Clergy Sex Abuse – Page 155

August 4, 2013August 4, 2013

Bishop apologises for abuse at Fort Augustus School

Here’s a tip: when your apology includes words like, “mistakes were made,” instead of “we apologize for raping your children,” your apology is no apology at all.

One of Scotland’s most senior clerics has apologised for decades of physical and sexual abuse of pupils at a Catholic boarding school.

The Bishop of Aberdeen, Hugh Gilbert, addressed parishioners at Fort Augustus in the Highlands.

His statement came after the BBC found evidence of physical and sexual abuse by monks at Fort Augustus Abbey School and its prep school in East Lothian.

The Benedictine order which ran the schools, has already apologised.

Bishop Gilbert’s address is the first time a senior cleric has spoken publicly about abuse at the abbey schools.

He told parishoners: “It is a most bitter, shaming and distressing thing that in this former abbey school a small number of baptised, consecrated and ordained Christian men physically or sexually abused those in their care.

“I know that Abbot Richard Yeo has offered an apology to those who have suffered such abuse and I join him in that.

“We are anxious that there be a thorough police investigation into all this. And, that all that can be done should be done for the victims. All of us must surely pray for those who have suffered.”

BBC Scotland Investigations Correspondent Mark Daly has more on the developments

BBC Scotland spoke to more than 50 former pupils during its six-month investigation.

Many said they had nothing but good memories of the schools, but the BBC also heard accounts from old boys of serious physical violence and sexual assault, including rape, by monks over a 30-year period.

BBC Scotland Investigates: Sins of Our Fathers, which aired on Monday, contained evidence against seven Fort Augustus monks.

Two headmasters have also been accused of covering-up the abuse.

And the documentary contained allegations that the abbey was used as a “dumping ground” for problem clergy who had confessed to abusing children.

Mark Daly, BBC Scotland’s investigations correspondent, who broke the story, said the apology was significant because it was the first time a senior clergyman had addressed the allegations since the programme went out almost a week ago.
Fort Augustus Abbey Fort Augustus Abbey School was one of the most prestigious Catholic boarding schools in Scotland

He said: “The allegations centred on monks from the Benedictine congregation, which is essentially an autonomous order within the Catholic Church.

“The Catholic Church had told us this was not a matter for them, it was a matter for the Benedictines.

“But the evidence we obtained about offences was that they all happened on Scottish soil, they happened to Scottish Catholics – they’re all part of the Catholic flock, as far as the victims are concerned.

“And from the victims’ point of view, they have been waiting for something from the senior clergy in the Church so today will have been something significant.”

Since the programme was broadcast, the BBC has been contacted by other former pupils with similar claims of abuse, right up until the boarding school closed in the 1990s. Police Scotland have confirmed they are investigating the allegations.
‘Annual audits’

Dom Richard Yeo, the Abbot President of the Benedictines order which ran the school, apologised on the programme and said mistakes were made.

“All I can say is that I’m sorry that it happened, it shouldn’t have happened,” he said.

The Catholic Church in Scotland has said it would publish details of its annual audits, which deal with abuse allegations dating back to 2006.

Bishop Gilbert said: “The Catholic Church in Scotland has been addressing this issue increasingly effectively in recent years.

“We want to work with all public bodies who care for the young and vulnerable adults.

“We wish to share our experience and share best practice so that lessons can be learned and children can always be fully protected.”

Complete Article HERE!

August 1, 2013

Five Catholic religious orders release files on L.A. clergy abuse

By Victoria Kim and Harriet Ryan

Confidential personnel records from five Catholic religious orders were turned over to victims of sexual abuse Wednesday in the first wave of a court-ordered public disclosure expected to shed light on the role the groups, operating independently of the L.A. Archdiocese, played in the region’s clergy molestation scandal.

The documents pertain to a dozen priests, brothers and nuns accused of sexual misconduct in the landmark 2007 settlement with hundreds of people who filed abuse claims against the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles. An additional 45 religious orders will release the personnel files of their accused clergy by this fall, completing what is believed to be the fullest accounting yet of the abuse crisis anywhere in the Catholic Church.

The 1,700 pages released by the religious orders differ markedly from those disclosed in January by the Los Angeles Archdiocese to comply with the terms of its settlement with all victims abused within its three-county jurisdiction. The archdiocese handed over materials reflecting Cardinal Roger M. Mahony’s meticulous record-keeping of molestation claims and treatment of accused offenders.

By contrast, the order files are a hodgepodge of seminary report cards, vacation requests, baptismal certificates and breezy dispatches in which priests update their higher-ups on parish projects. For the most part, the files have little or no reference to abuse allegations that surfaced in lawsuits a decade ago, suggesting the orders were either unaware of molestation claims or opted not to document them.

When matters of abuse were referenced, officials sometimes seemed reluctant to commit the ugly details to paper. In the case of Benedictine priest Mathias Faue, one supervisor wrote vaguely of “his problem” or “difficulty.” In the file of Oblate Father Ruben Martinez, an order official repeatedly switched to Japanese characters to note sensitive subjects, including his admissions of “homosexuality” and “relations with boys.”

Although the archdiocese took the lead in the litigation, about half of the alleged perpetrators belonged to religious orders, such as the Jesuits, Salesians and Vincentians, and answered to those orders rather than the local archbishop.

Wednesday’s release also covers the Marianists, the Benedictines, the Oblates and two orders of nuns. The disclosures by the Cabrini Sisters and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet mark the first time in the L.A. litigation the files of women have been made public. The two nuns, who are deceased, were accused in lawsuits of sexually abusing students decades ago. Their files contained no information on misconduct allegations.

The files that do detail abuse allegations show superiors at order headquarters in Shawnee, Okla., Washington D.C., and other far-flung locales struggling to keep tabs on repeat molesters working in Southern California.

In the decades before email and cheap air travel, their efforts to track problem priests often relied on the U.S. Postal Service. In a 1985 letter to Faue, his supervisor in Oklahoma wrote that he’d heard of misconduct around the globe but knew little for sure.

“I never found out [the] exact circumstances in Prague. There are rumors that float in the community about some difficulty you had years ago in Montebello and in Anadarko,” the supervisor wrote. Faue died in 1989 while working at the Montebello parish.

In the case of Martinez, order officials in Oakland and Washington, D.C., began trying to deal with his abuse of boys in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, but didn’t realize the full scope of his misdeeds until 2005 when he admitted his victims could number as many as a hundred.

At 521 pages, Martinez’s file is the longest and chronicles decades of molestation that began soon after his 1968 ordination. In the 1980s, at churches in Pacoima and Wilmington, two mothers raised concerns about Martinez’s behavior with altar boys. But it was several years later, when Martinez himself complained of fatigue and burnout from parish work, that he was sent to therapy at a New Mexico center for troubled clergy.

After completing the treatment in 1991, he was allowed back into ministry by Father Paul Nourie, a newly appointed head of the order, even though Nourie wrote that he had “every reason” to believe the veracity of complaints of Martinez’s “alleged misbehavior with younger males.” Calling him “blessed and gifted,” Nourie sent Martinez to an Imperial Valley church, where he was soon working with youth.

“Today we had first Holy Communions. We had about 30 children,” Martinez wrote to a superior in May 1992.

In 1993, a 25-year-old man came forward with another allegation, saying Martinez had abused him as a teenager some years back. The man asked that the authorities be notified, and said he wanted to make sure no other children were hurt. Officials took Martinez out of ministry and sent him for another evaluation, but told the man they were limited in what they could do.

“I indicated … that the Oblates could not really tie a person down, but that we could provide treatment, a healthy environment, and continued supervision,” Nourie wrote. There is no indication in the file that authorities were alerted.

By 2003, with the sexual abuse crisis making international headlines, the Oblates had a drastically different response to any whiff of scandal. Complaints that Martinez had made “off-color jokes” at a California retreat were met with a stern letter telling him the behavior would not be tolerated and threatening to move him to a restricted-living community for abusive priests. When he was found downloading unspecified “inappropriate material” on office computers the following year, he was once again sent away for an evaluation, where he told therapists he had had “sexual contact with about 100 minors” in the past. As of 2006, Martinez was living at a Catholic center in Missouri for troubled clergy. Now 72, he did not immediately respond to a request for comment through order attorneys.

One man who received a settlement for abuse by Martinez at Holy Family Parish in Wilmington in the 1970s said he hoped the disclosure of the priest’s personnel file would be the final step in his healing process.

“I always felt angry and that my childhood had really been ruined,” said the man, now 50 and an Inland Empire resident. “After the records being released, I have closure.”

Complete Article HERE!

July 28, 2013

New sex abuse crisis in Scottish Catholic church

Priest claims he was abused by older cleric, and church is punishing him for speaking out

By Catherine Deveney

The Catholic church in Scotland faces a fresh sex-abuse crisis involving some of the country’s senior clerics. The Observer has seen documents suggesting a scandal similar to the one that led to the resignation of Cardinal Keith O’Brien as Archbishop of Edinburgh and St Andrews.

As a seminarian, a priest known as “Father Michael”, who wishes to remain anonymous while an appeal to Rome is made, said he was sexually assaulted by a parish priest, Father Paul Moore. Father Michael said the church failed to deal appropriately with his complaint over a 17-year period, and that he is now being ousted from the church while, he feels, his abuser is being protected.

Father Michael is recovering from cancer but has been refused permission by Bishop John Cunningham of Galloway to reduce his workload during his convalescence.

The church has demanded that he resign or face removal. The priest, who reported Moore to the police in 1997, said he feels this treatment amounts to punishment for whistle-blowing.

“It’s a tragic story,” said Father Michael. “It’s about cover-up, deceit and lies. The church is a big mafia, and they trash you. They will do everything to destroy me.”

The bitter internal division comes just days after the “new broom” appointment of Vatican diplomat Leo Cushley to replace O’Brien, who resigned after admitting inappropriate sexual behaviour towards priests in his care. Father Michael requested Cardinal O’Brien’s intervention in 1996 and again in 2013. O’Brien expressed “shock”, he said, but said he could not help. Father Michael also appealed to Cunningham’s predecessor, Bishop Maurice Taylor, and, recently, to O’Brien’s temporary successor, Archbishop Philip Tartaglia. Tartaglia, the senior cleric in Scotland, claimed he could not help as he had no authority in the matter. “I think it is better for me to return these documents to you,” he wrote in March 2013.

Father Michael alleged the assault took place at St Quivox church in Prestwick in 1996. “I woke to find Moore fondling me under the bedclothes. I placed a chair behind the door and would sometimes hear it rattling,” he said. He claimed the incident was repeated and he didn’t know where to turn.

While Moore was away from the parish, a young man visited. He claimed to Father Michael that Moore had sexually abused him as an altar boy. He gave Father Michael details of another alleged victim.

Father Michael claims that Taylor insisted he remain in the parish and advise Moore to visit him. Confronted by Father Michael, he alleges Moore reacted violently and a scuffle broke out. Suddenly, Moore began to weep, confessing everything, including inappropriate behaviour with relatives. He also admitted the abuse to Taylor.

Moore emerged, euphoric, from a subsequent meeting with Taylor. He understood that the bishop said Moore had come voluntarily, so nobody could blame him. Father Michael said he was instructed by Taylor to remain silent. But he became suicidal and informed police about the incident with Moore.

Taylor later said that he spoke to the authorities, but that was after Father Michael had reported the matter to the police. The Procurator Fiscal told Father Michael the case would proceed, but it did not happen.

Moore, who now lives in a church-owned home, is reported to have said that he regretted any of his actions being seen as abusive, and he had not intended them to be so. Taylor refused Father Michael’s repeated pleas for help, it is understood, only allowing him counselling when a centre waived the fee. Moore, however, was sent to Southdown, a Canadian treatment centre for clergy with psychological problems, for reasons that were not made clear. “A letter has been issued to the parish saying I am on leave of absence after sabbatical,” he wrote to Father Michael.

When Moore returned from Canada he went to Fort Augustus Abbey, following which Taylor tried to place him in a home for the elderly in Scotland. Protests ensued and Moore retired to the church property. “He should have been laicised,” insisted Father Michael.

When Taylor retired, Father Michael lobbied his successor. “I know Maurice made mistakes but it’s too late,” Bishop Cunningham allegedly told him. “What would Maurice think of me?”

In 2004, Father Michael was posted to a three-church parish. He merged two but when he was diagnosed with cancer, doctors advised him to drop the third. In February, the Diocese’s vicar general, Willie McFadden, told parishioners to put complaints in writing. Father Michael was told there were 23 complaints but more than 130 letters of support, including one from the parish council, which has petitioned Rome. “This is really about his stance over Paul Moore,” one member claimed.

In June, Bishop Cunningham insisted that Father Michael, who is in his mid-fifties, retire. Still physically weak, he sought counselling. Supportive letters from both his doctor and his therapist were sent to the Bishop but he feels they were used against him.

Last week, a letter signed by Bishop Cunningham told Father Michael he must retire because of “your ill-health, both physical and psychological, as you yourself have detailed to me in your letters and in those sent by your medical doctors and psychotherapist”.

Father Michael has been told to leave by mid-August. “What I have had to face is something very evil. Had I known what I would experience when I was lying on the floor at ordination, I would have stood up and walked out. I focused my life on priesthood, thinking it was about goodness, kindness and everything I wanted to aspire to. I discovered it was nothing like that.”

The Catholic Church refused to comment, “due to the complex legal situation, criminal, civil and canonical”.

Complete Article HERE!

July 10, 2013

U.N. rights body poses tough questions to Vatican over child abuse

By Robert Evans

A United Nations human rights panel has posed a list of tough questions to the Vatican about child abuse by Catholic priests, a potential embarrassment for Pope Francis a few months into his papacy.

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) asked for “detailed information on all cases of child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy, brothers or nuns” since the Holy See last reported to it some 15 years ago, and set November 1 as a deadline for a reply.

The request was included in a “list of issues”, posted on the CRC’s website, to be taken up when the Vatican appears before it next January to report on the Church’s performance under the 1990 U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

It will be the first time the Holy See has been publicly questioned by an international panel over the child abuse scandal which severely damaged the standing of the Roman Catholic Church in many countries around the world.

The CRC has no enforcement powers, but a negative report after the hearing would be a blow to the Church whose leader, Pope Francis, is striving to put a number of scandals behind him since succeeding Benedict XVI who resigned in February.

By issuing its questions, the Geneva-based CRC brushed aside a Vatican warning that it might pull out of the Convention on the Rights of the Child if pushed too hard on the issue.

In a report of its own in late 2011, posted on the U.N. website last October, the Holy See reminded the CRC of reservations on legal jurisdiction and other issues it made when it signed the global pact.

It said any new “interpretation” would give it grounds “for terminating or withdrawing” from the treaty.

In its request for information, the CRC asked how the Vatican was ensuring that abuser priests have no more contact with children and what instructions it has issued to ensure that cases known to the Church are reported to the police.

In several countries, including the United States and Ireland, the Church has been accused of simply moving suspect priests from one diocese to another, and of handling cases secretly.

The committee also asked if the Church had investigated the Magdalene Laundries run by nuns in Ireland over several decades until they were closed in 1996, where former female inmates say they were treated as slaves.

There was no immediate comment from the Vatican on Wednesday.

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of Britain’s National Secular Society who gave evidence to the committee in June, said he hoped for a new line from Pope Francis.

“He has expressed the Catholic Church’s determination to act decisively against paedophiles,” said Wood. “This gives room for optimism that these issues will at last be tackled. His papacy will be judged on his success in doing so.”

Complete Article HERE!

July 8, 2013

Catholic diocese settles wrongful-death lawsuit during jury selection in Independence

By JUDY L. THOMAS

The settlement — the largest ever for the diocese in a single priest sexual abuse lawsuit — came on Monday afternoon as jury selection was underway for the trial in Jackson County Circuit Court in Independence.

“This is one of the most significant cases we’ve ever worked on,” said Rebecca Randles, the attorney for Donald and Rosemary Teeman, who filed the lawsuit against the diocese and Monsignor Thomas J. O’Brien in 2011 after a man who served as an altar boy with their son, Brian, told them of the alleged abuse. Brian Teeman, 14, died of a gunshot wound in November 1983 at the family’s home in Independence.

“This allows everyone to put this behind them,” Randles said. “It allows closure at this point in time. And it sends a message that no matter how long ago something like this happens, there will still be liability, and it’s imperative on those who have care and custody of children to make sure they listen to the alarms that are sounded to make sure that children are safe…”

Settlement negotiations began over the weekend, Randles said. Opening statements in the trial were expected to begin Tuesday. In addition to the diocese’s settlement, she said, O’Brien settled for $2,500. There will be a settlement hearing to finalize the agreement, she said.

The diocese issued a statement confirming its settlement.

“The decision to enter into this agreement was made in consideration of the financial and emotional toll on all parties of an anticipated four-week trial,” the statement said. “In these circumstances, the Diocese believes that the settlement is in the best interest of the Teeman family, Nativity of Mary parish community and the people of the Diocese as a whole.

“While the facts surrounding Brian’s death have remained unclear, the tragedy of it is certain. The Catholic community prays that God’s face shines upon Brian, His peace descend on the Teeman family and His healing presence strengthen all hearts.”

Gerald McGonagle, who represents O’Brien, did not respond to a request for comment.

As part of the settlement, the diocese will place a bench on the grounds of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church in Independence in honor of Brian Teeman. On it will be the words: “A beautiful soul will never be forgotten. In loving memory of Brian Teeman.”

Rosemary Teeman said the family was relieved to have the trial complete. However, she said, “It’s bittersweet.”

The case would have been the first involving childhood sexual abuse to go to trial in the diocese.

The lawsuit alleged that O’Brien forced Brian Teeman and three other boys to perform sexual acts in the sacristy at Nativity of Mary in Independence. It said O’Brien warned the boys that if they ever told, they would be kicked out of the church, be disowned by their parents and go to hell.

The Teemans said they didn’t know about the sexual abuse or the reason for Brian’s suicide until Jon David Couzens, the former altar boy, contacted them in 2011.Their lawsuit said that the diocese shared responsibility for Brian’s death because church officials knew that O’Brien was sexually abusing boys but covered it up.

Couzens also filed a lawsuit in 2011 alleging sexual abuse by O’Brien. His case is scheduled for trial next year.

In motions filed in the Teeman case, diocesan attorneys argued that there was no proof the diocese knew that Brian Teeman had been abused or that he committed suicide. The diocese also argued that too much time had passed since Brian’s death.

The statute of limitations for wrongful death is three years in Missouri. The Teemans argued, however, that the statute should be suspended because of what they said was the defendants’ cover-up, fraud and concealment of O’Brien’s alleged abuse of their son and other children. Jackson County Circuit Judge Michael Manners held their argument as valid, and the diocese unsuccessfully appealed Manners’ ruling to the Missouri Supreme Court.

O’Brien, now 86, was not expected to attend or testify at the trial. He has been the subject of more than two dozen sexual abuse lawsuits and was among 12 current or former priests named in a 47-plaintiff case that the diocese settled for $10 million in 2008. He repeatedly has denied all abuse allegations.

The diocese has been named in dozens of civil lawsuits in the past decade alleging sexual abuse by its priests. A new surge of lawsuits flared up in mid-2011 after the Rev. Shawn Ratigan was charged with producing and attempting to produce child pornography.

The first of the Ratigan lawsuits was resolved in May, when the diocese agreed — days before the scheduled trial — to a $600,000 settlement in a federal civil lawsuit filed against Ratigan, the diocese and Bishop Robert Finn by the parents of a young Missouri girl. Until Monday, it was the diocese’s largest settlement in a single priest sex abuse case.

The diocese previously has said that it received a complaint in September 1983 accusing O’Brien of sexual misconduct with a teenage boy and that O’Brien denied any wrongdoing. O’Brien was removed from his assignment as pastor of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in October 1983 and sent for psychological evaluation and treatment, the diocese said.

After completing treatment, O’Brien returned to the diocese in June 1984 and was allowed to serve only as a part-time hospital chaplain, the diocese said. He continued in that position until 2002. Later that year, the bishop at that time, Raymond J. Boland, told O’Brien that he could no longer present himself as a priest.

Randles said she didn’t know what impact the Teeman settlement might have on Couzens’ case, which is set for trial in January.

“We can’t really speculate on how this will affect his case, although any time a survivor achieves justice in the civil system, it always impacts the rest,” she said.

“The sad part is that Brian Teeman was living in a time frame when this kind of thing wasn’t talked about…. He had no place to go. What Don and Rosemary have done is created a place to make it safe for children to come forward. And that’s incredibly important.”

Complete Article HERE!