ஆர்ச் பிஷப்பின் வலது கை என்று கருதப்பட்ட கத்தோலிக்க பாதிரியார் லியோனார்ட் வான் விலெண்ட்ரென் கொக்கேய்ன் போதையுடன் வண்டியோட்டிக்கொண்டிருந்த போது கைது செய்யப்பட்டார்.
Brookfield Pastor Charged With Crack Cocaine Possession
POSTED: 8:41 pm CST December 11, 2007
BROOKFIELD, Wis. -- The pastor of a catholic church in Brookfield, who was once the right-hand man of Archbishop Rembert Weakland, took on the title of defendant Tuesday, entering a plea of "not guilty" on charges of crack cocaine possession.
Police said a St. Francis motorist called for help last Saturday evening after seeing Father Leonard Van Vlaenderen's car drive up and along the sidewalk before coming to a stop. Van Vlaenderen was found unconscious, and inside his pocket, police said they found two rocks of crack cocaine.
For years, Van Vlaenderen was among the archdiocese's elite, working as secretary to former Archbishop Weakland. After Weakland's retirement, Van Vlaenderen, affectionately known by parishioners as Father Len, was appointed to head St. John Vianney parish in Brookfield.
In a letter to parishioners issued Tuesday, Archbishop Timothy Dolan said that Van Vlaenderen will need to step down from his post.
"Last January, after receiving various reports of concern for Father Len's health from parishioners and others, I insisted that Father Len take a health leave from the parish. He himself admitted to a variety of health-related struggles and spent the next seven months under the care of health professionals. Last August, with assurances from his doctors that he was ready to return to full-time ministry, I allowed him to resume his pastorate. Now, with this news, it is clear that Father Len will need step down as pastor and cooperate fully with the law," the letter says.
The archdiocese has named a temporary administrator of the church while it looks for a replacement pastor.
Showing posts with label பாதிரியார். Show all posts
Showing posts with label பாதிரியார். Show all posts
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Saturday, June 23, 2007
"they can kiss the ... Lord's crotch"
கண்றாவி கத்தோலிக்க பாதிரியார்கள்!
Priest abuse trial takes a lurid twist
June 23, 2007
By KEVIN O'CONNOR Herald Staff
BURLINGTON — Everyone associated with it assumed the priest sexual misconduct trial would be explicit. But spectators in Chittenden Superior Court on Friday were surprised when a Vermont Catholic official stopped reading aloud personnel records as instructed because he felt they were too lurid.
The Rev. Wendell Searles, former second-in-command at the diocese, sat on the witness stand in the case of James Turner, a 46-year-old Derby native who charges the Rev. Alfred Willis performed oral sex on him when he was 16 and staying at a Latham, N.Y., hotel in 1977.
Turner's lawyer, Jerome O'Neill, alleges the diocese knew Willis was just one of several priests who had questionable sexual histories but were still assigned to Vermont churches where they went on to molest children. To prove his point, O'Neill asked the 78-year-old Searles to read aloud confidential church paperwork.
O'Neill began by having the priest read a document about how Willis fondled an unnamed 14-year-old boy in front of a 13-year-old friend on a camping trip in 1977.
"The effect on both boys was obviously traumatic," the letter said. "The agony experienced by these two families is amply documented."
O'Neill then asked Searles to read 1981 secret church trial testimony about "defendant's constant preoccupation with sex as evident in his unabashed double-meaning language which often embarrassed hearers, his ready hugging and kissing of practically anyone (his habit of 'grab-assing,' i.e., placing his hand beneath or pinching the buttocks of others), his defense of pornography, his apparent use of alcohol to lower the inhibitions of minors, his insensitivity to the wonderment he was causing, his ability to lie and to 'con.'"
Searles began reading another paragraph before pausing.
"I'm sorry," the priest said. "I have to read this aloud? Do I have to?
Judge Ben Joseph apologized but said yes, only to have O'Neill offer to read the paragraph himself. The lawyer then read about someone else testifying of Willis: "'On Good Friday,' he said, 'I just love to see the people come up and kiss the Cross and I put the crotch ... where they can kiss the ... Lord's crotch.' Now, if that isn't sick, I ... I ... I said, 'There's something wrong with you, Al.'"
The lawyer stopped.
"Is that what it says, Father?"
"Yes," Searles replied.
But the diocese didn't defrock Willis until four years later in 1985, O'Neill said, after finally ruling the priest broke the sixth commandment.
"What's the sixth commandment?" O'Neill asked Searles.
"Thou shall not commit adultery," the priest said.
"That assumes various forms of sexual misbehavior?" O'Neill asked.
"Yes," the priest said.
After Searles read aloud one last letter, O'Neill pointed out most of the paperwork came under the tenure of former Vermont Bishop John Marshall, who served from 1972 to 1992 and died in 1994.
O'Neill asked Searles: "Of all that you read here, can you point to anything in there where Bishop Marshall at any point at any time ever expressed any concern for the welfare of who had been abused or might have been abused by Father Willis?"
"I do not see that stated in these documents," Searles said.
Later, upon questioning by diocesan lawyer Thomas McCormick, Searles explained his uneasiness with having to read the letters aloud: "I was shocked by the content — many of them were marked 'personal' and 'confidential' and here we were opening them to public scrutiny."
Searles, a Vermont priest for more than 50 years, added of many of the names blacked out on the letters: "They were people that I knew."
Searles added at another point: "I have to say again I was in no way involved."
Later in the day, O'Neill offered videotaped testimony from the Rev. Kenneth Angell, former Vermont bishop from 1992 to 2005. The lawyer, citing another priest who molested dozens of boys during Marshall's tenure, asked Angell if his predecessor should have contacted authorities rather than deal with the abuse internally.
Angell paused before saying, "I certainly would get some advice. I would talk to my legal counsel."
O'Neill asked the question again. Angell paused again before saying, "I still don't know if (Marshall) would believe he had this obligation or not."
Asked two more times, Angell paused before saying, "It's apparent (the priest) did a great deal of harm and all. I'm still having problems how Bishop Marshall could justify not putting him out immediately. But I don't know about this question of calling the authorities. I certainly would talk with my attorneys."
Turner, now living in Virginia Beach, Va., is asking the jury for damages of more than $1 million. That led lawyers for both sides to argue whether the diocese could afford such a payment.
Arthur Woolf, a former state economist who now teaches at the University of Vermont, reviewed insurance and municipal records to place a "market value" of all Vermont Catholic Church-related property at between $270 million to $500 million, he testified Friday.
But the diocese views its assets differently. In May 2006, fearing the potential costs of priest misconduct lawsuits, it placed each of its more than 120 Vermont parishes and missions in individual charitable trusts.
The diocese still owns its headquarters on North Avenue in Burlington, which its insurer has valued at $11.5 million. But in terms of cash holdings, the diocese reported a deficit of $1.3 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2006. That shortfall came after the church spent more than $1.5 million in the past five years to settle at least six other civil misconduct lawsuits out of court.
Church leaders say they aren't paying settlements with regular collection money or the diocesan Bishop's Fund but from loans and other sources. The church also is suing its former insurer in U.S. District Court in Burlington in hopes of recovering legal fees and settlement costs for alleged abuse that took place in the 1970s.
The diocese currently doesn't have insurance for priest misconduct, but says it held a comprehensive liability policy with the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co. from 1973 to 1978. The church can't find its copy of the policy, however, so it has taken the insurer to court in hopes the company will unearth the paperwork and pay for the church's legal fees and settlement costs.
The former insurer, known as USF&G, is now part of the St. Paul Travelers Companies of St. Paul, Minn. It is talking with the diocese about the possibility of paying legal fees for defending cases whose allegations took place during the policy period. But the insurer says it shouldn't have to cover settlement costs if it can prove the church knew of past misconduct but continued to employ an offending priest.
Willis, now 62 and living in Leesburg, Va., has called the charges "unfounded" but has settled with Turner for an undisclosed sum.
Turner is expected to testify when the trial resumes Monday.
Priest abuse trial takes a lurid twist
June 23, 2007
By KEVIN O'CONNOR Herald Staff
BURLINGTON — Everyone associated with it assumed the priest sexual misconduct trial would be explicit. But spectators in Chittenden Superior Court on Friday were surprised when a Vermont Catholic official stopped reading aloud personnel records as instructed because he felt they were too lurid.
The Rev. Wendell Searles, former second-in-command at the diocese, sat on the witness stand in the case of James Turner, a 46-year-old Derby native who charges the Rev. Alfred Willis performed oral sex on him when he was 16 and staying at a Latham, N.Y., hotel in 1977.
Turner's lawyer, Jerome O'Neill, alleges the diocese knew Willis was just one of several priests who had questionable sexual histories but were still assigned to Vermont churches where they went on to molest children. To prove his point, O'Neill asked the 78-year-old Searles to read aloud confidential church paperwork.
O'Neill began by having the priest read a document about how Willis fondled an unnamed 14-year-old boy in front of a 13-year-old friend on a camping trip in 1977.
"The effect on both boys was obviously traumatic," the letter said. "The agony experienced by these two families is amply documented."
O'Neill then asked Searles to read 1981 secret church trial testimony about "defendant's constant preoccupation with sex as evident in his unabashed double-meaning language which often embarrassed hearers, his ready hugging and kissing of practically anyone (his habit of 'grab-assing,' i.e., placing his hand beneath or pinching the buttocks of others), his defense of pornography, his apparent use of alcohol to lower the inhibitions of minors, his insensitivity to the wonderment he was causing, his ability to lie and to 'con.'"
Searles began reading another paragraph before pausing.
"I'm sorry," the priest said. "I have to read this aloud? Do I have to?
Judge Ben Joseph apologized but said yes, only to have O'Neill offer to read the paragraph himself. The lawyer then read about someone else testifying of Willis: "'On Good Friday,' he said, 'I just love to see the people come up and kiss the Cross and I put the crotch ... where they can kiss the ... Lord's crotch.' Now, if that isn't sick, I ... I ... I said, 'There's something wrong with you, Al.'"
The lawyer stopped.
"Is that what it says, Father?"
"Yes," Searles replied.
But the diocese didn't defrock Willis until four years later in 1985, O'Neill said, after finally ruling the priest broke the sixth commandment.
"What's the sixth commandment?" O'Neill asked Searles.
"Thou shall not commit adultery," the priest said.
"That assumes various forms of sexual misbehavior?" O'Neill asked.
"Yes," the priest said.
After Searles read aloud one last letter, O'Neill pointed out most of the paperwork came under the tenure of former Vermont Bishop John Marshall, who served from 1972 to 1992 and died in 1994.
O'Neill asked Searles: "Of all that you read here, can you point to anything in there where Bishop Marshall at any point at any time ever expressed any concern for the welfare of who had been abused or might have been abused by Father Willis?"
"I do not see that stated in these documents," Searles said.
Later, upon questioning by diocesan lawyer Thomas McCormick, Searles explained his uneasiness with having to read the letters aloud: "I was shocked by the content — many of them were marked 'personal' and 'confidential' and here we were opening them to public scrutiny."
Searles, a Vermont priest for more than 50 years, added of many of the names blacked out on the letters: "They were people that I knew."
Searles added at another point: "I have to say again I was in no way involved."
Later in the day, O'Neill offered videotaped testimony from the Rev. Kenneth Angell, former Vermont bishop from 1992 to 2005. The lawyer, citing another priest who molested dozens of boys during Marshall's tenure, asked Angell if his predecessor should have contacted authorities rather than deal with the abuse internally.
Angell paused before saying, "I certainly would get some advice. I would talk to my legal counsel."
O'Neill asked the question again. Angell paused again before saying, "I still don't know if (Marshall) would believe he had this obligation or not."
Asked two more times, Angell paused before saying, "It's apparent (the priest) did a great deal of harm and all. I'm still having problems how Bishop Marshall could justify not putting him out immediately. But I don't know about this question of calling the authorities. I certainly would talk with my attorneys."
Turner, now living in Virginia Beach, Va., is asking the jury for damages of more than $1 million. That led lawyers for both sides to argue whether the diocese could afford such a payment.
Arthur Woolf, a former state economist who now teaches at the University of Vermont, reviewed insurance and municipal records to place a "market value" of all Vermont Catholic Church-related property at between $270 million to $500 million, he testified Friday.
But the diocese views its assets differently. In May 2006, fearing the potential costs of priest misconduct lawsuits, it placed each of its more than 120 Vermont parishes and missions in individual charitable trusts.
The diocese still owns its headquarters on North Avenue in Burlington, which its insurer has valued at $11.5 million. But in terms of cash holdings, the diocese reported a deficit of $1.3 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2006. That shortfall came after the church spent more than $1.5 million in the past five years to settle at least six other civil misconduct lawsuits out of court.
Church leaders say they aren't paying settlements with regular collection money or the diocesan Bishop's Fund but from loans and other sources. The church also is suing its former insurer in U.S. District Court in Burlington in hopes of recovering legal fees and settlement costs for alleged abuse that took place in the 1970s.
The diocese currently doesn't have insurance for priest misconduct, but says it held a comprehensive liability policy with the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co. from 1973 to 1978. The church can't find its copy of the policy, however, so it has taken the insurer to court in hopes the company will unearth the paperwork and pay for the church's legal fees and settlement costs.
The former insurer, known as USF&G, is now part of the St. Paul Travelers Companies of St. Paul, Minn. It is talking with the diocese about the possibility of paying legal fees for defending cases whose allegations took place during the policy period. But the insurer says it shouldn't have to cover settlement costs if it can prove the church knew of past misconduct but continued to employ an offending priest.
Willis, now 62 and living in Leesburg, Va., has called the charges "unfounded" but has settled with Turner for an undisclosed sum.
Turner is expected to testify when the trial resumes Monday.
ரூடி ஜூலியானியும் பாலுறவு பலாத்கார குற்றவாளி பாதிரியாரும்
அமெரிக்க ஜனாதிபதி தேர்தலில் நிற்கும் ரூடி ஜூலியானி தனது சிறுவயது நண்பரான ஒரு பாதிரியாரை தனது பிரச்சார அமைப்பில் பய்னபடுத்திக்கொண்டிருக்கிறார். பிரச்னை என்னவென்றால், இந்த பாதிரியார் கத்தோலிக பாதிரியாராக இருக்கும்போது சிறுவர்களை பாலியல் பலாத்காரம் செய்த குற்றவாளி என்று நீதிமன்றம் கூறியிருக்கிறது. கத்தோலிக்க சர்ச் இவரை நீக்கிவிட்டது.
இவரை ஜூலியானி தனது பிரச்சார அமைப்பிலிருந்து நீக்கவேண்டும் என்று "பாதிரியாரால் பாதிக்கப்பட்ட சிறுவர்களின் அமைப்பு" கோருகிறது.
Group Wants Giuliani Priest Pal FiredFRANK ELTMAN
The Associated Press
Wilfredo Lee
Republican presidential hopeful and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani gestures while speaking to supporters at a Cuban restaurant Thursday, June 21, 2007 in Hialeah, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
» More images GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - Advocates for victims of abuse by Catholic clergy on Friday urged presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani to fire a priest who was suspended from the church and then hired by the ex-mayor's security consulting business. A spokeswoman for Giuliani said the firm had no plans to fire Monsignor Alan Placa.
Placa, a childhood friend of Giuliani's, has defended himself for years over allegations in a 2003 Suffolk County grand jury report that detailed decades-old abuses by priests in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y.
None of the priests were ever prosecuted or even identified because statutes of limitations had expired long before the district attorney's investigation. Days after the report, Placa acknowledged in an interview with The New York Times that he was implicated in the grand jury report but he denied that he had ever abused children.
"There's ample evidence showing that Placa consistently protected predators, shrewdly deceived victims, and covered up horrific clergy sex crimes," said a statement from David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. SNAP also contends that he abused children.
Placa was suspended from his duties as a priest in June 2002 after the abuse allegations surfaced. A lawyer, he currently works as a consultant for Giuliani Partners.
Placa was unavailable for comment Friday, said company spokeswoman Sunny Mindel. She said Giuliani was standing by his childhood friend.
"The former mayor believes that Alan Placa has been unjustly accused," she said.
SNAP called for Giuliani to fire Placa following the publication of a Salon profile of the cleric. In the story, the online magazine quotes Richard Tollner, who testified before the Suffolk County grand jury and claimed he had been abused by Placa. Tollner told the magazine Placa molested him and at least two others, but school authorities did nothing when they were told about it.
Placa and Giuliani have been friends since their days together at Bishop Loughlin High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. After he was suspended, Placa received special permission to officiate at the funeral of the former mayor's mother, Helen, in 2002. He also baptized both of Giuliani's children.
இவரை ஜூலியானி தனது பிரச்சார அமைப்பிலிருந்து நீக்கவேண்டும் என்று "பாதிரியாரால் பாதிக்கப்பட்ட சிறுவர்களின் அமைப்பு" கோருகிறது.
Group Wants Giuliani Priest Pal FiredFRANK ELTMAN
The Associated Press
Wilfredo Lee
Republican presidential hopeful and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani gestures while speaking to supporters at a Cuban restaurant Thursday, June 21, 2007 in Hialeah, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
» More images GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - Advocates for victims of abuse by Catholic clergy on Friday urged presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani to fire a priest who was suspended from the church and then hired by the ex-mayor's security consulting business. A spokeswoman for Giuliani said the firm had no plans to fire Monsignor Alan Placa.
Placa, a childhood friend of Giuliani's, has defended himself for years over allegations in a 2003 Suffolk County grand jury report that detailed decades-old abuses by priests in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y.
None of the priests were ever prosecuted or even identified because statutes of limitations had expired long before the district attorney's investigation. Days after the report, Placa acknowledged in an interview with The New York Times that he was implicated in the grand jury report but he denied that he had ever abused children.
"There's ample evidence showing that Placa consistently protected predators, shrewdly deceived victims, and covered up horrific clergy sex crimes," said a statement from David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. SNAP also contends that he abused children.
Placa was suspended from his duties as a priest in June 2002 after the abuse allegations surfaced. A lawyer, he currently works as a consultant for Giuliani Partners.
Placa was unavailable for comment Friday, said company spokeswoman Sunny Mindel. She said Giuliani was standing by his childhood friend.
"The former mayor believes that Alan Placa has been unjustly accused," she said.
SNAP called for Giuliani to fire Placa following the publication of a Salon profile of the cleric. In the story, the online magazine quotes Richard Tollner, who testified before the Suffolk County grand jury and claimed he had been abused by Placa. Tollner told the magazine Placa molested him and at least two others, but school authorities did nothing when they were told about it.
Placa and Giuliani have been friends since their days together at Bishop Loughlin High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. After he was suspended, Placa received special permission to officiate at the funeral of the former mayor's mother, Helen, in 2002. He also baptized both of Giuliani's children.
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