

Complete Article HERE!

August 22, 2015

Longtime leader at St. John’s Abbey accused of sex abuse

Thomas Andert, St. John Abbey’s prior, accused of abuse by a former student.

By Jean Hopfensperger

The Rev. Thomas Andert, the prior at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, has been removed from his leadership position following an allegation of student sex abuse.

The allegation was made in a letter by a former student at St. John’s Preparatory School, where Andert served as headmaster from 1988 to 1994. It alleges abuse about three decades ago. The abbey is not providing details of the complaint.

“We asked Father Andert to step back from public ministry and from his work until an investigation is completed,” said abbey spokesman Aelred Senna in an e-mail.

Andert, who was ordained in 1975, held key positions at the abbey, St. John’s University and a Twin Cities Catholic school. He was president of Benilde-St. Margaret’s School in St. Louis Park from 1981 to 1987, during which time he also served as associate pastor at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Parish in St. Louis Park.

He was headmaster of St. John’s Preparatory School from 1988 to 1994. He taught German in St. John’s Preparatory School and the university. He also served as the academic advising director for St. John’s University.

St. John’s Abbey, home to more than 150 Benedictine monks, is part of a sprawling campus that includes St. John’s University and the prep school. In 2013, it identified 18 clergy credibly accused of child sex abuse. But victims’ advocates say the number is higher and reflects abuse going back decades.

Former monk Richard Sipe, chairman of the abbey’s Interfaith Sex and Trauma Institute in 1995 and 1996, said that a student reported to him at the time that Andert was sexually abusing him. Sipes said he reported it to then-Abbott Timothy Kelly, “who dismissed it.’’

Sipe, who has been a consultant or expert witness on more than 200 cases of sex abuse against minors, said he was baffled as to why the abbey was removing Andert at this time. The abbey has had “well documented” evidence about the abuse of the other student for years, including letters from Andert to the young man.

That young man committed suicide in December, he said.

Senna said the new accusation did not contain many details. The accuser was referred to a victim’s advocate and offered support for counseling.

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, urged other victims from St. John’s to step forward and report their abuse to law enforcement.

Stearns County law enforcement has no record of receiving a report on the Andert accusation, said Lt. Jon Lentz of the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office.

The Rev. Bradley Jenniges was named interim prior of the monastery. The abbey will not release further information “in fairness to all involved and because the complainant requested strict confidentiality,’’ Senna said.

Complete Article HERE!

August 20, 2015August 20, 2015

Philly archdiocese settles sexual-abuse civil suit

By Jeremy Roebuck

Charles Engelhardt, at left, ex-teacher Bernard Shero.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has settled a civil lawsuit brought by an accuser whose testimony helped convict two Catholic priests and a former parish-school teacher on sexual abuse charges, and aided in the unprecedented prosecution of a church administrator for covering up the priests’ crimes.

In filings Tuesday, Common Pleas Court Judge Jacqueline F. Allen said the plaintiff – a 26-year-old man identified only as “Billy Doe” – had “settled any and all claims” against the archdiocese and two former church officials. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

A spokesman for the archdiocese did not return calls for comment Wednesday, nor did lawyers for Doe.

Their agreement – first reported by the legal blog BigTrial.net – is at least the third this year between the church and its accusers.

Previous agreements have contained clauses barring the parties from discussing their deals publicly.

Doe’s story was arguably the most disturbing in a landmark 2011 report by a Philadelphia grand jury outlining decades of clergy sex abuse in the region.

He told grand jurors he was passed among three men and repeatedly sexually assaulted while serving as an altar boy at St. Jerome’s parish in Northeast Philadelphia in the late 1990s.

Doe’s tearful testimony at a 2013 trial helped convict two of his abusers – the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero, an English teacher at the parish school.

The abuse destroyed his life, Doe said in his lawsuit, and led to years of drug abuse, behavioral problems, and suicide attempts.

Lawyers for the priests and the archdiocese have questioned Doe’s story and motives for years, accusing him of fabricating his claims to cash in by suing the church.

Engelhardt died in prison last year while serving a six- to 12-year sentence. Shero, who was sentenced to eight to 16 years, continues to appeal his case.

A third abuser – Edward V. Avery, now defrocked – pleaded guilty in 2012 and was sentenced to five years in prison. He has recanted his confession, but remains in prison.

Prosecutors also pointed to Doe’s abuse in building their case against Msgr. William J. Lynn, who in 2012 became the first Roman Catholic Church administrator in the United States convicted of enabling sexual abuse of children by priests. He, too, is appealing his case.

This week’s court filings in Doe’s civil case indicated that he would not only drop his suit against the archdiocese, but also against two other named defendants: Lynn and the estate of the late Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, who headed the archdiocese at the time of Doe’s abuse.

Shero, Avery, and Engelhardt’s estate remain parties to the lawsuit. A trial is scheduled for November.

Complete Article HERE!