Claims of abuse by priests double
FAIRBANKS: Allegations now total 292 against the diocese.
The Associated Press
Published: January 8th, 2009 09:44 PM
Last Modified: January 8th, 2009 08:35 AM
FAIRBANKS -- Since The Fairbanks Catholic Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year, the number of people alleging sexual abuse by diocesan priests and church workers has more than doubled.
The diocese filed for bankruptcy last March. Since then another 152 people have come forward and filed allegations with the court. That brings the latest tally to 292 people claiming they were sexually abused by Catholic clergy from the 1950s to 1980s, officials said.
The court imposed a deadline of last Dec. 2 to file further abuse claims.
An attorney for many of the people alleging sexual abuse said some of the new allegations involve offenders who hadn't been named before.
Anchorage attorney Ken Roosa also said that although the Fairbanks diocese is now legally protected from further claims, victims can and are still levying legal claims against the Society of Jesus -- the Jesuits -- which provides priests for the Northern Alaska mission diocese.
Ronnie Rosenberg, the diocese's legal coordinator, said the Fairbanks diocese is still working on liquidating assets, selling things and getting appraisals to meet bankruptcy requirements. In Chapter 11 cases, an organization keeps running while coming up with a plan for repaying those to whom it owes money.
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"These are complex cases with a lot of people trying to garner assets and figure out a plan," Rosenberg said.
"We're trying to figure out how this can happen so the diocese can continue to operate and the plaintiffs can get compensated. It's in everyone's interest to have that happen," he said.
Previous to filing for bankruptcy protection last winter, the Fairbanks diocese had settled with 23 victims.
The allegations against the diocese claim sexual misconduct by priests or church volunteers that stretches back decades, from the early 1980s to the 1950s.
"We acknowledge that harm was done to people and this is, we think, the most pastoral way to address those hurts," a diocese official said in February about the bankruptcy filing.
In late 2007, the Jesuits and 113 victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy reached a $50 million agreement to settle claims.
The Anchorage diocese, among many others nationally, has had its own sexual-abuse scandals.
This decade the Anchorage diocese has paid out more than $1.5 million, including payment from insurance policies, to address sexual abuse claims. The diocese has sold commercial property and the home of its archbishop to raise money for the settlements.
Allegations have included a former Anchorage priest and a former Kenai priest. The abuse in some cases occurred decades ago.
Showing posts with label அமெரிக்கா. Show all posts
Showing posts with label அமெரிக்கா. Show all posts
Monday, January 12, 2009
Monday, January 05, 2009
ஆப்கானிஸ்தானிலிருந்து திருடப்பட்ட பிள்ளையார் சிலை போர்ட்லாண்ட் ஆரிகோனில்?
Is Portland's Hindu statue a looted antiquity?
10:00 AM, January 4, 2009
The often abstract debate over how strict museums should be about shunning ancient artworks of questionable origins -- lest they wind up owning pieces that have been looted and illegally smuggled -- now wears the familiar face of the Hindu elephant god, Ganesha.
A 1,000-year-old stone stele of the god is scheduled to be unveiled at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon on Valentine's Day. Having already drawn criticism from the anti-looting advocacy group SAFE --Saving Antiquities for Everyone -- the Ganesha could soon be exhibit A in the back-and-forth between those who favor a hard line against collecting ancient works whose paths since before 1970 are murky, and those who think it makes more sense to give museums some leeway when hard proof is lacking.
Guidelines adopted in June by the Assn. of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) call for museums to research carefully whether an object they want left its country of origin before November 1970. That's when the United Nations adopted rules to stem cultural looting.
But when the facts nevertheless remain hazy, the AAMD permits museums to make a judgment call on whether to acquire a piece.
When a work is acquired despite doubts, it's expected to be publicized via an Object Registry on the AAMD website. An image is to be posted, along with what's known about the object's past ownership. The idea is to solicit missing information, and to give individuals or nations-of-origin a chance to claim an object as looted goods. The Ganesha stele is the first, and so far only, artifact to be posted on the registry.
The Portland Art Museum bought the piece at auction from Christie's in September; eight years earlier, it had been sold by Sotheby's. "I can't trace its provenance prior to ... the year 2000," admits Maribeth Graybill, curator of Asian art. But leaders of the Portland museum, which follows the AAMD policy, decided to make the purchase.
Here's how their thinking went:
.
Although it's "a fine example" of its style and period, the Ganesha isn't a rare item, Graybill said, so adding it to a collection in Oregon creates no gap in the art-historical record available to scholars and the public in India. Also, she said, it has lost any sacred attachment to its place of origin: Muslim invaders 800 years ago destroyed all the Hindu and Buddhist temples in northeastern India, so there is no existing ruin to which it could be restored. Also, Graybill said, in South Asian faiths, an image ceases to be sacred "if it is not actively venerated," so the Portland museum feels it isn't violating religious sensibilities by owning the Ganesha.
The museum, she said, balanced "very real concerns about cultural properties against a desire to be a place where the people of Oregon can have encounters with some of the world's most moving and thought-provoking cultures."
When the stele goes on display, Graybill added, it will be "a way to say that India is going to matter at the Portland Art Museum," as well as an opportunity to continue the public discussion of the ethical issues surrounding the antiquities trade and museums' role in it.
Paul Kunkel, a member of SAFE's board, said the Ganesha case shows that "the AAMD guidelines are not nearly as strong as they appear to be," given that a museum subscribing to them could buy a work "not knowing anything" about where it was before 1970.
Graybill said she is still trying to find out more about the stele, having asked other experts to provide information or leads if they can -- so far with no luck. She said she recently wrote to Sotheby's requesting that the auction house look more deeply into past ownership documents she previously was told could not be located.
So far, the only response generated from posting the Ganesha on the AAMD's Object Registry, she said, has been Kunkel contacting her to complain that its acquisition was ill-advised, and notes from some museum-world colleagues, "saying, 'Congratulations, we're glad to see somebody making use of this new mechanism.' "
"We would like to know as much about it as possible," Graybill said, then added, with a laugh, "Our hope, of course, is that it's not looted."
--Mike Boehm
Photo: Stone stele of the Hindu god Ganesha, 11th century India. Credit: Portland Art Museum
Saturday, December 20, 2008
அமெரிக்காவில் படித்துக்கொண்டே அமெரிக்காவுக்கு குண்டு வைக்க யூட்யூப் வீடியோ போட்ட முஸ்லீம் மாணவருக்கு 15 வருட சிறை
அமெரிக்காவில் படித்துக்கொண்டே அமெரிக்காவுக்கு குண்டு வைக்க யூட்யூப் வீடியோ போட்ட முஸ்லீம் மாணவருக்கு 15 வருட சிறை
Student gets 15 years for Youtube bomb video
by Andy Carvell posted on December 19, 2008 6:26 pm
A student was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for uploading a 12 minute bomb-making video to Youtube.
Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, an Egyptian student, was studying at the University of South Florida when he was arrested. Police who pulled him over allegedly found explosives in his car, though this charge was subsequently dropped as part of a plea agreement in June 2008.
When authorities searched Mohamed’s laptop, they found a 12 minute video which contained a demonstration of how to turn a Wal-Mart remote controlled toy car into a detonator for a bomb. The suspect’s voice narrated the video in Arabic. The video had been posted to Youtube and viewed hundreds of times.
Doing himself no favours, Mohammed had claimed in court that he intended the video to be used by enemies of the United States, which he claimed was a ‘vile nation’.
Read more over at Wired
Student gets 15 years for Youtube bomb video
by Andy Carvell posted on December 19, 2008 6:26 pm
A student was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for uploading a 12 minute bomb-making video to Youtube.
Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, an Egyptian student, was studying at the University of South Florida when he was arrested. Police who pulled him over allegedly found explosives in his car, though this charge was subsequently dropped as part of a plea agreement in June 2008.
When authorities searched Mohamed’s laptop, they found a 12 minute video which contained a demonstration of how to turn a Wal-Mart remote controlled toy car into a detonator for a bomb. The suspect’s voice narrated the video in Arabic. The video had been posted to Youtube and viewed hundreds of times.
Doing himself no favours, Mohammed had claimed in court that he intended the video to be used by enemies of the United States, which he claimed was a ‘vile nation’.
Read more over at Wired
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
சிறுவயது பையனை பாலுறவு பலாத்காரம் செய்ததாக மிச்சிகன் 86 வயது பாதிரியார் வேலை நீக்கம்
UP priest accused of sexual misconduct
Associated Press
3:41 PM CDT, October 27, 2008
MARQUETTE, Mich. - An 86-year-old Catholic priest in Michigan's Upper Peninsula has been removed from duty after being accused of sexually molesting an underage boy.
The Rev. Aloysius J. Hasenberg served the Immaculate Conception Parish in Watersmeet.
Bishop Alexander Sample of the Catholic Diocese of Marquette said Monday a preliminary investigation found "sufficient evidence" that the allegation was true, although no final determination has been made.
The diocese said the alleged misconduct happened a number of years ago but church officials learned about it last month.
Sample is sending the case to the Vatican for further review and has informed civil authorities.
Hasenberg was officially retired but had continued celebrating masses at the Watersmeet parish since 1997. He has served numerous Upper Peninsula parishes since his ordination in 1949.
The diocese said it would forward a message seeking comment to Hasenberg's attorney.
Associated Press
3:41 PM CDT, October 27, 2008
MARQUETTE, Mich. - An 86-year-old Catholic priest in Michigan's Upper Peninsula has been removed from duty after being accused of sexually molesting an underage boy.
The Rev. Aloysius J. Hasenberg served the Immaculate Conception Parish in Watersmeet.
Bishop Alexander Sample of the Catholic Diocese of Marquette said Monday a preliminary investigation found "sufficient evidence" that the allegation was true, although no final determination has been made.
The diocese said the alleged misconduct happened a number of years ago but church officials learned about it last month.
Sample is sending the case to the Vatican for further review and has informed civil authorities.
Hasenberg was officially retired but had continued celebrating masses at the Watersmeet parish since 1997. He has served numerous Upper Peninsula parishes since his ordination in 1949.
The diocese said it would forward a message seeking comment to Hasenberg's attorney.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
அரிசோனா அமெரிக்காவில் இந்து கோவில் கட்ட கிறிஸ்துவர்கள் கடும் எதிர்ப்பு
இந்தியாவில் கண்ட இடத்திலெல்லாம் சர்ச் கட்டும் கண்றாவிகள், அமெரிக்காவில் சட்டப்படி நிலம் வாங்கி அனுமதி கேட்டு இந்து கோவில் கட்டுவதற்கு கடும் எதிர்ப்பு தெரிவிக்கின்றனர்
இந்தியாவில் சர்ச் கட்டக்கூடாது , மசூதி கட்டக்கூடாது என்று சட்டம் போட்டால்தான் இவர்கள் அவர்களது நாடுகளில் கோவில் கட்ட அனுமதிப்பார்கள்.
Hindu temple opponents won, now push too much
Comments 2| Recommend 0
Tribune Editorial
Chandler won’t be getting a Hindu temple near Galveston Street and Dobson Road after all. And the blame doesn’t fall on a meddling city government or a lack of respect for religious freedom. The culprit is the misplaced hope of the planned temple’s worshippers that they could ignore the prior restrictions on the property they had purchased.
From the outset, residents of the Five Clemens Place subdivision objected to construction of a 7,500-foot temple for the Sri Venkata Krishna congregation. The residents criticized the idea of something other than a home going on the site as too intrusive, despite the strong historical connection between neighborhoods and places of worship.
We observed in April 2007 that the city would be on shaky legal ground if it tried to interfere with construction of the temple. The City Council granted permission to build in June 2007.
But the prospective neighbors didn’t accept that outcome. So five homeowners sued the congregation several months later, calling attention to property deed restrictions that forbid such a use. A judge recently ruled those restrictions are clear and enforceable, Tribune writer Gary Grado reported Friday.
And this dispute still isn’t over after 18 months, as the suing residents now want the judge to deny the congregation any right to worship in the house that exists on the original property and was slated to be torn down.
This reaction would appear to be a slight against Hindus as an alternative religion in U.S., as it’s hard to imagine the neighbors would put the same effort into stomping out Bible study classes in someone’s home.
The opposition’s energy would be more productive if they were to aid the Hindu congregation in finding another location for a future temple that works for everyone. This certainly would enrich the karma of Five Clemens Place.
இந்தியாவில் சர்ச் கட்டக்கூடாது , மசூதி கட்டக்கூடாது என்று சட்டம் போட்டால்தான் இவர்கள் அவர்களது நாடுகளில் கோவில் கட்ட அனுமதிப்பார்கள்.
Hindu temple opponents won, now push too much
Comments 2| Recommend 0
Tribune Editorial
Chandler won’t be getting a Hindu temple near Galveston Street and Dobson Road after all. And the blame doesn’t fall on a meddling city government or a lack of respect for religious freedom. The culprit is the misplaced hope of the planned temple’s worshippers that they could ignore the prior restrictions on the property they had purchased.
From the outset, residents of the Five Clemens Place subdivision objected to construction of a 7,500-foot temple for the Sri Venkata Krishna congregation. The residents criticized the idea of something other than a home going on the site as too intrusive, despite the strong historical connection between neighborhoods and places of worship.
We observed in April 2007 that the city would be on shaky legal ground if it tried to interfere with construction of the temple. The City Council granted permission to build in June 2007.
But the prospective neighbors didn’t accept that outcome. So five homeowners sued the congregation several months later, calling attention to property deed restrictions that forbid such a use. A judge recently ruled those restrictions are clear and enforceable, Tribune writer Gary Grado reported Friday.
And this dispute still isn’t over after 18 months, as the suing residents now want the judge to deny the congregation any right to worship in the house that exists on the original property and was slated to be torn down.
This reaction would appear to be a slight against Hindus as an alternative religion in U.S., as it’s hard to imagine the neighbors would put the same effort into stomping out Bible study classes in someone’s home.
The opposition’s energy would be more productive if they were to aid the Hindu congregation in finding another location for a future temple that works for everyone. This certainly would enrich the karma of Five Clemens Place.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
பாதிரியாரும் கன்யாஸ்திரியும் கல்யாணம் செய்து பெற்ற குழந்தைகள் பற்றிய திரைப்படம்
பாதிரியாரும் கன்யாஸ்திரியும் கல்யாணம் செய்து பெற்ற குழந்தைகள் பற்றிய திரைப்படம் "Immaculate confession" திரையிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.
'Immaculate Confession': priests, nuns in love
Edward Guthmann
Friday, October 17, 2008
Simone Grudzen always knew her family was different. It wasn't every kid in San Jose who had a priest for a father and a nun for a mother.
"I never volunteered the information as a kid or later as a teenager," she says. "Because then I would have to explain. Also, I didn't quite understand the story myself." In 1966, Grudzen's father, Jerry, was ordained at Maryknoll Catholic Missionary Society in Ossining, N.Y. At Maryknoll, he met and fell in love with Grudzen's mother, Marita, a nun. At first the couple resisted a physical relationship, hoping to form a spiritual union. When that became impossible, they left the church and married.
In her film "Immaculate Confession," Grudzen explores the story that she knew only "in bits and pieces" as a child.
"It was hard to understand because it was such a mythic love story," Grudzen said in the Bernal Heights apartment she shares with her partner, Emily Drabant. "My sister and I didn't understand the gravity of it until our teens."
"Immaculate Confession," which Grudzen directed and also produced with her older sister, Corita, will premiere next Sunday in the United Nations Association Film Festival. Grudzen, 32, studied documentary filmmaking at New York University.
"I always saw myself working in documentary," she said. "And because this was a real story in my life and my parents' life, I felt that it was just a natural progression to do the film."
Instead of doing a social-issue documentary with a lot of statistics and a broad overview, Grudzen decided to tell three individual stories.
"I interviewed 100 priests before we shot, because we wanted to decide who we wanted to focus on," she said. "I think it's a really interesting subject - celibacy and the priesthood - but I felt like we would reach people better if we told a few intimate stories and got to know these characters a little better."
In addition to her parents, Grudzen chose John Dee, a Minneapolis ex-priest and musician who had recently been widowed, and Tom Durkin, a priest-turned-sex guru who moved to Hawaii and embraced Eastern spirituality and communal living.
"I didn't want to focus so much on the politics and history so much as I wanted to humanize these characters. You know, once you become a priest, you're sort of leaving your life behind - your family, your friends - so you really lose your identity in a way. And that's what the church wants. And I guess I wanted to film these people reclaiming their humanity and reclaiming their sexuality."
In her film, Grudzen refers briefly to the molestation scandals that unmoored the Catholic Church in recent years. She runs a title card at the beginning that says, "Priests who molested children many times are allowed to continue to administer the sacraments. Whereas, once a priest marries, he's immediately excommunicated."
"That's a really important point," Grudzen says, "that these priests who had integrity - who came out with their love - were immediately excommunicated upon marrying."
Apart from that, she doesn't address the molestation crisis.
"I felt that that's a whole other film," she said, "and I felt that would really overshadow these stories of integrity."
In one generation, the image of priests and the public's faith in them as spiritual guides has taken a devastating turn. In the '40s and '50s, Grudzen says, "to be a priest was really to be a rock star. If you were in the middle class or working class, that was the way to advance your education, the way to travel and the way to just sort of become exalted. You became someone everyone can look up to. And that's how my dad saw it as well."
Today, "American culture is definitely moving away from a young priesthood," Grudzen said. "There are more priests over 90 than under 30. One in four churches in the United States is without a parish priest." To offset the shortage, priests are imported to this country from Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia, the Philippines. Sri Lanka.
"Optional celibacy," Grudzen says, "is the direction the church should go."
At one time, the Catholic Church permitted marriages, but in 1139 established a mandatory celibacy doctrine to keep property within the church. In the mid-'60s, at the time of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Vatican II), many priests were optimistic that the marriage ban would be lifted.
"Priests and nuns who had not left (the church) yet thought that it was right around the corner," Grudzen says. "So a lot of these priests and nuns were sort of informally pairing off, thinking, 'OK, just another year.' "
Grudzen's parents were part of that generation. When they fell in love, she said, "they were in a state of crisis, and I don't think either of them really knew how it was going to turn out. They were taking a leap of faith."
When her father was assigned to Bolivia for one year, her parents sent covert love letters to each other on reel-to-reel tapes. Her mother's fellow nuns collaborated in smuggling the tapes to avoid the suspicion of the mother superior.
It was her parents' example of "following their hearts" and weathering the rejection of family and church, Grudzen says, that made it easier for her to come out as a lesbian.
"They really inspired me to live my life as I want to live it - with conviction and a sense of inner truth," she said. "I got that from their story."
Grudzen has been in a relationship for one year with Drabant, a Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience at Stanford University. She says her parents never had a problem with her sexuality. "They were and are awesome. They're really accepting, really progressive. I think I got really lucky."
Having grown up with a priest father, and having met so many priests in preparation for her film, Grudzen believes strongly in the value of religious service - particularly in the tradition of working with the undeserved and the poor.
"I think a lot of change has to happen," she said. "I don't feel included in the Catholic Church, given my sexuality. But I recognize that a lot of Catholics are really great people, and I have no issue with the community. My beef isn't with Catholics; it's with the Vatican hierarchy and the politics of the church."
IMMACULATE CONFESSION (not rated) screens at 3:30 p.m. next Sunday at the United Nations Association Film Festival in Annenberg Auditorium, Stanford University. (650) 725-2787, www.unaff.org.
To see a trailer for "Immaculate Confession," go to www.immaculateconfession.com.
E-mail Edward Guthmann at eguthmann@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page N - 26 of the San Francisco Chronicle
'Immaculate Confession': priests, nuns in love
Edward Guthmann
Friday, October 17, 2008
Simone Grudzen always knew her family was different. It wasn't every kid in San Jose who had a priest for a father and a nun for a mother.
"I never volunteered the information as a kid or later as a teenager," she says. "Because then I would have to explain. Also, I didn't quite understand the story myself." In 1966, Grudzen's father, Jerry, was ordained at Maryknoll Catholic Missionary Society in Ossining, N.Y. At Maryknoll, he met and fell in love with Grudzen's mother, Marita, a nun. At first the couple resisted a physical relationship, hoping to form a spiritual union. When that became impossible, they left the church and married.
In her film "Immaculate Confession," Grudzen explores the story that she knew only "in bits and pieces" as a child.
"It was hard to understand because it was such a mythic love story," Grudzen said in the Bernal Heights apartment she shares with her partner, Emily Drabant. "My sister and I didn't understand the gravity of it until our teens."
"Immaculate Confession," which Grudzen directed and also produced with her older sister, Corita, will premiere next Sunday in the United Nations Association Film Festival. Grudzen, 32, studied documentary filmmaking at New York University.
"I always saw myself working in documentary," she said. "And because this was a real story in my life and my parents' life, I felt that it was just a natural progression to do the film."
Instead of doing a social-issue documentary with a lot of statistics and a broad overview, Grudzen decided to tell three individual stories.
"I interviewed 100 priests before we shot, because we wanted to decide who we wanted to focus on," she said. "I think it's a really interesting subject - celibacy and the priesthood - but I felt like we would reach people better if we told a few intimate stories and got to know these characters a little better."
In addition to her parents, Grudzen chose John Dee, a Minneapolis ex-priest and musician who had recently been widowed, and Tom Durkin, a priest-turned-sex guru who moved to Hawaii and embraced Eastern spirituality and communal living.
"I didn't want to focus so much on the politics and history so much as I wanted to humanize these characters. You know, once you become a priest, you're sort of leaving your life behind - your family, your friends - so you really lose your identity in a way. And that's what the church wants. And I guess I wanted to film these people reclaiming their humanity and reclaiming their sexuality."
In her film, Grudzen refers briefly to the molestation scandals that unmoored the Catholic Church in recent years. She runs a title card at the beginning that says, "Priests who molested children many times are allowed to continue to administer the sacraments. Whereas, once a priest marries, he's immediately excommunicated."
"That's a really important point," Grudzen says, "that these priests who had integrity - who came out with their love - were immediately excommunicated upon marrying."
Apart from that, she doesn't address the molestation crisis.
"I felt that that's a whole other film," she said, "and I felt that would really overshadow these stories of integrity."
In one generation, the image of priests and the public's faith in them as spiritual guides has taken a devastating turn. In the '40s and '50s, Grudzen says, "to be a priest was really to be a rock star. If you were in the middle class or working class, that was the way to advance your education, the way to travel and the way to just sort of become exalted. You became someone everyone can look up to. And that's how my dad saw it as well."
Today, "American culture is definitely moving away from a young priesthood," Grudzen said. "There are more priests over 90 than under 30. One in four churches in the United States is without a parish priest." To offset the shortage, priests are imported to this country from Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia, the Philippines. Sri Lanka.
"Optional celibacy," Grudzen says, "is the direction the church should go."
At one time, the Catholic Church permitted marriages, but in 1139 established a mandatory celibacy doctrine to keep property within the church. In the mid-'60s, at the time of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Vatican II), many priests were optimistic that the marriage ban would be lifted.
"Priests and nuns who had not left (the church) yet thought that it was right around the corner," Grudzen says. "So a lot of these priests and nuns were sort of informally pairing off, thinking, 'OK, just another year.' "
Grudzen's parents were part of that generation. When they fell in love, she said, "they were in a state of crisis, and I don't think either of them really knew how it was going to turn out. They were taking a leap of faith."
When her father was assigned to Bolivia for one year, her parents sent covert love letters to each other on reel-to-reel tapes. Her mother's fellow nuns collaborated in smuggling the tapes to avoid the suspicion of the mother superior.
It was her parents' example of "following their hearts" and weathering the rejection of family and church, Grudzen says, that made it easier for her to come out as a lesbian.
"They really inspired me to live my life as I want to live it - with conviction and a sense of inner truth," she said. "I got that from their story."
Grudzen has been in a relationship for one year with Drabant, a Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience at Stanford University. She says her parents never had a problem with her sexuality. "They were and are awesome. They're really accepting, really progressive. I think I got really lucky."
Having grown up with a priest father, and having met so many priests in preparation for her film, Grudzen believes strongly in the value of religious service - particularly in the tradition of working with the undeserved and the poor.
"I think a lot of change has to happen," she said. "I don't feel included in the Catholic Church, given my sexuality. But I recognize that a lot of Catholics are really great people, and I have no issue with the community. My beef isn't with Catholics; it's with the Vatican hierarchy and the politics of the church."
IMMACULATE CONFESSION (not rated) screens at 3:30 p.m. next Sunday at the United Nations Association Film Festival in Annenberg Auditorium, Stanford University. (650) 725-2787, www.unaff.org.
To see a trailer for "Immaculate Confession," go to www.immaculateconfession.com.
E-mail Edward Guthmann at eguthmann@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page N - 26 of the San Francisco Chronicle
டீனேஜ் சிறுவனை பலாத்காரம் செய்த பாதிரியாருக்கு மீண்டும் சர்ச் டயோசீஸில் வேலை
டீனேஜ் சிறுவனை பலாத்காரம் செய்த பாதிரியாருக்கு மீண்டும் சர்ச் டயோசீஸில் வேலை கொடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.
Priest who molested teen returns
Cardinal had said 'he won't be coming back to Chicago'
Recommend Comments
October 18, 2008
BY MIKE THOMAS Staff Reporter mthomas@suntimes.com
A Roman Catholic priest from out of state who pleaded guilty to molesting a teenage boy and was barred by the Vatican last month from presenting himself as a priest has resumed a consulting post here with a publishing arm of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The Rev. Kenneth J. Martin, from the Diocese of Wilmington, Del., "won't be coming back to Chicago, obviously," Cardinal Francis George said in 2003.
That was in response to reports in the Chicago Sun-Times that Martin had been working as a consultant for Liturgy Training Publications on the Northwest Side since May 2002 and, while in Chicago, regularly staying at the cardinal's Gold Coast mansion despite having pleaded guilty in December 2001 to sexually abusing a former student of his from the teenager's sophomore year in 1977 until he was a senior, in 1980.
Taught in Baltimore
Martin, now 63, was not yet a priest at the time. He was teaching at the school the boy attended -- Loyola Blakefield Catholic High School in suburban Baltimore.
Liturgy Training Publications is a not-for-profit publishing company owned by the Chicago Archdiocese with offices at 1800 N. Hermitage, next to St. Mary of the Angels elementary school.
Martin, who was initially removed from ministry in Delaware in 2001, didn't return to work in Chicago until last year, according to John Thomas, Liturgy Training Publications' director. "From '03 to '07, he wasn't here at all at the offices," Thomas said.
But Martin, a Spanish-language liturgy expert, continued to be employed as an "off-site liturgy consultant" who "edits and reviews liturgical texts and consults with LTP's director about liturgical publications," and also does translation work, according to the archdiocese.
Asked how often Martin returned to work in Chicago, Susan Burritt, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said he "conducts his responsibilities by e-mail and phone and has visited the LTP office in Chicago twice in 2008."
LTP's Thomas said those two visits were the only times that Martin, who now lives in New Jersey, was in the Chicago office. Thomas said they were "just overnights" and that he and Martin "met at other points. Sometimes, I met with him in New Jersey."
In a later e-mail, the archdiocese amended that account, saying: "From June 2007 until July 2008, Martin attended meetings at LTP on seven occasions. Martin did not stay at any archdiocesan location.
"Martin has never worked full-time on-site," according to that statement, which also said that, in addition to Thomas, other staffers with the publishing company had met "offsite" with Martin "at least quarterly from 2003 until 2007."
Old acquaintance
In response to a request for an interview with the cardinal, the archdiocese instead offered a written statement quoting George as saying that, in February 2003, he told Martin "he could not come back to Chicago and present himself as a priest, nor could he stay at my residence. I believe that any work he has done in translating texts or as an editorial consultant was carried out under those conditions."
Martin and George know each other from their work with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, according to Burritt. The cardinal "knew Ken Martin when Martin was on the staff of the [bishops group] in Washington, D.C.," she said.
The group lists Martin as having been associate director of its Secretariat for the Liturgy from December 2000 until June 30, 2001 -- four days after his arrest in Baltimore County, Md., in the sex-abuse case. George, long involved with the organization, has been its president since November 2007.
Thomas said "suggestions for who could help fill [Martin's] role came from many sources," including the cardinal.
Martin began consulting for the Chicago Archdiocese publishing company and staying at the cardinal's mansion on North State Parkway about one week a month in spring 2002, as the American Catholic church struggled to deal with the worst clergy sex-abuse scandal it has faced. At the time, George said Martin "is doing a certain limited job here, and he's doing it well."
In the criminal case, the victim, who is now in his 40s, asked that Martin not get jail time. "I just wanted to make sure he pleaded guilty and that nothing like that would happen to anyone else," he said in a 2003 interview.
In a plea deal, Martin got three to five years of unsupervised probation. Eventually, his conviction was expunged.
But Martin "has been removed from ministry for the Diocese of Wilmington, and he has been barred from presenting himself as a priest," said Bob Krebs, communications director for the Delaware diocese.
Krebs said there had been "an understanding" that Martin would not present himself as a priest but that it recently came to the diocese's attention that, "in some circumstances and with some audiences," Martin had done just that. Krebs said he didn't know where, but that "it wasn't in Wilmington, it was elsewhere."
The Vatican formally barred Martin from presenting himself as a priest last month, Krebs said.
Priest who molested teen returns
Cardinal had said 'he won't be coming back to Chicago'
Recommend Comments
October 18, 2008
BY MIKE THOMAS Staff Reporter mthomas@suntimes.com
A Roman Catholic priest from out of state who pleaded guilty to molesting a teenage boy and was barred by the Vatican last month from presenting himself as a priest has resumed a consulting post here with a publishing arm of the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The Rev. Kenneth J. Martin, from the Diocese of Wilmington, Del., "won't be coming back to Chicago, obviously," Cardinal Francis George said in 2003.
That was in response to reports in the Chicago Sun-Times that Martin had been working as a consultant for Liturgy Training Publications on the Northwest Side since May 2002 and, while in Chicago, regularly staying at the cardinal's Gold Coast mansion despite having pleaded guilty in December 2001 to sexually abusing a former student of his from the teenager's sophomore year in 1977 until he was a senior, in 1980.
Taught in Baltimore
Martin, now 63, was not yet a priest at the time. He was teaching at the school the boy attended -- Loyola Blakefield Catholic High School in suburban Baltimore.
Liturgy Training Publications is a not-for-profit publishing company owned by the Chicago Archdiocese with offices at 1800 N. Hermitage, next to St. Mary of the Angels elementary school.
Martin, who was initially removed from ministry in Delaware in 2001, didn't return to work in Chicago until last year, according to John Thomas, Liturgy Training Publications' director. "From '03 to '07, he wasn't here at all at the offices," Thomas said.
But Martin, a Spanish-language liturgy expert, continued to be employed as an "off-site liturgy consultant" who "edits and reviews liturgical texts and consults with LTP's director about liturgical publications," and also does translation work, according to the archdiocese.
Asked how often Martin returned to work in Chicago, Susan Burritt, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said he "conducts his responsibilities by e-mail and phone and has visited the LTP office in Chicago twice in 2008."
LTP's Thomas said those two visits were the only times that Martin, who now lives in New Jersey, was in the Chicago office. Thomas said they were "just overnights" and that he and Martin "met at other points. Sometimes, I met with him in New Jersey."
In a later e-mail, the archdiocese amended that account, saying: "From June 2007 until July 2008, Martin attended meetings at LTP on seven occasions. Martin did not stay at any archdiocesan location.
"Martin has never worked full-time on-site," according to that statement, which also said that, in addition to Thomas, other staffers with the publishing company had met "offsite" with Martin "at least quarterly from 2003 until 2007."
Old acquaintance
In response to a request for an interview with the cardinal, the archdiocese instead offered a written statement quoting George as saying that, in February 2003, he told Martin "he could not come back to Chicago and present himself as a priest, nor could he stay at my residence. I believe that any work he has done in translating texts or as an editorial consultant was carried out under those conditions."
Martin and George know each other from their work with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, according to Burritt. The cardinal "knew Ken Martin when Martin was on the staff of the [bishops group] in Washington, D.C.," she said.
The group lists Martin as having been associate director of its Secretariat for the Liturgy from December 2000 until June 30, 2001 -- four days after his arrest in Baltimore County, Md., in the sex-abuse case. George, long involved with the organization, has been its president since November 2007.
Thomas said "suggestions for who could help fill [Martin's] role came from many sources," including the cardinal.
Martin began consulting for the Chicago Archdiocese publishing company and staying at the cardinal's mansion on North State Parkway about one week a month in spring 2002, as the American Catholic church struggled to deal with the worst clergy sex-abuse scandal it has faced. At the time, George said Martin "is doing a certain limited job here, and he's doing it well."
In the criminal case, the victim, who is now in his 40s, asked that Martin not get jail time. "I just wanted to make sure he pleaded guilty and that nothing like that would happen to anyone else," he said in a 2003 interview.
In a plea deal, Martin got three to five years of unsupervised probation. Eventually, his conviction was expunged.
But Martin "has been removed from ministry for the Diocese of Wilmington, and he has been barred from presenting himself as a priest," said Bob Krebs, communications director for the Delaware diocese.
Krebs said there had been "an understanding" that Martin would not present himself as a priest but that it recently came to the diocese's attention that, "in some circumstances and with some audiences," Martin had done just that. Krebs said he didn't know where, but that "it wasn't in Wilmington, it was elsewhere."
The Vatican formally barred Martin from presenting himself as a priest last month, Krebs said.
Friday, October 17, 2008
ஏழு வயதாக இருக்கும்போது தன்னை கற்பழித்த கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரியார் மீது பெண் வழக்கு
ஐடஹோவை சேர்ந்த ஒரு பெண் ஒரு பாதிரியார் தான் 7 வயதாக இருக்கும்போது கற்பழித்ததை குற்றச்சாட்டாக எடுத்துசென்று அவர் மீது வழக்கு தொடர்ந்துள்ளார்
Idaho Woman Files Suit Against Jesuit Order For Sexual Abuse By Catholic Priest 33 Years Ago
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October 15, 2008 12:43 p.m. EST
AHN Staff
Lapwai, ID (AHN) - A Jesuit Catholic priest who counseled a married couple and their family 33 years ago in Lapwai, Idaho sexually abused their 7-year-old daughter.
The Jesuit priest, Reverend A.J. Feretti or Father Freddy, was ministering families of the Nez Perce Indian tribe in 1970s when the alleged abuse happened. He passed away in 1982 but the wounds he inflicted to Mia Sonneck, who is now 41 years old, continue to haunt the child abuse victim.
Sonneck, together with members of her family, went to court Monday making serious allegations that Feretti raped her on a number of occasions in 1973. She said the priest would get her away from her home to give her parents time alone.
She said that Ferreti abused her so violently that she bled. There were instances that the abuse occurred in front of other children.
Sonneck filed the lawsuit against the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus in the 2nd District Court late last week.
Sonneck claim that the Jesuit order knew or should have known that Ferreti was a threat to children, and that Indian children in particular were in danger to sexual exploitation by the clergy.
She came out of the open as part of a healing process and is asking for damages amounting to over $10,000.
Idaho Woman Files Suit Against Jesuit Order For Sexual Abuse By Catholic Priest 33 Years Ago
ShareThis
October 15, 2008 12:43 p.m. EST
AHN Staff
Lapwai, ID (AHN) - A Jesuit Catholic priest who counseled a married couple and their family 33 years ago in Lapwai, Idaho sexually abused their 7-year-old daughter.
The Jesuit priest, Reverend A.J. Feretti or Father Freddy, was ministering families of the Nez Perce Indian tribe in 1970s when the alleged abuse happened. He passed away in 1982 but the wounds he inflicted to Mia Sonneck, who is now 41 years old, continue to haunt the child abuse victim.
Sonneck, together with members of her family, went to court Monday making serious allegations that Feretti raped her on a number of occasions in 1973. She said the priest would get her away from her home to give her parents time alone.
She said that Ferreti abused her so violently that she bled. There were instances that the abuse occurred in front of other children.
Sonneck filed the lawsuit against the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus in the 2nd District Court late last week.
Sonneck claim that the Jesuit order knew or should have known that Ferreti was a threat to children, and that Indian children in particular were in danger to sexual exploitation by the clergy.
She came out of the open as part of a healing process and is asking for damages amounting to over $10,000.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
அமெரிக்க பழங்குடி பெண், தன்னை கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரியார் பலாத்காரம் செய்ததாக புகார்
அமெரிக்க பழங்குடி பெண், தன்னை கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரியார் பலாத்காரம் செய்ததாக புகார் கூறியுள்ளார்
இந்தியாவிலும் ஏராளமான வெள்ளைக்காரர்களும் இந்திய கிறிஸ்துவர்களும் பழங்குடிகளிடம் சேவை செய்கிறோம் என்று கும்மி அடித்துகொண்டிருக்கிறார்கள்.
என்ன சேவை செய்கிறார்கள் என்று யாரேனும் ஆராய்ந்தால் நல்லது
Woman claims priest abused her 33 years ago
Mia Sonneck stands with her lawyer Monday in front the Nez Perce County Courthouse Monday.
YouNewsTV™Story Created: Oct 14, 2008 at 2:50 PM MDT
Story Updated: Oct 14, 2008 at 4:29 PM MDT
By Matt Loveless Video LAPWAI - A Lapwai woman is making serious allegations against her former priest and church for incidents she says happened in the 1970s.
Mia Sonneck said Monday she's ready to face a 33-year-old demon.
"He took advantage of the situation and me," said Sonneck.
Sonneck, her family and her lawyer stood in front of a closed Nez Perce County courthouse Monday with a ten-page lawsuit in hand against the Society of Jesus, Oregon Province.
Sonneck said when she was 8-years-old, her priest, A.J. Ferreti, or "Father Freddy," sexually abused her on a number of occasions. The 41-year-old has not told her story until recently.
"At the time it was happening, I wanted my family to be together," said Sonneck. "Then after, trying to become a woman, a teenager and stuff, I didn't want to think about something like that. I repressed the memory."
In the suit, filed Friday, Sonneck and her attorney Leander James allege the church of showing a pattern of harboring child abusers and protecting their identities.
"We have the testimony of Mia," said James. "We have a witness. We have other people that we feel will come forward throughout the process of the lawsuit. We're obviously at an early stage."
Thirty-three years does not exceed the new definition of statute of limitations for child abuse victims, according to James. He said that doesn't begin until the victims discover the connection between the abuse and the injury.
"The whole purpose of that is to allow these people who have suffered the horrors of child sexual abuse to be able to bring their claim forward when they discover the effect later in life," said James.
James said “Father Freddy” passed away in 1982, but that his client’s painful memories didn't die. He said she is asking for at least $10,000 in restitution, but said that's not what the lawsuit is about.
"To focus everyone on this problem, to help protect future victims," said James.
"I didn't think I was good enough for a lot of things, and now I realize why," said Sonneck. "That's how it started out."
Monday, October 13, 2008
செவிடர்கள் சேவை: போஸ்டனில் 14 கன்யாஸ்திரிகள், 2 பாதிரியார்கள் மீது கற்பழிப்பு வழக்கு
செவிடர்களுக்கான சேவை பள்ளி நடத்துகிறோம் என்ற பெயரில் சிறுவர்களை கற்பழிப்பு, பாலியல் பலாத்காரம் மற்றும் பல தன்னலமற்ற சேவைகளுக்காக பயன்படுத்திக்கொண்ட 14 கன்யாஸ்திரிகள் 2 பாதிரியார்கள் மீது வழக்கு தொடரப்பட்டது
Alleged Victims Recall Abuse by Nuns
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
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BOSTON — Nine former students at a now-defunct school for the deaf claim in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that they were beaten, sexually molested and emotionally tormented by the nuns who ran the school.
The plaintiffs are suing at least 14 nuns, along with two priests, an athletic instructor and a former top official in the Boston archdiocese, according to their attorney, Mitchell Garabedian (search).
The victims, three women and six men, were between the ages of 7 and 16 when they were allegedly sexually and physically abused between 1944 and 1977. They are now 41 to 67 years old.
"They are all speech impaired and hearing impaired," said Garabedian, who represents a total of 31 former students at the school and expects to file more lawsuits alleging abuse there. "Instead of receiving an education they received beatings and sexually abusive actions."
The nuns are all members of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston (search). Their order served as the faculty and administration of the Boston School for the Deaf (search), which was operated by an independent, nonprofit corporation. The school, in Randolph, closed a decade ago.
RelatedStories
Lawsuit Claims Abuse by Nuns at School for Deaf Background
Church Abuse Cases
Bio: Cardinal Bernard Law Timeline: Church Sex-Abuse Scandal Raw Data
7.23.03: Mass. Attorney General's Report
on Church Sex-Abuse Scandal (PDF) Fox Fast Links
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops The Vatican FOXNews.com does not endorse content on external sites
The case is the first to allege widespread abuse by nuns since the clergy sex abuse scandal began in Boston in early 2002.
Garabedian said the abuse included fondling, rape, and rape with foreign objects. At least one student's head was submerged, face-first, in a toilet until she passed out; others were locked in closets for hours as a form of punishment.
"The physical abuse is extremely disturbing," said Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of people who filed lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests. "It's disturbing, ugly and pitiful."
The Sisters of St. Joseph, in a statement released Tuesday afternoon emphasized that the school, which was open from 1899 to 1994, had positively influenced "thousands of lives," but also promised an immediate, fair and sensitive investigation.
"With regard to the accusations of abuse against our sisters and others at The Boston School for the Deaf, we will proceed with sensitivity and dignity for the alleged abused and with a sincere reverence for the truth and respect for civil and canon law," the statement said.
"We want to remind all that the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston approaches reports of possible abuse with compassion, pastoral care, and attention to the protection of each person involved," the statement said.
More than two dozen plaintiffs and supporters crowded quietly into a hotel conference room Tuesday. Several of them made emotional statements through sign language interpreters.
James Sullivan, 55, of Boston, who attended the school from 1953 to 1967, told of a day in third grade in which he had his head slammed into a wall and a door, was slapped around and hit with a yardstick until he was bloody.
When he went home and told his parents, Sullivan said, they didn't listen to him.
"They felt the nuns were right, you know, they had to discipline me," he said.
Sullivan also alleges in the complaint that he suffered sexual abuse at the school.
"I'm still not a happy person because of all that happened," he said. "I really don't know who I am until this day."
The defendants now range in age from 75 to 95, said Garabedian, who filed the 100-page complaint in Suffolk Superior Court.
It names sisters Mary McAvoy, M. John Berchmans, Helen Thomas, M. Joanita O'Connor, Catherine Corrigan, Mary Mark, Bernadette Duggan, Elizabeth Benersani, Mary Carl Boland, Mary Kieran McCormack, Alice Kirby, Helen Callahan, Miriam Theresa Ringer, as well as an unknown nun and priest.
Also listed were Gary Gedney, the school's athletic instructor, the Rev. Charles J. Murphy, a priest of the Boston Archdiocese, and Bishop Thomas V. Daily, who held several top posts in the archdiocese before becoming bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn. There were several other defendants whose identities were unknown.
Telephone messages left for several of the defendants Tuesday weren't immediately returned.
Sister Boland, a former principal of the school who also allegedly physically abused children, reached at a Framingham retirement home for nuns, had nothing to say when asked about the lawsuit.
"I don't know what he's talking about," she said as she passed the phone to another woman. The other woman said, "We are not responding to reporters here" and referred calls to the president of the congregation.
Some of the defendants were accused of participating in the abuse, while others, like Daily, were named for negligent supervision of the abusers. Daily, who is now bishop emeritus of the Brooklyn diocese, didn't immediately return a call to his New York office.
Boston Archdiocese spokesman Rev. Christopher Coyne did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Boston was the epicenter of the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Cardinal Bernard Law resigned in December 2002 amid criticism of his handling of the crisis, and the archdiocese reached an $85 million settlement last year with more than 550 people who said they were abused by priests.
Paul LaRocque, 67, of Gardner, who attended the school from 1942 to 1954, said he was only 5 years old when nuns fondled his testicles and penis. He also said he had witnessed other incidents of nuns fondling boys.
"It's just horrible to explain," he said. "It's just awful."
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, headquartered in the city's Brighton section, include more than 500 nuns who minister in the Boston area and beyond, a spokeswoman said.
Alleged Victims Recall Abuse by Nuns
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
E-Mail Print Share:
BOSTON — Nine former students at a now-defunct school for the deaf claim in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that they were beaten, sexually molested and emotionally tormented by the nuns who ran the school.
The plaintiffs are suing at least 14 nuns, along with two priests, an athletic instructor and a former top official in the Boston archdiocese, according to their attorney, Mitchell Garabedian (search).
The victims, three women and six men, were between the ages of 7 and 16 when they were allegedly sexually and physically abused between 1944 and 1977. They are now 41 to 67 years old.
"They are all speech impaired and hearing impaired," said Garabedian, who represents a total of 31 former students at the school and expects to file more lawsuits alleging abuse there. "Instead of receiving an education they received beatings and sexually abusive actions."
The nuns are all members of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston (search). Their order served as the faculty and administration of the Boston School for the Deaf (search), which was operated by an independent, nonprofit corporation. The school, in Randolph, closed a decade ago.
RelatedStories
Lawsuit Claims Abuse by Nuns at School for Deaf Background
Church Abuse Cases
Bio: Cardinal Bernard Law Timeline: Church Sex-Abuse Scandal Raw Data
7.23.03: Mass. Attorney General's Report
on Church Sex-Abuse Scandal (PDF) Fox Fast Links
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops The Vatican FOXNews.com does not endorse content on external sites
The case is the first to allege widespread abuse by nuns since the clergy sex abuse scandal began in Boston in early 2002.
Garabedian said the abuse included fondling, rape, and rape with foreign objects. At least one student's head was submerged, face-first, in a toilet until she passed out; others were locked in closets for hours as a form of punishment.
"The physical abuse is extremely disturbing," said Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of people who filed lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests. "It's disturbing, ugly and pitiful."
The Sisters of St. Joseph, in a statement released Tuesday afternoon emphasized that the school, which was open from 1899 to 1994, had positively influenced "thousands of lives," but also promised an immediate, fair and sensitive investigation.
"With regard to the accusations of abuse against our sisters and others at The Boston School for the Deaf, we will proceed with sensitivity and dignity for the alleged abused and with a sincere reverence for the truth and respect for civil and canon law," the statement said.
"We want to remind all that the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston approaches reports of possible abuse with compassion, pastoral care, and attention to the protection of each person involved," the statement said.
More than two dozen plaintiffs and supporters crowded quietly into a hotel conference room Tuesday. Several of them made emotional statements through sign language interpreters.
James Sullivan, 55, of Boston, who attended the school from 1953 to 1967, told of a day in third grade in which he had his head slammed into a wall and a door, was slapped around and hit with a yardstick until he was bloody.
When he went home and told his parents, Sullivan said, they didn't listen to him.
"They felt the nuns were right, you know, they had to discipline me," he said.
Sullivan also alleges in the complaint that he suffered sexual abuse at the school.
"I'm still not a happy person because of all that happened," he said. "I really don't know who I am until this day."
The defendants now range in age from 75 to 95, said Garabedian, who filed the 100-page complaint in Suffolk Superior Court.
It names sisters Mary McAvoy, M. John Berchmans, Helen Thomas, M. Joanita O'Connor, Catherine Corrigan, Mary Mark, Bernadette Duggan, Elizabeth Benersani, Mary Carl Boland, Mary Kieran McCormack, Alice Kirby, Helen Callahan, Miriam Theresa Ringer, as well as an unknown nun and priest.
Also listed were Gary Gedney, the school's athletic instructor, the Rev. Charles J. Murphy, a priest of the Boston Archdiocese, and Bishop Thomas V. Daily, who held several top posts in the archdiocese before becoming bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn. There were several other defendants whose identities were unknown.
Telephone messages left for several of the defendants Tuesday weren't immediately returned.
Sister Boland, a former principal of the school who also allegedly physically abused children, reached at a Framingham retirement home for nuns, had nothing to say when asked about the lawsuit.
"I don't know what he's talking about," she said as she passed the phone to another woman. The other woman said, "We are not responding to reporters here" and referred calls to the president of the congregation.
Some of the defendants were accused of participating in the abuse, while others, like Daily, were named for negligent supervision of the abusers. Daily, who is now bishop emeritus of the Brooklyn diocese, didn't immediately return a call to his New York office.
Boston Archdiocese spokesman Rev. Christopher Coyne did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Boston was the epicenter of the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Cardinal Bernard Law resigned in December 2002 amid criticism of his handling of the crisis, and the archdiocese reached an $85 million settlement last year with more than 550 people who said they were abused by priests.
Paul LaRocque, 67, of Gardner, who attended the school from 1942 to 1954, said he was only 5 years old when nuns fondled his testicles and penis. He also said he had witnessed other incidents of nuns fondling boys.
"It's just horrible to explain," he said. "It's just awful."
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, headquartered in the city's Brighton section, include more than 500 nuns who minister in the Boston area and beyond, a spokeswoman said.
ஏராளமான சிறுவர்களை கற்பழித்தற்காக கன்யாஸ்திரிக்கு 1 வருடம் சிறை
ஏராளமான சிறுவர்களை கற்பழித்தற்காக கன்யாஸ்திரிக்கு 1 வருடம் சிறை
Catholic nun sentenced in abuse of boys 40 years ago
By GEORGIA PABST
gpabst@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Feb. 1, 2008
A 79-year-old Roman Catholic nun and former principal of St. Patrick's Congregation grade school was sentenced Friday to a year in the House of Correction and 10 years of probation for molesting two boys more than 40 years ago.
Sister Norma Giannini
Sister Norma Giannini
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11/12/07: Nun pleads no contest to child sex abuse
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Sister Norma Giannini, a member of the Sisters of Mercy, was sentenced to five years in prison on each of two felonies by Milwaukee County Circuit Judge M. Joseph Donald, but he stayed the sentences.
However, Donald said he felt some confinement was needed as punishment for what he termed the "evil destruction, pure heartache . . . and deviant sexual behavior" she inflicted on "young and impressionable boys."
Giannini faced a maximum of 20 years on the two counts. Prosecutor Paul Tiffin sought eight years in prison.
Defense attorney Nikola Kostich sought probation, saying Giannini had undergone therapy, was aging and in failing health, can't drive and basically is confined to an assisted-living facility in Illinois. She walked into court Friday with a cane.
"I ask forgiveness for all those I've injured," she said in court, reading from a brief statement. She never directly addressed the victims, who were in court.
The two victims who brought the complaint are now in their 50s. They pleaded for prison time for the woman they called "Mother Superior" and said the abuse ruined their lives.
James St. Patrick, 53, said he was 12 and in seventh grade when Giannini began molesting him. The abuse occurred "more than 100 times in seventh and eighth grade," he said, in the classroom and even in church. For years, he said, he blamed himself and felt shame as his life spiraled out of control. He has trouble holding a job, turned to alcohol and drugs and became suicidal.
"Please don't give her a pass with probation . . . she belongs in prison," he said.
Other boys also were abused, and one later killed himself, St. Patrick said.
As Gerald Kobs, 55, read his statement in court, his voice quavered, the paper in his hand shook and he cried as he described how his childhood and adulthood had been destroyed by the abuse he suffered as an eighth-grader. He said the abuse occurred at the convent, school, his own bedroom, the family room. He said he tried to tell his mother he needed to go to a different school, but his requests were ignored. The nun had befriended his mother, who as a divorced woman in the 1960s was shunned by others.
According to court documents, a psychologist employed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee to direct Project Benjamin, the archdiocese's outreach program for sex abuse victims, and coordinate the archdiocesan response to sexual abuse told prosecutors that Giannini appeared before a panel looking into sexual abuse in 1996.
Elizabeth Piasecki testified in September 2006, reading from notes she had taken during the meeting with Giannini, in which the nun admitted to sexual contact with four other young boys, including one from Chicago.
After the sentencing, St. Patrick said he thought women who are guilty of sexual abuse should get sentences similar to what male abusers receive.
"It took us a long time to get to today, and it will take time, but it's a victory," Kobs said.
Kostich called Donald's sentence "fair and courageous."
Neither of the victims seemed interested in Donald's suggestion that they and Giannini participate in restorative justice, a voluntary process directed by a mediator in which victims confront their abuser to find forgiveness and healing.
Giannini could be prosecuted for the offenses because she didn't remain in Wisconsin long enough for the six-year statute of limitations then in place to elapse, according to a criminal complaint. Giannini moved to Illinois in 1970.
Sister Betty Smith, president of the Sisters of Mercy, said after the sentencing: "I express profound regret for the pain experienced by these two men and their families and anyone else touched by this situation."
Catholic nun sentenced in abuse of boys 40 years ago
By GEORGIA PABST
gpabst@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Feb. 1, 2008
A 79-year-old Roman Catholic nun and former principal of St. Patrick's Congregation grade school was sentenced Friday to a year in the House of Correction and 10 years of probation for molesting two boys more than 40 years ago.
Sister Norma Giannini
Sister Norma Giannini
Related Coverage
11/12/07: Nun pleads no contest to child sex abuse
Advertisement
Sister Norma Giannini, a member of the Sisters of Mercy, was sentenced to five years in prison on each of two felonies by Milwaukee County Circuit Judge M. Joseph Donald, but he stayed the sentences.
However, Donald said he felt some confinement was needed as punishment for what he termed the "evil destruction, pure heartache . . . and deviant sexual behavior" she inflicted on "young and impressionable boys."
Giannini faced a maximum of 20 years on the two counts. Prosecutor Paul Tiffin sought eight years in prison.
Defense attorney Nikola Kostich sought probation, saying Giannini had undergone therapy, was aging and in failing health, can't drive and basically is confined to an assisted-living facility in Illinois. She walked into court Friday with a cane.
"I ask forgiveness for all those I've injured," she said in court, reading from a brief statement. She never directly addressed the victims, who were in court.
The two victims who brought the complaint are now in their 50s. They pleaded for prison time for the woman they called "Mother Superior" and said the abuse ruined their lives.
James St. Patrick, 53, said he was 12 and in seventh grade when Giannini began molesting him. The abuse occurred "more than 100 times in seventh and eighth grade," he said, in the classroom and even in church. For years, he said, he blamed himself and felt shame as his life spiraled out of control. He has trouble holding a job, turned to alcohol and drugs and became suicidal.
"Please don't give her a pass with probation . . . she belongs in prison," he said.
Other boys also were abused, and one later killed himself, St. Patrick said.
As Gerald Kobs, 55, read his statement in court, his voice quavered, the paper in his hand shook and he cried as he described how his childhood and adulthood had been destroyed by the abuse he suffered as an eighth-grader. He said the abuse occurred at the convent, school, his own bedroom, the family room. He said he tried to tell his mother he needed to go to a different school, but his requests were ignored. The nun had befriended his mother, who as a divorced woman in the 1960s was shunned by others.
According to court documents, a psychologist employed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee to direct Project Benjamin, the archdiocese's outreach program for sex abuse victims, and coordinate the archdiocesan response to sexual abuse told prosecutors that Giannini appeared before a panel looking into sexual abuse in 1996.
Elizabeth Piasecki testified in September 2006, reading from notes she had taken during the meeting with Giannini, in which the nun admitted to sexual contact with four other young boys, including one from Chicago.
After the sentencing, St. Patrick said he thought women who are guilty of sexual abuse should get sentences similar to what male abusers receive.
"It took us a long time to get to today, and it will take time, but it's a victory," Kobs said.
Kostich called Donald's sentence "fair and courageous."
Neither of the victims seemed interested in Donald's suggestion that they and Giannini participate in restorative justice, a voluntary process directed by a mediator in which victims confront their abuser to find forgiveness and healing.
Giannini could be prosecuted for the offenses because she didn't remain in Wisconsin long enough for the six-year statute of limitations then in place to elapse, according to a criminal complaint. Giannini moved to Illinois in 1970.
Sister Betty Smith, president of the Sisters of Mercy, said after the sentencing: "I express profound regret for the pain experienced by these two men and their families and anyone else touched by this situation."
கன்யாஸ்திரியால் கற்பழிக்கப்பட்ட மூன்று பெண்கள் தங்கள் வரலாற்றை பகிர்ந்துகொண்டனர்
கன்யாஸ்திரியால் கற்பழிக்கப்பட்ட மூன்று பெண்கள் தங்கள் வரலாற்றை பகிர்ந்துகொண்டனர்
"Suffering in silence:" 3 women tell story of sex abuse by nun
Updated: 1 month ago
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Decades after they were allegedly sexually abused by a nun, three women announced Thursday they have reached a settlement with the Sisters of St. Francis in Rochester.
The women -- Karen Britten of Illinois, Patricia Schwartz of Eden Prairie and Christine Bertrand of California -- sued the convent in 2005 and 2006.
The three women, all in their 50s, allege they were sexually abused by Sister Benen Kent several times in the 1960s.
Kent was a music and piano teacher. She died in 2003. The women repressed the abuse, their attorney said, until years later.
"Each of these girls suffered in silence," said Jeff Anderson at a press conference on Thursday. "It wasn't until 2002 that the silence was broken, and that triggered each of them to come together to share their stories."
Anderson said Britten's case was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired.
Under the settlement, Anderson said Schwartz and Bertrand together received 400 thousand dollars.
The settlement also calls for the nun's religious order to hold a healing mass at the House of the Sisters of St. Francis, Anderson said. The women said they came forward to prevent abuse to other children.
"We want to make sure that other victims out there learn that you can be a victim and also a survivor," said Patti Schwartz. "You can work through it. You can get help. You can get support, and you can reach the state of survivor and living your life in a more positive way."
"I know there are people out there who think this is shameful, and I want them to feel comfortable enough to come forward and get some help," said Karen Britten.
The women said they did not immediately plan to file a lawsuit against the religious order.
Anderson said they did so after multiple attempts to seek "validation" from the Franciscan Sisters -- were denied.
Court documents show Kent had a history of mental illness and behavioral issues. She was treated with electric shock therapy in 1967. A timeline provided by Anderson also shows that Kent was transferred several times during her career.
She served at the St. Juliana's parish in Chicago, Illinois, before being transferred to Winona in 1966. She also spent time at the Mother House in Rochester before being transferred again to a Chicago convent.
Anderson said six other women have come forward, alleging abuse by Kent, since his clients filed their lawsuits.
The Sisters of St. Francis in Rochester have released a statement on the settlement, according to Sister Elaine Frank: "A mutual settlement has been reached in this case. There's no admission of liability on the part of the Sisters of St. Francis in the agreement,"
Frank said. "As a closing chapter in this settlement, a healing mass will be offered at Assisi Heights in rochester for the victims of abuse. It is the hope of the Sisters that the forgiving, healing love of God, that is offered in every celebration of the Eucharist, will bring reconciliation and peace to the hearts of victims of abuse and draw us all into the heart of Love, that we can become instruments of God's love and peace in a broken, wounded world. We reiterate that, consistent with the Gospel values of dignity, compassion and understanding, we take all reports of misconduct and abuse involving members of our congregations, seriously. We extend our deepest sympathy to anyone who has been a victim of sexual misconduct."
By Karla Hult, KARE 11 News
Read Karla's Blog
"Suffering in silence:" 3 women tell story of sex abuse by nun
Updated: 1 month ago
Read Comments Comments(38)Recommend (0)Print Article Email Article Larger Text Smaller Text
Decades after they were allegedly sexually abused by a nun, three women announced Thursday they have reached a settlement with the Sisters of St. Francis in Rochester.
The women -- Karen Britten of Illinois, Patricia Schwartz of Eden Prairie and Christine Bertrand of California -- sued the convent in 2005 and 2006.
The three women, all in their 50s, allege they were sexually abused by Sister Benen Kent several times in the 1960s.
Kent was a music and piano teacher. She died in 2003. The women repressed the abuse, their attorney said, until years later.
"Each of these girls suffered in silence," said Jeff Anderson at a press conference on Thursday. "It wasn't until 2002 that the silence was broken, and that triggered each of them to come together to share their stories."
Anderson said Britten's case was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired.
Under the settlement, Anderson said Schwartz and Bertrand together received 400 thousand dollars.
The settlement also calls for the nun's religious order to hold a healing mass at the House of the Sisters of St. Francis, Anderson said. The women said they came forward to prevent abuse to other children.
"We want to make sure that other victims out there learn that you can be a victim and also a survivor," said Patti Schwartz. "You can work through it. You can get help. You can get support, and you can reach the state of survivor and living your life in a more positive way."
"I know there are people out there who think this is shameful, and I want them to feel comfortable enough to come forward and get some help," said Karen Britten.
The women said they did not immediately plan to file a lawsuit against the religious order.
Anderson said they did so after multiple attempts to seek "validation" from the Franciscan Sisters -- were denied.
Court documents show Kent had a history of mental illness and behavioral issues. She was treated with electric shock therapy in 1967. A timeline provided by Anderson also shows that Kent was transferred several times during her career.
She served at the St. Juliana's parish in Chicago, Illinois, before being transferred to Winona in 1966. She also spent time at the Mother House in Rochester before being transferred again to a Chicago convent.
Anderson said six other women have come forward, alleging abuse by Kent, since his clients filed their lawsuits.
The Sisters of St. Francis in Rochester have released a statement on the settlement, according to Sister Elaine Frank: "A mutual settlement has been reached in this case. There's no admission of liability on the part of the Sisters of St. Francis in the agreement,"
Frank said. "As a closing chapter in this settlement, a healing mass will be offered at Assisi Heights in rochester for the victims of abuse. It is the hope of the Sisters that the forgiving, healing love of God, that is offered in every celebration of the Eucharist, will bring reconciliation and peace to the hearts of victims of abuse and draw us all into the heart of Love, that we can become instruments of God's love and peace in a broken, wounded world. We reiterate that, consistent with the Gospel values of dignity, compassion and understanding, we take all reports of misconduct and abuse involving members of our congregations, seriously. We extend our deepest sympathy to anyone who has been a victim of sexual misconduct."
By Karla Hult, KARE 11 News
Read Karla's Blog
கிறிஸ்துவ கன்யாஸ்திரியால் கற்பழிக்கப்பட்ட பெண்களுக்கு நஷ்ட ஈடு
கிறிஸ்துவ கன்யாஸ்திரியால் கற்பழிக்கப்பட்ட பெண்களுக்கு நஷ்ட ஈடு வழங்கப்பட்டது
Catholic order of nuns settles claim by three who say they were abused
An attorney for the Franciscan Sisters adamantly denied the allegations, saying that the $400,000 payment was agreed upon to avoid protracted litigation.
By PAT PHEIFER, Star Tribune
Three women who say they were sexually abused as children in the 1960s by a Roman Catholic nun say they hope to find peace when they meet today with the current and former leaders of the Franciscan Sisters, based in Rochester.
St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson announced Thursday that two lawsuits, filed by Christine Bertrand of Sierra Madre, Calif., and Patti Schwartz of Minneapolis, were settled recently. A third filed by Bertrand's sister, Karen Britten of Chicago, was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired, Anderson said.
The women said Sister Benen Kent abused them when she was their piano teacher at St. Juliana's parish in Chicago and when their parents took them to visit her at the order's mother house in Rochester, where Kent was transferred in 1967.
Informed the superior
The women alleged that the order's leader at the time, Sister Delore Rockers, knew Kent was mentally ill and should have known she was a danger to children. The women said they told Rockers about the abuse in the early 2000s but nothing was done. Kent died in 2003.
The settlement calls for a $400,000 payment to Bertrand and Schwartz, and for a "healing mass" and a private meeting today with Rockers and Sister Tierney Trueman, the order's current president.
Tom Wieser, an attorney for the nuns, said the Franciscan Sisters vehemently deny any wrongdoing. The order agreed to the settlement and its conditions to avoid protracted and expensive litigation, he said.
"The bottom line is the Franciscan Sisters are trying to find every possible way to achieve healing and resolution and allow everyone to move on peacefully and successfully," Wieser said.
Bertrand said she and Schwartz will split the settlement proceeds with Britten.
"We started this journey together and we'll continue it together," she said.
Bertrand, Schwartz and Britten each spoke Thursday. All said they hope that sharing their stories will empower other victims to come forward and will help prevent other children from being abused.
Anderson said that since Bertrand filed her lawsuit in 2005, six other women have come forward to report that the same thing happened to them as children.
Victim and survivor
"Each of them had been unable to tell and break the silence until you spoke, until you sued, until you told the truth," Anderson said.
Said Schwartz: "We want to make sure that other victims out there learn that you can be a victim and then also a survivor. You can work through it, you can get help."
Each of the women had repressed memories of the abuse for decades. Britten said she was the first to remember, but thought she was the only victim until her sister and friend shared their stories with her.
Pat Pheifer • 651-298-1551
Catholic order of nuns settles claim by three who say they were abused
An attorney for the Franciscan Sisters adamantly denied the allegations, saying that the $400,000 payment was agreed upon to avoid protracted litigation.
By PAT PHEIFER, Star Tribune
Three women who say they were sexually abused as children in the 1960s by a Roman Catholic nun say they hope to find peace when they meet today with the current and former leaders of the Franciscan Sisters, based in Rochester.
St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson announced Thursday that two lawsuits, filed by Christine Bertrand of Sierra Madre, Calif., and Patti Schwartz of Minneapolis, were settled recently. A third filed by Bertrand's sister, Karen Britten of Chicago, was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired, Anderson said.
The women said Sister Benen Kent abused them when she was their piano teacher at St. Juliana's parish in Chicago and when their parents took them to visit her at the order's mother house in Rochester, where Kent was transferred in 1967.
Informed the superior
The women alleged that the order's leader at the time, Sister Delore Rockers, knew Kent was mentally ill and should have known she was a danger to children. The women said they told Rockers about the abuse in the early 2000s but nothing was done. Kent died in 2003.
The settlement calls for a $400,000 payment to Bertrand and Schwartz, and for a "healing mass" and a private meeting today with Rockers and Sister Tierney Trueman, the order's current president.
Tom Wieser, an attorney for the nuns, said the Franciscan Sisters vehemently deny any wrongdoing. The order agreed to the settlement and its conditions to avoid protracted and expensive litigation, he said.
"The bottom line is the Franciscan Sisters are trying to find every possible way to achieve healing and resolution and allow everyone to move on peacefully and successfully," Wieser said.
Bertrand said she and Schwartz will split the settlement proceeds with Britten.
"We started this journey together and we'll continue it together," she said.
Bertrand, Schwartz and Britten each spoke Thursday. All said they hope that sharing their stories will empower other victims to come forward and will help prevent other children from being abused.
Anderson said that since Bertrand filed her lawsuit in 2005, six other women have come forward to report that the same thing happened to them as children.
Victim and survivor
"Each of them had been unable to tell and break the silence until you spoke, until you sued, until you told the truth," Anderson said.
Said Schwartz: "We want to make sure that other victims out there learn that you can be a victim and then also a survivor. You can work through it, you can get help."
Each of the women had repressed memories of the abuse for decades. Britten said she was the first to remember, but thought she was the only victim until her sister and friend shared their stories with her.
Pat Pheifer • 651-298-1551
சிறுவர்களுக்கு கைமுட்டி அடிக்க கற்றுத்தந்த ஜெஸூட் கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரியார்
இந்த பாதிரியார் செய்ததை தமிழில் எழுத கூசுகிறது.
நீங்களே படித்து தெரிந்துகொள்ளுங்கள்.
Two Illinois Men Say Former Jesuit Priest Taught Them Sex 'Lessons'
ShareThis
October 12, 2008 10:42 a.m. EST
AHN Staff
Chicago, IL (AHN) - Two Illinois men have given their testimonies in a U.S. District Court in Chicago on Friday over alleged sexual acts they committed over the years together with a former Jesuit priest, 78-year-old Donald McGuire.
The alleged victims of child sex abuse, whose full names were withheld, claim that the former reverend shamed them into accepting sex "lessons". Now adults, the alleged victims were 13- and 14-year-olds then.
One of them accounted that McGuire admonished them because they were "addicted to masturbation" and that they needed to be healed through sexually explicit "lessons".
The former priest allegedly taught them to read pornographic magazines and movies. They also masturbated in front of him, had oral sex, and daily rubdowns with oil.
Lawyers of McGuire said the two men were gold diggers seeking damages from the Catholic Church.
McGuire, who was defrocked by the Vatican early this year, drew media attention when he got involved in a child sex abuse scandal, which recently rocked the Catholic Church. He was charged with sexually abusing a minor.
In 1999, a boy was sent by his mother to study and live with McGuire in an Evanston seminary. Now 22 years old, the alleged victim said that the abuse lasted until 2003.
Also, the former priest reportedly took children across state lines to sexually abuse them.
நீங்களே படித்து தெரிந்துகொள்ளுங்கள்.
Two Illinois Men Say Former Jesuit Priest Taught Them Sex 'Lessons'
ShareThis
October 12, 2008 10:42 a.m. EST
AHN Staff
Chicago, IL (AHN) - Two Illinois men have given their testimonies in a U.S. District Court in Chicago on Friday over alleged sexual acts they committed over the years together with a former Jesuit priest, 78-year-old Donald McGuire.
The alleged victims of child sex abuse, whose full names were withheld, claim that the former reverend shamed them into accepting sex "lessons". Now adults, the alleged victims were 13- and 14-year-olds then.
One of them accounted that McGuire admonished them because they were "addicted to masturbation" and that they needed to be healed through sexually explicit "lessons".
The former priest allegedly taught them to read pornographic magazines and movies. They also masturbated in front of him, had oral sex, and daily rubdowns with oil.
Lawyers of McGuire said the two men were gold diggers seeking damages from the Catholic Church.
McGuire, who was defrocked by the Vatican early this year, drew media attention when he got involved in a child sex abuse scandal, which recently rocked the Catholic Church. He was charged with sexually abusing a minor.
In 1999, a boy was sent by his mother to study and live with McGuire in an Evanston seminary. Now 22 years old, the alleged victim said that the abuse lasted until 2003.
Also, the former priest reportedly took children across state lines to sexually abuse them.
இளவயதில் பாதிரியார் சிறுவர்களை பலாத்காரம் செய்ததாக இன்னொரு கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரியார் மீது குற்றச்சாட்டு
இளவயதில் பாதிரியார் சிறுவர்களை பலாத்காரம் செய்ததாக இன்னொரு கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரியார் மீது குற்றச்சாட்டு
Article published Sunday, October 12, 2008
Retired Toledo priest barred from ministry
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
The Rev. Lawrence Varney, a retired Toledo Catholic priest, has been barred from ministry for a credible allegation of sexual abuse.
The 75-year-old diocesan priest was accused of sexual misconduct with a minor almost 30 years ago, the Toledo diocese said in a statement issued late Friday night.
The Diocesan Review Board, a panel appointed to hear allegations of clerical sexual abuse, deemed the allegation to be credible, the statement said.
Bishop Leonard Blair placed Father Varney on administrative leave and barred him from public ministry in compliance with diocesan policy, according to the statement.
Father Varney had been an instructor at Toledo's Central Catholic High School at the time the alleged abuse occurred.
Diocesan spokesman Sally Oberski said the case is just now coming to light because a victim recently came forward.
Claudia Vercellotti, co-director of the local chapter of SNAP, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said, "All this does is bring up more questions. Why, yet again, is the bishop piecemealing information out?"
She added, "Why is it 2008 and the community is just now hearing from the Diocese of Toledo [about this]? This underscores why these matters belong in courthouse and courtrooms; they do not belong buried in a personnel file."
The diocese said it has followed Ohio law on reporting allegations of sexual abuse of minors to civil authorities.
Father Varney, a graduate of Central Catholic High School, went to Mount St. Mary Seminary in Cincinnati and was ordained in Toledo by Bishop George Rehring at Rosary Cathedral on May 28, 1960.
He received master's degrees from Xavier University and the University of Notre Dame.
He served as assistant pastor at St. Joseph, Marblehead, Ohio (1960); St. Mary, Sandusky (1960-64); St. Wendelin, Fostoria (1964-67); St. Anthony, Columbus Grove (1967-70), and Little Flower, Toledo (1970-73).
He taught at Lima's Central Catholic High School from August, 1967, to August, 1970, and Toledo's Central Catholic from August, 1970, to June, 1982, and also served as chaplain of the Franciscan Motherhouse in Sylvania from June, 1973, to June, 1982.
Father Varney was pastor of Ss. Cyril & Methodius, Rossford, (1982-1990) and St. Mary, Assumption, where he served from July, 1990, until his retirement.
A priest who is barred from public ministry remains a priest unless laicized by Rome, but may only celebrate Mass alone with no one present, may not celebrate the other sacraments, may not present himself as a priest, and may not wear clerical garb.
Final determination of Father Varney's case will be referred to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Forty clerics in the 19-county Toledo diocese have been accused of abusing children between 1950 and 2007, according to the diocese's Web site, toledodiocese.org.
In August, 2004, the diocese paid $1.19 million to 23 victims in settling 19 lawsuits.
Blade staff writer Kate Giammarise contributed to this report.
Contact David Yonke at:
dyonke@theblade.com
or 419-724-6154.
Article published Sunday, October 12, 2008
Retired Toledo priest barred from ministry
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
The Rev. Lawrence Varney, a retired Toledo Catholic priest, has been barred from ministry for a credible allegation of sexual abuse.
The 75-year-old diocesan priest was accused of sexual misconduct with a minor almost 30 years ago, the Toledo diocese said in a statement issued late Friday night.
The Diocesan Review Board, a panel appointed to hear allegations of clerical sexual abuse, deemed the allegation to be credible, the statement said.
Bishop Leonard Blair placed Father Varney on administrative leave and barred him from public ministry in compliance with diocesan policy, according to the statement.
Father Varney had been an instructor at Toledo's Central Catholic High School at the time the alleged abuse occurred.
Diocesan spokesman Sally Oberski said the case is just now coming to light because a victim recently came forward.
Claudia Vercellotti, co-director of the local chapter of SNAP, Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said, "All this does is bring up more questions. Why, yet again, is the bishop piecemealing information out?"
She added, "Why is it 2008 and the community is just now hearing from the Diocese of Toledo [about this]? This underscores why these matters belong in courthouse and courtrooms; they do not belong buried in a personnel file."
The diocese said it has followed Ohio law on reporting allegations of sexual abuse of minors to civil authorities.
Father Varney, a graduate of Central Catholic High School, went to Mount St. Mary Seminary in Cincinnati and was ordained in Toledo by Bishop George Rehring at Rosary Cathedral on May 28, 1960.
He received master's degrees from Xavier University and the University of Notre Dame.
He served as assistant pastor at St. Joseph, Marblehead, Ohio (1960); St. Mary, Sandusky (1960-64); St. Wendelin, Fostoria (1964-67); St. Anthony, Columbus Grove (1967-70), and Little Flower, Toledo (1970-73).
He taught at Lima's Central Catholic High School from August, 1967, to August, 1970, and Toledo's Central Catholic from August, 1970, to June, 1982, and also served as chaplain of the Franciscan Motherhouse in Sylvania from June, 1973, to June, 1982.
Father Varney was pastor of Ss. Cyril & Methodius, Rossford, (1982-1990) and St. Mary, Assumption, where he served from July, 1990, until his retirement.
A priest who is barred from public ministry remains a priest unless laicized by Rome, but may only celebrate Mass alone with no one present, may not celebrate the other sacraments, may not present himself as a priest, and may not wear clerical garb.
Final determination of Father Varney's case will be referred to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Forty clerics in the 19-county Toledo diocese have been accused of abusing children between 1950 and 2007, according to the diocese's Web site, toledodiocese.org.
In August, 2004, the diocese paid $1.19 million to 23 victims in settling 19 lawsuits.
Blade staff writer Kate Giammarise contributed to this report.
Contact David Yonke at:
dyonke@theblade.com
or 419-724-6154.
ஆபாச வீடியோ அனுப்பும் கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரியார் கைது
ஆபாச வீடியோ அனுப்பும் கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரியார் கைது செய்யப்பட்டார்
அதுவும் எப்படிப்பட்ட ஆபாச வீடியோக்கள்!
தன்னுடைய ஆபீஸ் பாத்ரூமில் கைமுட்டி அடித்து அதற்றை வீடியோ எடுத்து அவற்றை சிறுவர்களுக்கு அனுப்புகிறார்
14 வயதுப்பையன் என்று தன்னை காட்டிக்கொண்ட ஒரு போலீஸ் ஆபிஸருக்கு அனுப்பியபோது பிடிபட்டார்
கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரியார்களிடம் ஜாக்கிரதையாக இருங்கள்
கிறிஸ்துவர்களிடமே ஜாக்கிரதையாக இருங்கள்
கிறிஸ்துவ பள்ளிகளுக்கு குழந்தைகளை அனுப்பிவிட்டு பிறகு துக்கப்படாதீர்கள்.
New York Priest Charged With E-Mailing Porn
Saturday, October 11, 2008
E-Mail Print Share:
NEW YORK — A priest who serves as a youth minister at a Roman Catholic university is charged with e-mailing pornographic videos to a Colorado detective posing as a 14-year-old.
Authorities say the Rev. Charles Plock, a chaplain at St. John's University in Queens, shot the masturbation movies in the bathroom of his on-campus apartment. The priest's face is clearly visible, according to investigators.
As part of an online sting operation, police in Colorado's Adams County traced the e-mail to St. John's. In New York, the NYPD investigators armed with a search warrant seized Plock's computers along with the homemade footage.
He is charged with making two porn videos and sending them to someone he thought was a teenager.
"Father Charlie? No way! He was a pretty alright guy," freshman Kevin Winters told the Daily News.
The priest appeared in Queens Criminal Court for his arraignment Friday night.
Bystanders shouted comments at him as he left: "Shame on you!" and "Pedophile!"
Neither he nor his lawyer would answer questions outside court.
Plock was released on $150,000 bond on condition he check into St. John Vianney Center, a psychiatric facility for the clergy in Downington, Pa., according to the News.
The $15,000 cash to secure his immediate release was collected by fellow priests at St. John's.
The priest's next court hearing is set for Nov. 11.
An advocate for immigrants and others struggling to make a living, Plock is fluent in Spanish and worked in Panama for a decade and at St. John the Baptist Parish in Brooklyn before assuming ministry at St. John's.
A police spokesman could not immediately confirm details of the case.
அதுவும் எப்படிப்பட்ட ஆபாச வீடியோக்கள்!
தன்னுடைய ஆபீஸ் பாத்ரூமில் கைமுட்டி அடித்து அதற்றை வீடியோ எடுத்து அவற்றை சிறுவர்களுக்கு அனுப்புகிறார்
14 வயதுப்பையன் என்று தன்னை காட்டிக்கொண்ட ஒரு போலீஸ் ஆபிஸருக்கு அனுப்பியபோது பிடிபட்டார்
கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரியார்களிடம் ஜாக்கிரதையாக இருங்கள்
கிறிஸ்துவர்களிடமே ஜாக்கிரதையாக இருங்கள்
கிறிஸ்துவ பள்ளிகளுக்கு குழந்தைகளை அனுப்பிவிட்டு பிறகு துக்கப்படாதீர்கள்.
New York Priest Charged With E-Mailing Porn
Saturday, October 11, 2008
E-Mail Print Share:
NEW YORK — A priest who serves as a youth minister at a Roman Catholic university is charged with e-mailing pornographic videos to a Colorado detective posing as a 14-year-old.
Authorities say the Rev. Charles Plock, a chaplain at St. John's University in Queens, shot the masturbation movies in the bathroom of his on-campus apartment. The priest's face is clearly visible, according to investigators.
As part of an online sting operation, police in Colorado's Adams County traced the e-mail to St. John's. In New York, the NYPD investigators armed with a search warrant seized Plock's computers along with the homemade footage.
He is charged with making two porn videos and sending them to someone he thought was a teenager.
"Father Charlie? No way! He was a pretty alright guy," freshman Kevin Winters told the Daily News.
The priest appeared in Queens Criminal Court for his arraignment Friday night.
Bystanders shouted comments at him as he left: "Shame on you!" and "Pedophile!"
Neither he nor his lawyer would answer questions outside court.
Plock was released on $150,000 bond on condition he check into St. John Vianney Center, a psychiatric facility for the clergy in Downington, Pa., according to the News.
The $15,000 cash to secure his immediate release was collected by fellow priests at St. John's.
The priest's next court hearing is set for Nov. 11.
An advocate for immigrants and others struggling to make a living, Plock is fluent in Spanish and worked in Panama for a decade and at St. John the Baptist Parish in Brooklyn before assuming ministry at St. John's.
A police spokesman could not immediately confirm details of the case.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
அமெரிக்க கத்தோலிக்க கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரி குழந்தை கற்பழிப்பு சம்பந்தமாக வழக்கு ஆரம்பம்
அமெரிக்க கத்தோலிக்க கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரி குழந்தை கற்பழிப்பு சம்பந்தமாக வழக்கு ஆரம்பம்
Trial begins for priest accused of molestation
Associated Press - October 9, 2008 12:55 PM ET
CHICAGO (AP) - A prosecutor in Chicago says a defrocked Jesuit priest led a double life, revered worldwide as a leader of spiritual retreats while also molesting a young boy behind closed doors.
Jurors heard an opening statement Thursday in the federal criminal trial of Donald McGuire.
The 78-year-old is accused of traveling outside the U.S. and across state lines to have sex with a teenager between 2000 and 2003. He's pleaded not guilty.
U.S. attorney Julie Ruder says McGuire used his position as a priest to gain access to children.
Defense attorney Stephen Komie declined to make an opening statement.
McGuire was relieved of priestly duties in June 2003 and formally dismissed as a priest.
In 2006, he was convicted in Wisconsin for child molestation and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Trial begins for priest accused of molestation
Associated Press - October 9, 2008 12:55 PM ET
CHICAGO (AP) - A prosecutor in Chicago says a defrocked Jesuit priest led a double life, revered worldwide as a leader of spiritual retreats while also molesting a young boy behind closed doors.
Jurors heard an opening statement Thursday in the federal criminal trial of Donald McGuire.
The 78-year-old is accused of traveling outside the U.S. and across state lines to have sex with a teenager between 2000 and 2003. He's pleaded not guilty.
U.S. attorney Julie Ruder says McGuire used his position as a priest to gain access to children.
Defense attorney Stephen Komie declined to make an opening statement.
McGuire was relieved of priestly duties in June 2003 and formally dismissed as a priest.
In 2006, he was convicted in Wisconsin for child molestation and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Monday, October 06, 2008
கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரியால் கற்பழிக்க பட்ட பெண் மேல் முறையீடு
கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரியால் கற்பழிக்க பட்ட பெண் மேல் முறையீடு செய்துள்ளார்.
இவரை கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரி கற்பழித்தத்ற்காக இவருக்கு 400000 டாலர் நஷ்ட ஈடு டயோசீஸ் கொடுத்துள்ளது.
எனக்கு ஜூரி முறை வழக்கீடு வேண்டும் என்று இவர் கோரியுள்ளார்.
இது ஜூரி முறை வழக்கு ஆனால், கத்தோலிக்க கிறிஸ்துவம் இன்னும் நாறும் என்று டயோசீஸ் பயப்படுகிறது
Priest sex-assault victim asks highest court to hear her case
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 5, 2008
By Tracy Breton
Journal Staff Writer
Mary Ryan, left, who was raped by a priest, stands outside the Licht Judicial Complex in Providence, after she refused to accept a $400,000 settlement from the diocese.
THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / CONNIE GROSCH
In 1982, Mary Ryan was raped by a Roman Catholic priest in the bedroom of her Providence apartment. The priest, the now-deceased Monsignor Louis Ward Dunn, was convicted by a judge. It was the first rape conviction of a priest in Rhode Island.
Like many victims who were sexually abused by priests over the last several decades, Ryan went on to sue the Diocese of Providence and its hierarchy, claiming that they should be held responsible for what had happened to them. The suits alleged that over a period of decades, diocesan leaders had received many reports of sexual misconduct by priests assigned to its parishes but had swept them under the rug. Instead of expelling the priests from their ranks, the lawsuits claimed, diocesan leaders repeatedly transferred them from church to church where they continued their sexual predation.
But unlike the other victims who filed such lawsuits, Mary Ryan refused to accept a mediated settlement. She turned down $400,000 that the diocese was prepared to give her to compensate her for her injuries.
Now, in what may be the final leg of her long battle with the Rhode Island judiciary, the 47-year-old Burrillville mother of four is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to declare that she has a right to a jury trial on the merits of her claims. Joining her as a petitioner is her husband of 25 years, Thomas Ryan, a fire-alarm installer who has stood by her side since the day, 14 years ago, that she revealed to him that the priest who had given her away at their wedding –– a man whom she considered a surrogate father, who had baptized her first child –– had sexually assaulted her.
MARY RYAN’S quest for justice has never been about money, she says. It’s about holding the diocese publicly accountable for what she calls “a cover-up” and a long campaign by its leaders to smear her reputation. She wants to be able to present her case to a jury. If she goes to trial, she reasons, she will be able to force the diocese to open up thousands of pages of confidential records that the diocesan leaders have fought for years to keep secret. The records, now under court seal, will be the vehicle, she says, that will help prove her case.
Ryan’s legal battle has been a lonely, uphill fight. In 2002, she was the only one of 38 victims of sexual abuse who would not participate in a $13.5-million settlement from the Diocese of Providence that was mediated through binding arbitration. When she balked, her lawyer decided he didn’t want to represent her anymore. For the past six years, she has gone it alone, incurring thousands of dollars in costs –– much of it donated by friends–– to continue her court battle on her own. She says she has spent more than $6,000 on transcripts alone.
So far it has been for naught.
In 2003, Superior Court Judge Robert D. Krause –– the judge who presided over the dozens of cases that settled with the diocese –– dismissed Ryan’s lawsuit after she refused to join with the others who took the money, saying she had waited too long to sue after being raped by Louis Dunn. This February, the state Supreme Court rejected her appeal, agreeing with Krause. The court said Ryan and her husband had just three years to sue after the rape, but had waited 13 years to do so.
Ryan asserts that the state Supreme Court erred in its ruling and that it completely missed the point she was trying to make when it ruled on the statute of limitations issue.
“Dunn and his criminal conduct was not before the court,” she said in a recent interview. “That’s already been established. The criminal case was done. The issue here is that these men [diocesan leaders] knew Louis Dunn and other priests were criminals yet they put them in positions of power” where they could continue preying on young parishioners “of their sexual preference.”
“Unbeknownst to me, Dunn had been reported to the diocese long before what he did to me, while stuff was happening to me.” But no one, she says, did anything to stop him.
In Mary Ryan’s mind, there is “no statute of limitations of a cover-up that continues to this day.” As recently as this January, the church was in court arguing against having to produce records to show what it knew about sexually abusive priests over the years. In a decision involving three lawsuits brought by men who say they were molested years ago by three different Rhode Island priests, Superior Court Judge Netti C. Vogel ordered the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence to provide much more information regarding allegations against dozens of priests going back nearly four decades.
In response to the court order, the church produced files on 83 priests –– including Father Dunn –– who have been accused over the years of sexual misconduct. But since those lawsuits were settled without a trial, almost everything produced by the diocese remains under seal.
Representing herself, Ryan is now asking the nation’s highest court to review the lower court’s decision, overturn it and reinstate her lawsuit. She is asking to be heard “in forma pauperis” –– which would allow her to argue her case as an indigent petitioner, someone who has no ability to pay.
She asserts in her newly filed brief that not only did the Rhode Island Supreme Court err in interpreting the statute of limitations but that her constitutional rights were violated. She alleges that the chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, Frank J. Williams, should have disqualified himself from participating in her case –– alleging that his “strong public ties” to diocesan leaders made him a less than neutral participant. She also asserts that Krause, the trial judge who threw out her lawsuit, had “an agenda” in pushing the settlement of the cases and that he, too, should have recused himself from hearing her case once she made it clear she did not want to settle.
Thomas R. Bender, a lawyer representing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, believes Ryan’s petition is so meritless that he has waived his right to file a reply to her filing. In a recent interview, he called Ryan’s petition mostly “a rehash” of arguments over state law that she has previously made –– without success –– for the past several years.
“She hasn’t raised any federal constitutional issues that I think the court would be interested in,” said Bender.
But Ryan contends that it would be in the public interest for the U.S. Supreme Court to take up her case because “across the nation, there are numerous courts issuing contradictory rulings” regarding statutes of limitation in clergy sexual abuse cases “and many victims have been denied their day in court.”
She says that local diocesan leaders “have acknowledged –– in their own ‘audit report’ –– that more than 10,000 children across the nation are alleged to have been sexually abused by more than 4,500 priests” yet have “lobbied across the country to preserve their privilege … and financial assets at the expense of the nation’s children. They have fought hard against the elimination or extension of statutes of limitations as a matter of public policy….” Ryan says she has filed 1,400 pages of exhibits to bolster her claim –– along with a stream of quotes from Chief Justice Williams from published interviews he has given to reporters over the years.
One of the things she cites in her brief is an excerpt from an interview that Williams gave to M. Charles Bakst, the now-retired political columnist for The Providence Journal, in September 2003. “Writing about certain church and State issues, Mr. Bakst discussed Judge Williams’ decision to use the prestige of his public office to urge R.I. State judges to take part in the defendants’ ‘Red Mass’ on Supreme Court stationery.… Judge Williams requested the judges to notify a designated court employee to confirm their attendance.”
She also includes statements Williams made to The Providence Visitor, the diocesan newspaper, on Jan. 5, 2004. “Without faith, you’re dead…,” he told the reporter. “It’s very easy going from being a Catholic to being a judge. We follow the same principles…. We were not founded as an atheist society.… Peaceful mediation has become my mantra…. That peace coming from Christ.”
Ryan also noted that in an interview with the Associated Press on Sept. 8, 2004, Chief Justice Williams said he had urged lawyers in the clergy abuse cases to mediate. “You don’t need a forum such as the court to go through every gory detail…. I don’t think we need that in our culture,” Ryan quotes Williams as saying.
In her appellate brief, Ryan also tells the court that after her lawyer decided to pull out of her case, he contacted her therapist. The lawyer, she said, wanted her therapist to meet with him and the Ryans to “attempt to convince them” to participate in the multi-million-dollar settlement that the other sexual assault victims had agreed to take from the diocese. The therapist refused to attend the meeting, Ryan says.
THE NATION’S highest court is taking up Ryan’s petition in a conference on Friday to decide whether to take the case.
The odds are slim that the court will accept it. In 2006 –– the latest year for which statistical records are available –– there were 8,857 cases that the court was asked to review. It chose to hear just 78 of those cases. Historically, of the cases that are accepted for review, less than 1 percent are from indigent petitioners.
Once a petition is filed, it is first read by the justices’ law clerks. The justices themselves often go no further in deciding whether to accept a case than reading a memo from a law clerk pool. Legal experts say that the best barometer for weighing whether the Supreme Court will take a case is whether there is a federal issue of national importance. It takes four justices –– out of the nine on the court –– to vote to place a case on the court’s calendar for briefing and argument.
tbreton@projo.com
இவரை கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரி கற்பழித்தத்ற்காக இவருக்கு 400000 டாலர் நஷ்ட ஈடு டயோசீஸ் கொடுத்துள்ளது.
எனக்கு ஜூரி முறை வழக்கீடு வேண்டும் என்று இவர் கோரியுள்ளார்.
இது ஜூரி முறை வழக்கு ஆனால், கத்தோலிக்க கிறிஸ்துவம் இன்னும் நாறும் என்று டயோசீஸ் பயப்படுகிறது
Priest sex-assault victim asks highest court to hear her case
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 5, 2008
By Tracy Breton
Journal Staff Writer
Mary Ryan, left, who was raped by a priest, stands outside the Licht Judicial Complex in Providence, after she refused to accept a $400,000 settlement from the diocese.
THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / CONNIE GROSCH
In 1982, Mary Ryan was raped by a Roman Catholic priest in the bedroom of her Providence apartment. The priest, the now-deceased Monsignor Louis Ward Dunn, was convicted by a judge. It was the first rape conviction of a priest in Rhode Island.
Like many victims who were sexually abused by priests over the last several decades, Ryan went on to sue the Diocese of Providence and its hierarchy, claiming that they should be held responsible for what had happened to them. The suits alleged that over a period of decades, diocesan leaders had received many reports of sexual misconduct by priests assigned to its parishes but had swept them under the rug. Instead of expelling the priests from their ranks, the lawsuits claimed, diocesan leaders repeatedly transferred them from church to church where they continued their sexual predation.
But unlike the other victims who filed such lawsuits, Mary Ryan refused to accept a mediated settlement. She turned down $400,000 that the diocese was prepared to give her to compensate her for her injuries.
Now, in what may be the final leg of her long battle with the Rhode Island judiciary, the 47-year-old Burrillville mother of four is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to declare that she has a right to a jury trial on the merits of her claims. Joining her as a petitioner is her husband of 25 years, Thomas Ryan, a fire-alarm installer who has stood by her side since the day, 14 years ago, that she revealed to him that the priest who had given her away at their wedding –– a man whom she considered a surrogate father, who had baptized her first child –– had sexually assaulted her.
MARY RYAN’S quest for justice has never been about money, she says. It’s about holding the diocese publicly accountable for what she calls “a cover-up” and a long campaign by its leaders to smear her reputation. She wants to be able to present her case to a jury. If she goes to trial, she reasons, she will be able to force the diocese to open up thousands of pages of confidential records that the diocesan leaders have fought for years to keep secret. The records, now under court seal, will be the vehicle, she says, that will help prove her case.
Ryan’s legal battle has been a lonely, uphill fight. In 2002, she was the only one of 38 victims of sexual abuse who would not participate in a $13.5-million settlement from the Diocese of Providence that was mediated through binding arbitration. When she balked, her lawyer decided he didn’t want to represent her anymore. For the past six years, she has gone it alone, incurring thousands of dollars in costs –– much of it donated by friends–– to continue her court battle on her own. She says she has spent more than $6,000 on transcripts alone.
So far it has been for naught.
In 2003, Superior Court Judge Robert D. Krause –– the judge who presided over the dozens of cases that settled with the diocese –– dismissed Ryan’s lawsuit after she refused to join with the others who took the money, saying she had waited too long to sue after being raped by Louis Dunn. This February, the state Supreme Court rejected her appeal, agreeing with Krause. The court said Ryan and her husband had just three years to sue after the rape, but had waited 13 years to do so.
Ryan asserts that the state Supreme Court erred in its ruling and that it completely missed the point she was trying to make when it ruled on the statute of limitations issue.
“Dunn and his criminal conduct was not before the court,” she said in a recent interview. “That’s already been established. The criminal case was done. The issue here is that these men [diocesan leaders] knew Louis Dunn and other priests were criminals yet they put them in positions of power” where they could continue preying on young parishioners “of their sexual preference.”
“Unbeknownst to me, Dunn had been reported to the diocese long before what he did to me, while stuff was happening to me.” But no one, she says, did anything to stop him.
In Mary Ryan’s mind, there is “no statute of limitations of a cover-up that continues to this day.” As recently as this January, the church was in court arguing against having to produce records to show what it knew about sexually abusive priests over the years. In a decision involving three lawsuits brought by men who say they were molested years ago by three different Rhode Island priests, Superior Court Judge Netti C. Vogel ordered the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence to provide much more information regarding allegations against dozens of priests going back nearly four decades.
In response to the court order, the church produced files on 83 priests –– including Father Dunn –– who have been accused over the years of sexual misconduct. But since those lawsuits were settled without a trial, almost everything produced by the diocese remains under seal.
Representing herself, Ryan is now asking the nation’s highest court to review the lower court’s decision, overturn it and reinstate her lawsuit. She is asking to be heard “in forma pauperis” –– which would allow her to argue her case as an indigent petitioner, someone who has no ability to pay.
She asserts in her newly filed brief that not only did the Rhode Island Supreme Court err in interpreting the statute of limitations but that her constitutional rights were violated. She alleges that the chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, Frank J. Williams, should have disqualified himself from participating in her case –– alleging that his “strong public ties” to diocesan leaders made him a less than neutral participant. She also asserts that Krause, the trial judge who threw out her lawsuit, had “an agenda” in pushing the settlement of the cases and that he, too, should have recused himself from hearing her case once she made it clear she did not want to settle.
Thomas R. Bender, a lawyer representing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, believes Ryan’s petition is so meritless that he has waived his right to file a reply to her filing. In a recent interview, he called Ryan’s petition mostly “a rehash” of arguments over state law that she has previously made –– without success –– for the past several years.
“She hasn’t raised any federal constitutional issues that I think the court would be interested in,” said Bender.
But Ryan contends that it would be in the public interest for the U.S. Supreme Court to take up her case because “across the nation, there are numerous courts issuing contradictory rulings” regarding statutes of limitation in clergy sexual abuse cases “and many victims have been denied their day in court.”
She says that local diocesan leaders “have acknowledged –– in their own ‘audit report’ –– that more than 10,000 children across the nation are alleged to have been sexually abused by more than 4,500 priests” yet have “lobbied across the country to preserve their privilege … and financial assets at the expense of the nation’s children. They have fought hard against the elimination or extension of statutes of limitations as a matter of public policy….” Ryan says she has filed 1,400 pages of exhibits to bolster her claim –– along with a stream of quotes from Chief Justice Williams from published interviews he has given to reporters over the years.
One of the things she cites in her brief is an excerpt from an interview that Williams gave to M. Charles Bakst, the now-retired political columnist for The Providence Journal, in September 2003. “Writing about certain church and State issues, Mr. Bakst discussed Judge Williams’ decision to use the prestige of his public office to urge R.I. State judges to take part in the defendants’ ‘Red Mass’ on Supreme Court stationery.… Judge Williams requested the judges to notify a designated court employee to confirm their attendance.”
She also includes statements Williams made to The Providence Visitor, the diocesan newspaper, on Jan. 5, 2004. “Without faith, you’re dead…,” he told the reporter. “It’s very easy going from being a Catholic to being a judge. We follow the same principles…. We were not founded as an atheist society.… Peaceful mediation has become my mantra…. That peace coming from Christ.”
Ryan also noted that in an interview with the Associated Press on Sept. 8, 2004, Chief Justice Williams said he had urged lawyers in the clergy abuse cases to mediate. “You don’t need a forum such as the court to go through every gory detail…. I don’t think we need that in our culture,” Ryan quotes Williams as saying.
In her appellate brief, Ryan also tells the court that after her lawyer decided to pull out of her case, he contacted her therapist. The lawyer, she said, wanted her therapist to meet with him and the Ryans to “attempt to convince them” to participate in the multi-million-dollar settlement that the other sexual assault victims had agreed to take from the diocese. The therapist refused to attend the meeting, Ryan says.
THE NATION’S highest court is taking up Ryan’s petition in a conference on Friday to decide whether to take the case.
The odds are slim that the court will accept it. In 2006 –– the latest year for which statistical records are available –– there were 8,857 cases that the court was asked to review. It chose to hear just 78 of those cases. Historically, of the cases that are accepted for review, less than 1 percent are from indigent petitioners.
Once a petition is filed, it is first read by the justices’ law clerks. The justices themselves often go no further in deciding whether to accept a case than reading a memo from a law clerk pool. Legal experts say that the best barometer for weighing whether the Supreme Court will take a case is whether there is a federal issue of national importance. It takes four justices –– out of the nine on the court –– to vote to place a case on the court’s calendar for briefing and argument.
tbreton@projo.com
Saturday, October 04, 2008
நியூயார்க்கிலும் இந்துக்களுக்கு முஸ்லீம்களிடமிருந்து விடுதலை கிடையாது
ஒரு இந்து-முஸ்லீம் தம்பதியினர் தங்களது வீட்டில் இந்து முறைப்படி அடக்கம் செய்யவேண்டும் என்று விரும்பியிருக்கின்றனர்.
அவர்கள் முஸ்லீம் முறைப்படிதான் செய்யவேண்டும் என்று மிரட்டல் வந்துள்ளது.
அவர்கள் வீட்டில் குண்டு வீசப்போவதாகவும் மிரட்டல்கள்.
இந்த லட்சணத்தில் அமைதிமார்க்கமாம்...
Muslims threaten Hindus in New York
Friends and family remember Shafayet Reja as an affectionate young man who stayed up late to write poetry, danced exuberantly at weddings and explored the faiths of his father and mother with an openheartedness that led him to declare on his Facebook page, “I never get tired of learning the new things that life has to offer.”
But within hours of his death on Sept. 10 after a car accident, his memory — in fact, his very body — had become the object of a tug-of-war over religious freedom and obligation. It began when his mother, who was raised Hindu, and his father, who is Muslim, decided to have his body cremated in the Hindu tradition, rather than burying him in a shroud, as Islam prescribes.
His parents, Mina and Farhad Reja, say a small group of Muslims who do not understand their approach to religion are trying to intimidate them over the most private of family choices. “This is America,” Mrs. Reja said. “This is a family decision.”
The couple say that people accosted them at their son’s funeral, that an angry crowd threatened to boycott a shopping center they own in Jackson Heights, Queens, and that on Sept. 13, two men they know threatened to bomb and burn down the building.
The men they accused in a complaint filed with the police — one is a doctor and the father of a close friend of Shafayet Reja, the other a Bangladeshi business leader — say that they made no threats and deny that they have called for a boycott. They say they and others simply expressed their concern about what they see as a deep violation of their religion and of the wishes of the son, who, according to some of his college friends, had recently chosen Islam as his sole religion.
The Police Department’s hate crimes unit is investigating whether the threats took place, whether they would constitute aggravated harassment, and whether they qualify as bias crimes, which carry tougher penalties, a spokesman for the department said. No charges have been filed.
What is not in doubt is that the episode is a source of consternation, from the Queens neighborhoods where Mr. Reja’s parents live and work to their native Bangladesh, one of the world’s most populous Muslim countries, where it has been national news.
The dispute has especially swept up several bustling blocks in Jackson Heights, where dozens of businesses are Bengali. It had business owners on edge during the busy shopping season before this week’s Id al-Fitr festival. The festival marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and brings throngs of shoppers to dine and to buy jewelry and sparkling traditional dresses.
The neighborhood is a place where business rivalries and family arguments often intersect with disputes over Bangladesh politics, especially in the case of Mrs. Reja, a prominent property owner and outspoken advocate of the rights of Bangladesh’s religious minorities. Her 1999 self-published book, “God on Trial,” angered some Muslims in the neighborhood with its critique of Islamic fundamentalism.
The cremation dispute goes to the heart of a debate among Muslims in America about what makes someone a Muslim — to some of the critics, the fact that Shafayet Reja listed Islam as his religion on Facebook is enough — and how to reconcile this country’s freedom of religion with what some Muslims see as a communal obligation to uphold religious observance.
But to the family, the dispute is a frightening imposition that they say violates their civil rights.
“We have freedom of religion, and we have the Constitution,” said the Rejas’ son Mishal, 19, who studies at Washington University in St. Louis. “Why would they bother us? It’s none of their business. Even if he was the most hard-core Muslim.”...
அவர்கள் முஸ்லீம் முறைப்படிதான் செய்யவேண்டும் என்று மிரட்டல் வந்துள்ளது.
அவர்கள் வீட்டில் குண்டு வீசப்போவதாகவும் மிரட்டல்கள்.
இந்த லட்சணத்தில் அமைதிமார்க்கமாம்...
Muslims threaten Hindus in New York
Friends and family remember Shafayet Reja as an affectionate young man who stayed up late to write poetry, danced exuberantly at weddings and explored the faiths of his father and mother with an openheartedness that led him to declare on his Facebook page, “I never get tired of learning the new things that life has to offer.”
But within hours of his death on Sept. 10 after a car accident, his memory — in fact, his very body — had become the object of a tug-of-war over religious freedom and obligation. It began when his mother, who was raised Hindu, and his father, who is Muslim, decided to have his body cremated in the Hindu tradition, rather than burying him in a shroud, as Islam prescribes.
His parents, Mina and Farhad Reja, say a small group of Muslims who do not understand their approach to religion are trying to intimidate them over the most private of family choices. “This is America,” Mrs. Reja said. “This is a family decision.”
The couple say that people accosted them at their son’s funeral, that an angry crowd threatened to boycott a shopping center they own in Jackson Heights, Queens, and that on Sept. 13, two men they know threatened to bomb and burn down the building.
The men they accused in a complaint filed with the police — one is a doctor and the father of a close friend of Shafayet Reja, the other a Bangladeshi business leader — say that they made no threats and deny that they have called for a boycott. They say they and others simply expressed their concern about what they see as a deep violation of their religion and of the wishes of the son, who, according to some of his college friends, had recently chosen Islam as his sole religion.
The Police Department’s hate crimes unit is investigating whether the threats took place, whether they would constitute aggravated harassment, and whether they qualify as bias crimes, which carry tougher penalties, a spokesman for the department said. No charges have been filed.
What is not in doubt is that the episode is a source of consternation, from the Queens neighborhoods where Mr. Reja’s parents live and work to their native Bangladesh, one of the world’s most populous Muslim countries, where it has been national news.
The dispute has especially swept up several bustling blocks in Jackson Heights, where dozens of businesses are Bengali. It had business owners on edge during the busy shopping season before this week’s Id al-Fitr festival. The festival marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and brings throngs of shoppers to dine and to buy jewelry and sparkling traditional dresses.
The neighborhood is a place where business rivalries and family arguments often intersect with disputes over Bangladesh politics, especially in the case of Mrs. Reja, a prominent property owner and outspoken advocate of the rights of Bangladesh’s religious minorities. Her 1999 self-published book, “God on Trial,” angered some Muslims in the neighborhood with its critique of Islamic fundamentalism.
The cremation dispute goes to the heart of a debate among Muslims in America about what makes someone a Muslim — to some of the critics, the fact that Shafayet Reja listed Islam as his religion on Facebook is enough — and how to reconcile this country’s freedom of religion with what some Muslims see as a communal obligation to uphold religious observance.
But to the family, the dispute is a frightening imposition that they say violates their civil rights.
“We have freedom of religion, and we have the Constitution,” said the Rejas’ son Mishal, 19, who studies at Washington University in St. Louis. “Why would they bother us? It’s none of their business. Even if he was the most hard-core Muslim.”...
Thursday, October 02, 2008
விமானபயணத்தின்போது சிறுவனை பாலுறவு பலாத்காரம் செய்யமுயன்றதை கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரி ஒப்புக்கொண்டான்
விமானபயணத்தின்போது சிறுவனை பாலுறவு பலாத்காரம் செய்யமுயன்றதை கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரி ஒப்புக்கொண்டான்
கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரிகளிடம் ஜாக்கிரதையாக இருங்கள்.
கிறிஸ்துவர்களை அருகே விடாதீர்கள்
கிறிஸ்துவ பள்ளிகளுக்கு குழந்தைகளை அனுபபதீர்கள்
Priest admits groping teen during trans-Atlantic flight
Visiting Polish cleric faces up to two years in jail, then deportation
Thursday, October 02, 2008
BY JEFF WHELAN
Star-Ledger Staff
A Somerset County priest faces up to two years in jail after admit ting yesterday that he fondled a 16-year-old girl during a trans-Atlantic flight from Poland in July.
The Rev. Tomasz Adam Zielin ski, 32, pleaded guilty to abusive sexual contact aboard an aircraft and said he touched the girl on her thigh and groin without her permission as they sat next to each other on the flight to Newark Liberty International Airport.
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"Did you do this with the intent to arouse or gratify your sexual desire?" U.S. District Judge Jose Li nares asked during a hearing in Newark.
"Yes," replied Zielinski, who wore a suit and his priest's collar.
Zielinski was removed from his position at Christ the King Church in Manville soon after he was charged in July. He had served as an associate pastor at the parish since April and is in the United States on a religious visa.
David Kwon, the attorney representing Zielinski, said his client will meet with immigration officials and volunteer to be deported. The judge scheduled sentencing for January.
Zielinski faces a maximum of two years in prison, but Assistant U.S. Attorney L. Judson Welle said federal sentencing guidelines call for between three months and one year behind bars. Immigration officials have informed the U.S. Attor ney's Office they do not intend to deport Zielinski until completion of any sentence, Welle said.
He declined to say what sen tence prosecutors would seek.
"It's clear the conduct here is very serious and there is a minor victim involved. Those are going to be important considerations," Welle said.
The crime occurred during a flight from Poland on which Zielin ski was returning from vacation. He attempted to unzip the girl's pants, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case. The girl left her seat and asked for assistance from the flight crew, who moved her to a different seat for the remainder of the flight, authorities said. Zielinski approached the girl in her new seat, apologized and asked for her forgiveness, the complaint said.
The flight crew ordered Zielinski back to his seat. FBI agents interviewed him four days later and he confessed, according to the complaint.
Though he served in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen, Zie linski is not a diocesan priest but a member of the Warsaw Province of the Redemptorist order. One of his superiors in the order, the Rev. Jan Kwiecien, attended the hearing.
Kwiecien said Zielinski, who is out on bail and prohibited from coming into contact with minors, is temporarily living at the Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, a convent in Woodbridge.
Kwiecien said Zielinski will be allowed to remain a priest, despite his guilty plea. Kwiecien also said he is still having trouble believing Zielinski was guilty, though the circumstances of the incident were "very bad for him." Kwiecien said Zielinski drank wine and beer on the plane, which may have contributed.
"He is a good man, a good priest. But I don't know what happened at this moment," Kwiecien said.
Joanne Ward, a spokeswoman for Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski of Metuchen, said the bishop revoked Zielinski's faculties as a priest in the diocese after his arrest, in accordance with a diocese policy regarding sexual abuse claims. She said the bishop has no further juris diction over Zielinski.
In a letter to parishioners of Christ the King parish in July, Bootkoski wrote, "I pray that your esteem for the Church and the sacred priesthood will not be shaken by this occurrence, and I ask you to join me in praying for the Lord's healing for all affected by this inci dent."
கிறிஸ்துவ பாதிரிகளிடம் ஜாக்கிரதையாக இருங்கள்.
கிறிஸ்துவர்களை அருகே விடாதீர்கள்
கிறிஸ்துவ பள்ளிகளுக்கு குழந்தைகளை அனுபபதீர்கள்
Priest admits groping teen during trans-Atlantic flight
Visiting Polish cleric faces up to two years in jail, then deportation
Thursday, October 02, 2008
BY JEFF WHELAN
Star-Ledger Staff
A Somerset County priest faces up to two years in jail after admit ting yesterday that he fondled a 16-year-old girl during a trans-Atlantic flight from Poland in July.
The Rev. Tomasz Adam Zielin ski, 32, pleaded guilty to abusive sexual contact aboard an aircraft and said he touched the girl on her thigh and groin without her permission as they sat next to each other on the flight to Newark Liberty International Airport.
Advertisement
"Did you do this with the intent to arouse or gratify your sexual desire?" U.S. District Judge Jose Li nares asked during a hearing in Newark.
"Yes," replied Zielinski, who wore a suit and his priest's collar.
Zielinski was removed from his position at Christ the King Church in Manville soon after he was charged in July. He had served as an associate pastor at the parish since April and is in the United States on a religious visa.
David Kwon, the attorney representing Zielinski, said his client will meet with immigration officials and volunteer to be deported. The judge scheduled sentencing for January.
Zielinski faces a maximum of two years in prison, but Assistant U.S. Attorney L. Judson Welle said federal sentencing guidelines call for between three months and one year behind bars. Immigration officials have informed the U.S. Attor ney's Office they do not intend to deport Zielinski until completion of any sentence, Welle said.
He declined to say what sen tence prosecutors would seek.
"It's clear the conduct here is very serious and there is a minor victim involved. Those are going to be important considerations," Welle said.
The crime occurred during a flight from Poland on which Zielin ski was returning from vacation. He attempted to unzip the girl's pants, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case. The girl left her seat and asked for assistance from the flight crew, who moved her to a different seat for the remainder of the flight, authorities said. Zielinski approached the girl in her new seat, apologized and asked for her forgiveness, the complaint said.
The flight crew ordered Zielinski back to his seat. FBI agents interviewed him four days later and he confessed, according to the complaint.
Though he served in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen, Zie linski is not a diocesan priest but a member of the Warsaw Province of the Redemptorist order. One of his superiors in the order, the Rev. Jan Kwiecien, attended the hearing.
Kwiecien said Zielinski, who is out on bail and prohibited from coming into contact with minors, is temporarily living at the Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, a convent in Woodbridge.
Kwiecien said Zielinski will be allowed to remain a priest, despite his guilty plea. Kwiecien also said he is still having trouble believing Zielinski was guilty, though the circumstances of the incident were "very bad for him." Kwiecien said Zielinski drank wine and beer on the plane, which may have contributed.
"He is a good man, a good priest. But I don't know what happened at this moment," Kwiecien said.
Joanne Ward, a spokeswoman for Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski of Metuchen, said the bishop revoked Zielinski's faculties as a priest in the diocese after his arrest, in accordance with a diocese policy regarding sexual abuse claims. She said the bishop has no further juris diction over Zielinski.
In a letter to parishioners of Christ the King parish in July, Bootkoski wrote, "I pray that your esteem for the Church and the sacred priesthood will not be shaken by this occurrence, and I ask you to join me in praying for the Lord's healing for all affected by this inci dent."
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