Former Woodland priest arraigned in Sacramento on 7 counts of child molestation

Former Woodland Holy Rosary Catholic Church Priest the Rev. Uriel Ojeda has been arraigned on seven counts of child molestation, the Sacramento Bee reported Friday.

Ojeda, who served in Woodland from 2007 to 2009, was later transferred to Redding. He did not enter a plea in the brief proceeding in Sacramento Superior Court, according to the Bee.

He spoke only to confirm his name, and to confirm that he knew the identity of his accuser, whose name is not being released.

About a dozen supporters showed up on Ojeda’s behalf, the Bee reported.

Ojeda surrendered to Sacramento police Wednesday night. He is accused of lewd and lascivious acts with a 14-year-old girl on four different dates in 2007 and 2009.

Ojeda’s attorney, Jesse Ortiz, asked that people “not make any judgments on this case until all the facts are known.

“Father Ojeda is a good man who has dedicated his life to helping people,” he said.

On Thursday at a news conference Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto stressed the diocese’s quick response to the allegations, which he said were brought by the family of the alleged victim on Tuesday.

Soto said church officials immediately contacted Child Protective Services and Sacramento police. California law requires clergymen to report suspicion of child sexual abuse.

Ojeda was one of the youngest priests in the diocese, and was hailed as a key link between the church and the Hispanic community in a 2007 profile in The Sacramento Bee. The newspaper reported that he tended to Latino Catholics at the hospital and in the farm fields, where he was recognized by his distinctive yellow truck with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the back window.

Then a vicar at Holy Rosary Parish in Woodland, Ojeda was known for being involved in the community and offering free guitar and drum lessons to parishioners. He played bass in a church band, wore Converse tennis shoes and likes Spider-Man comics, the Bee reported.

Ojeda came to Woodland in August 2007. At the time he told The Democrat he was one of 475 men to be ordained to the priesthood for service throughout the United States in 2007.

He was ordained June 29, 2007, at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento. He joined Holy Rosary Catholic Church for his first priestly assignment.

Ojeda was born in Point Pleasant, N.J., but grew up in Colima, Mexico. At the age of 18 he enrolled in Mount Angel Seminary in St. Benedict, Ore., where he spent four years studying for his Bachelor of Arts degree, and a further four obtaining his Master of Divinity degree. He spent another year studying English, followed by a yearlong internship at the Cathedral in Sacramento.

Soto said the family of the alleged victim approached the diocese on Tuesday and church officials immediately contacted Child Protective Services and Sacramento police. He said the diocese has offered to help the family.

The bishop said the diocese wants to encourage any other potential victims to come forward and that it will make announcements in parishes where Ojeda has served, including Redding and Woodland.

“Anyone who believes that they have been a victim of Father Ojeda or other abuse needs to contact the diocese,” Soto said.

Complete Article HERE!

Irish Panel on Abuse Cites Failures by Church

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!

Delaware men settle $7 million church sex abuse case

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!

Retired Philadelphia cardinal testifies in rape, endangerment case

A retired Roman Catholic cardinal who suffers from cancer and dementia testified behind closed doors for about three hours Monday as lawyers prepare for a groundbreaking priest abuse trial.

Prosecutors deposed 88-year-old former cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua in case he cannot appear for the March trial of three priests, an ex-teacher and a church administrator. The three priests and the former teacher are charged with raping boys. The administrator is the first Roman Catholic church official charged in the U.S. for his administrative actions.

Bevilacqua’s deposition was set to resume Tuesday at the cardinal’s residence at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, just outside Philadelphia.

Church lawyers fought to block Bevilacqua’s testimony. However, Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina deemed him competent Monday after reviewing his medical records and meeting with him Monday morning, her office said.

The church administrator, Monsignor William Lynn, Bevilacqua’s longtime secretary for clergy, is charged with felony child endangerment and conspiracy. He’s accused of transferring predator priests without warning new parishes.

Defense lawyers argue that Lynn was following orders from Bevilacqua, who led the archdiocese from 1988 to 2003. Lynn, 60, served as secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004.

More than a dozen prosecutors, defense lawyers, defendants and court staff were on hand for Bevilacqua’s deposition. Given his health problems, it’s unclear how much his testimony helped city prosecutors who had sought it. A gag order prevents the parties from publicly discussing the case.

Less than a decade ago, they had grilled Bevilacqua in his 10 appearances before the grand jury investigating credible complaints filed against 63 priests in the Philadelphia area.

Bevilacqua’s testimony is seen as a key element of the trial, which is set for March 26 and expected to take several months.

Another key pretrial issue is the scope of evidence that will be allowed. Prosecutors want to include Lynn’s handling of a broad swath of child abuse complaints against priests, to try to show a pattern of wrongdoing. Lynn’s lawyers want to limit the evidence to the three priests on trial with him.

They are the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 64, the Rev. James Brennan, 48, and former priest Edward Avery, 69, along with former teacher Bernard Shero, 48. All of them have denied the charges.

Engelhardt, Avery and Shero are accused of raping the same child, starting when he was a 10-year-old altar boy in northeast Philadelphia, according to the February grand jury report. Brennan is charged with raping a 14-year-old boy from a suburban parish.

Complete Article HERE!

Church Reform Group Identifies Serious Flaw in Bishops’ Clerical Abuse Report

A serious flaw exists in the John Jay College report on the causes and context of the Catholic Church’s worldwide sexual abuse scandal, according to the worldwide Church reform group Voice of the Faithful. The report was made public earlier this year, and the VOTF board of trustees recently reached this conclusion after an internal committee studied the report for several months. The committee’s conclusions were released in October.

VOTF trustee Bill Casey of Alexandria, Va., said, “Although John Jay’s causes and context research credibly documents a 60-year pattern of clergy sexual abuse of minors and clerical cover-up, the report’s serious flaw is failing to name and ascribe how much a clerical culture substantially contributed to that abuse by hiding, enabling and minimizing it.”

In a summary of their John Jay study review called “The John Jay Report: Right Context, Wrong Conclusions,” VOTF trustees challenged as a fundamental influence on sexual abuse of children by clergy the John Jay Report’s emphasis on the link between the peak period of abuses (about 1965-1985) and the deviant behavior in society during the 1960s and 1970s: the “blame Woodstock” approach.

“VOTF believes the John Jay report’s overemphasis on this connection distracts from the Catholic Church hierarchy’s persistent denial and enabling of clergy sexual abuse during the entire 60-year period,” said Dan Bartley, VOTF president. He added that such enabling has been seen most recently in Philadelphia, Kansas City and Houston, where bishops failed to report suspected crimes in a timely and complete way even when mandated to do so.

“We concluded from our review,” said VOTF trustee Mark Mulllaney of Wayland, Mass., “that the John Jay Report’s findings clearly show how Catholic Church hierarchy denied or minimized evidence of clergy sexual abuse of minors and mismanaged the Church’s response to the evidence. Their actions resulted in the harmful treatment of victims, their families and the faith communities for which they had pastoral responsibility. That finding from the report deserved more emphasis.”

According to Bartley, VOTF review faulted the John Jay Report most especially for describing but not naming clericalism as a major contributor to the abuse. “We see clericalism,” he said, “as the attitude on the part of the clergy that they are different than, separate from and above others and therefore exempt from rules and consequences that apply to everyone else in society.”

VOTF trustees concluded their John Jay Report review by offering recommendations they said the Catholic Church should adopt to respond to clergy sexual abuse in a believable way for victims and their families, innocent clergy and lay Catholics whose trust in the hierarchy has been deeply damaged.

The recommendations include:

  • fully independent and comprehensive audits in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards;
  • fully independent diocesan review boards and victim assistance offices;
  • specific disciplinary action for bishops who oppose or violate the provisions of their Charter to Protect Children and Young People;
  • official support for reform of statutes of limitation for sexual abuse;
  • listening sessions nationwide to hear lay people’s, as opposed to clergy, reactions to the sexual abuse scandal and expectations for its full resolution; and
  • access by independent investigators to clergy personnel records throughout the U.S., similar to German bishops’ voluntary action in July 2011.

Complete Article HERE!