Guardian: State attorney general to release 884-page report detailing decades of sexual abuse and cover-ups by the church

[China]

Catholic priest arrested during prostitution sting in SLC to be reassigned

 

SALT LAKE CITY — A Catholic priest who was charged with patronizing a prostitute in Salt Lake City earlier this year will be replaced and reassigned, Catholic Church officials said.

 

Father Andrezej Pawlel Skrzypiec was arrested Aug. 24 near 200 North 900 West in Salt Lake City during an undercover prostitution sting where police were targeting “johns,” according to a probable cause affidavit filed in 3rd District Court.

 

Fr. Skrzypiec initially accused the undercover officer as being a “cop,” but eventually agreed to pay $30 for a sex act, the affidavit claimed.

 

He was then arrested and charged, and the case was ultimately dismissed in November following a plea in abeyance.

 

In a letter sent to the members of the Saint Ambrose Parish and School communities over the weekend, Most Rev. Oscar A. Solis, D.D., Bishop of Salt Lake City, stated that he recommended that Skrzypiec should be reassigned and that Skrzypiec accepted that recommendation.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

-------------------

 

Utah’s Catholic Diocese has received ‘credible allegations’ of sexual abuse against 16 priests since 1990

 

SALT LAKE CITY — In the past three decades, the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City has received “credible allegations” of sexual abuse involving 16 priests, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Friday.

 

Two of those allegations were received just this year — with one case revealed publicly for the first time Thursday in a letter to Catholics from Bishop Oscar A. Solis.

 

The letter, called “Report to the People of God of the Diocese of Salt Lake City,” is likely the first time Utah Catholics have received this type of accounting of sex abuse allegations against priests, said diocese spokeswoman Jean Hill.

 

It also marks the first time the diocese acknowledged outside the parishes where he served that a second priest has been put on leave this year in connection to a sexual abuse allegation.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Illinois AG says Catholic Church failed to disclose abuse accusations against 500 priests and clergy

 

In yet another blow to the Catholic Church in the United States, Illinois' attorney general says the state's six dioceses have failed to disclose accusations of sexual abuse against at least 500 priests and clergy members.

 

Illinois' dioceses have released lists publicly identifying 185 clergy members who had been credibly accused of child sex abuse. But state Attorney General Lisa Madigan said preliminary findings in her ongoing investigation reveal that the church failed to disclose sexual abuse allegations against at least 500 additional priests and clergy members.

In many cases, the accusations have "not been adequately investigated by the dioceses or not investigated at all," Madigan's office said in a statement Wednesday. What's more, the statement added, the church often failed to notify law enforcement authorities or state Department of Children and Family Services about the allegations.

"By choosing not to thoroughly investigate allegations, the Catholic Church has failed in its moral obligation to provide survivors, parishioners and the public a complete and accurate accounting of all sexually inappropriate behavior involving priests in Illinois," Madigan said in the statement.

"The failure to investigate also means that the Catholic Church has never made an effort to determine whether the conduct of the accused priests was ignored or covered up by superiors."

Madigan began her investigation in August, after a Pennsylvania grand jury released a 900-page report detailing horrific abuses by 300 Catholic clergy against more than 1,000 victims. Since then, 36 dioceses have publicized self-reported lists of clergy "credibly accused" of abusing minors. (There are 197 dioceses in the United States.)

 

Click on the link for the full article

[TheGreatBuzz]

At what point can we declare the catholic church a criminal organization?

[China]

Guy Who Handled Sex Abuse Cases for Vatican Quits After Allegations of Sex Abuse

 

In the least shocking news you’ll ever hear from the Vatican, a priest who helped manage cases of sexual abuse has quit his job two months after being accused of… committing sexual abuse.

 

Hermann Geissler was chief of staff for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which deals with punishment for abusive priests. Last year, former nun Doris Wagner accused him of soliciting sex from her while in the confessional booth.

 

“He would keep me there kneeling in front of him for hours, and he would tell me how much he liked me and that he knew that I liked him and even though we couldn’t marry, there would be other ways,” Wagner said at the event. “At some point, he would try to hold me and kiss me, and I simply panicked and ran out of the room.”

…

“When I told [a female superior], actually, I was extremely relieved that she didn’t blame me,” Wagner said. “Instead, she said something like, ‘You know, I knew Father has a certain weakness for women, so we kind of have to put up with this.’”

 

While Wagner didn’t name the priest at the time, it didn’t take long for news outlets to connect the dots and realize Geissler was the alleged culprit. She later admitted that was accurate. Geissler insists the allegations are false, but he’s stepping aside in order to avoid being a distraction to the Church.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Disgraced ex-priest from N.J. who was ‘credibly accused’ of sexual misconduct found shot to death in Nevada

 

UPDATE: ‘It’s karma,’ says alleged victim of former N.J. priest found shot to death in Nevada

 

A former New Jersey priest and teacher who was accused of groping young boys was found shot to death in his Nevada home over the weekend, authorities said.

 

Police conducting a welfare check Saturday found the body of a John Capparelli, 70, in the house he owned on Bonner Springs Drive in Henderson, Nevada, authorities said.

 

Capparelli had been shot once in the neck. His body was found in the kitchen about 5:10 p.m., according to the Clark County Coroner’s Office.

 

Last month, Capparelli’s name was included a list of 188 priests and deacons in the state who had been “credibly accused” of sex crimes against children. New Jersey’s five Catholic dioceses released the names while under mounting pressure to identify clergy accused of sexual misconduct.

 

Accused of groping and brutalizing teenage boys, Capparelli was suspended from the ministry in 1992. Nearly two decades later, after The Star-Ledger revealed he was working as a public school teacher in Newark, the state revoked his certificates.

 

Though he was never convicted of a crime, multiple accusers said Capparelli made them wrestle in swimwear while he took photos. He was also linked to a fetish website that he allegedly ran from his home.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[TheGoodBits]

2 hours ago, China said:

Disgraced ex-priest from N.J. who was ‘credibly accused’ of sexual misconduct found shot to death in Nevada

 

UPDATE: ‘It’s karma,’ says alleged victim of former N.J. priest found shot to death in Nevada

 

A former New Jersey priest and teacher who was accused of groping young boys was found shot to death in his Nevada home over the weekend, authorities said.

 

Capparelli had been shot once in the neck. His body was found in the kitchen about 5:10 p.m., according to the Clark County Coroner’s Office.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Don’t think karma is the right word here... retribution is more likely accurate. Probably not the guy quoted but another victim. 

[visionary]

 

[China]

So apparently, up until now, clergy weren't required to report abuse:

 

Pope Francis issues groundbreaking law requiring priests, nuns to report sex abuse, cover-up

 

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis issued a groundbreaking law Thursday requiring all Catholic priests and nuns around the world to report clergy sexual abuse and cover-up by their superiors to church authorities, in an important new effort to hold the Catholic hierarchy accountable for failing to protect their flocks.

 

The new church law provides whistle-blower protections for anyone making a report and requires all dioceses around the world to have a system in place to receive the claims confidentially. And it outlines procedures for conducting preliminary investigations when the accused is a bishop, cardinal or religious superior.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Renegade7]

16 minutes ago, China said:

So apparently, up until now, clergy weren't required to report abuse:

 

Pope Francis issues groundbreaking law requiring priests, nuns to report sex abuse, cover-up

 

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis issued a groundbreaking law Thursday requiring all Catholic priests and nuns around the world to report clergy sexual abuse and cover-up by their superiors to church authorities, in an important new effort to hold the Catholic hierarchy accountable for failing to protect their flocks.

 

The new church law provides whistle-blower protections for anyone making a report and requires all dioceses around the world to have a system in place to receive the claims confidentially. And it outlines procedures for conducting preliminary investigations when the accused is a bishop, cardinal or religious superior.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Just give the cops the names so they can handle it themselves.  This only matters to me if the church then reports what the whistleblower told them to the authorities.

[Elessar78]

The new law is not what is needed. The report needs to go to law enforcement.

[China]

Unmarked buildings, quiet legal help for accused priests

 

DRYDEN, Mich. (AP) — The visiting priests arrived discreetly, day and night.

 

Stripped of their collars and cassocks, they went unnoticed in this tiny Midwestern town as they were escorted into a dingy warehouse across from an elementary school playground. Neighbors had no idea some of the dressed-down clergymen dining at local restaurants might have been accused sexual predators.

 

They had been brought to town by a small, nonprofit group called Opus Bono Sacerdotii. For nearly two decades, the group has operated out of a series of unmarked buildings in rural Michigan, providing money, shelter, transport, legal help and other support to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse across the country.

 

Again and again, Opus Bono has served as a rapid-response team for the accused.

 

When a serial pedophile was sent to jail for abusing dozens of minors, Opus Bono was there for him, with regular visits and commissary cash.

 

When a priest admitted sexually assaulting boys under 14, Opus Bono raised funds for his defense.

 

When another priest was criminally charged with abusing a teen, Opus Bono later made him a legal adviser.

 

And while powerful clerics have publicly pledged to hold the church accountable for the crimes of its clergy and help survivors heal, some of them arranged meetings, offered blessings or quietly sent checks to this organization that provided support to alleged abusers, The Associated Press has found.

 

Though Catholic leaders deny the church has any official relationship with the group, Opus Bono successfully forged networks reaching all the way to the Vatican.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Riggo-toni]

[China]

@Riggo-toni Trying to figure out the relevance of that picture to this thread???

[Riggo-toni]

It's disturbing.

[visionary]

 

[Riggo-toni]

Figures just from Australia.

[China]

Catholic Diocese of Burlington to release names of priests in church investigation

 

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) A 10-month investigation into potential pedophile priests is done. The Catholic Diocese of Burlington will release its report Thursday. But our Darren Perron obtained details of that report, revealing decades of abuse by 40 priests.

 

"I'm 66 years old... This individual had an elevated place in my family's life. So, no, I never told my parents," John Mahoney said.

 

He didn't tell them that he was repeatedly abused by a priest starting in eighth grade. Mahoney kept the secret-- until now.

 

"I've been wanting this for a long time," he said. "There may be some small consolation that the world knows this person's name."

 

That name is Father Edward Foster. The former Burlington priest is one of 40 accused of child sexual abuse in a new report commissioned by the Catholic Diocese and Bishop Christopher Coyne.

 

"We needed to do this," Bishop Coyne said. "We needed to get the family secrets completely out there."

 

The bishop created a seven-member committee made up of laypeople to pore over thousands of documents, the files of more than 50 potential pedophile priests.

 

"If there was one substantiated and credible allegation against the priest, it was enough for his name to be placed on the list," Coyne said.

 

But in many cases, there were multiple allegations. Some families were paid to keep quiet and priests were moved from parish to parish.

 

Reporter Darren Perron: Did the church fail these children?

Bishop Christopher Coyne: Oh, definitely. We failed these children. We failed the children, the teenagers, the families. These actions were criminal. They were sinful. They were immoral. They weren't dealt with well. There are no excuses for what we did.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Theodore McCarrick Still Won’t Confess

 

VICTORIA, Kansas—On a cloudy Sunday morning in August, Father John Schmeidler delivered a brisk homily at St. Fidelis Catholic Church on the virtue of trusting that God always has a plan. There were at least 200 people listening in the pews, almost 20 percent of this rural prairie town’s population: large families, young couples, elderly people, men in jeans and cowboy boots. There’s not a single other church in town. Even if we just do our simple daily duties, Father John told them that Sunday, “our God brings great things.”

 

Last fall, God brought to Victoria an unexpected visitor: Theodore McCarrick, once the most powerful Catholic priest in America. From 2001–06, at the height of his career, McCarrick served as the archbishop of Washington, D.C. He stepped down at the standard bishop retirement age of 75 but remained a prolific fundraiser and jet-setting Vatican macher. And McCarrick wasn’t just influential—he was famous. He was the priest whom Meet the Press called to discuss the abuse crisis, and he participated in the funerals of William Rehnquist, Beau Biden, Ted Kennedy, and Tim Russert.

 

In the summer of 2018, McCarrick also suddenly became the country’s most well-known accused perpetrator of clerical sexual abuse. In June of that year, the Vatican abruptly removed him from public ministry, citing a credible accusation of sexual misconduct against a teenage altar boy in the 1970s. (The statute of limitations for the crime he is accused of had expired.) McCarrick resigned as a cardinal, the first in history to do so over allegations of sexual abuse.* Meanwhile, it emerged that some in the church hierarchy had known for decades about some of the accusations, that at least two accusations had resulted in settlements, and that rumors about him were widespread in Catholic circles. When McCarrick was ousted from public ministry in June of 2018, he issued a statement saying he was innocent of the first accusation.

 

The accounts of McCarrick’s abuse span decades. In addition to that first unnamed accuser—whose lawyer told the New York Times that McCarrick, measuring the victim for a special cassock for his duties as an altar boy, unzipped his pants and assaulted him—his accusers eventually included three men who said they were abused as minors, including James Grein, the first child McCarrick baptized in his career as a priest. Grein has said McCarrick’s abuse began in the 1960s, when Grein was 11. Other men said McCarrick harassed and abused them when they were young adult seminary students and he was a powerful church leader. Then-Bishop McCarrick owned a small beach house in Sea Girt, New Jersey, purchased in 1984 by the Metuchen Diocese at his request; accusers say he would invite small groups of seminarians there and instruct his favorite to share his bed.

 

McCarrick’s disgrace was swift, but it left the Catholic Church with an uncomfortable problem: He needed somewhere to live. Keeping him in the Washington area seemed untenable. If he lived there or in any other area he had served, local Catholics and activists would protest. And big-city journalists would be unlikely to leave him alone; when Elizabeth Bruenig of the Washington Post knocked on McCarrick’s door that August, the archdiocese called her editor to complain. A few weeks later, with no advance public notice, the archdiocese announced that McCarrick had been moved from Washington to a small friary in Victoria, Kansas.

 

Suddenly, a tiny town of devout believers was home to an international symbol of institutional and individual monstrosity. Many of its residents, it turns out, aren’t happy about it. The story of McCarrick’s presence in Victoria is the story of a small community asked to live next door to a villain, and a huge institution figuring out where to hide its villains away. And at the center of it all is an 89-year-old man who once hobnobbed with popes and presidents and who now lives alone in silence on the plains, more than 1,000 miles away from the sites of his alleged crimes. He has not spoken publicly in more than a year.

 

.....

 

Popravak has encountered clerical abuse victims in his role as provincial minister, and he prays for victims daily, he said. He accepted McCarrick at the friary not because he is sympathetic to abusers but because showing mercy is part of his mandate as a Christian and a Capuchin. “Our mission is very much tied up with helping people to amend their life, to change their life, to repent,” he said. “Christians, even when it’s difficult, are called to show mercy.” Pope Francis had sentenced McCarrick to a “life of prayer and penance,” and a bare-bones friary in rural Kansas seemed to Popravak an appropriate place to do that. Capuchins are Franciscans, and Saint Francis, he observed, was known for embracing lepers.

 

.....

 

It was almost time for lunch, McCarrick told me, but we could talk for a bit. He showed me to a small meeting room, and we began to talk about his life in Victoria, his defrocking, and the accusations against him.

 

I asked him if he had done it. He has been accused of sexually assaulting minors and making unwanted advances on seminary students he invited to his beach house in New Jersey over the course of many decades. Were those stories true? “I’m not as bad as they paint me,” he said. “I do not believe that I did the things that they accused me of.” I told him it sounded like he thought it was possible—that saying he didn’t “believe” he had done those things, or that he doesn’t remember them, makes it sound as if he’s leaving it an open question. No, he said.

 

There was only one accusation he wanted to discuss specifically: James Grein’s allegation that McCarrick had groped him while hearing Grein’s confession. McCarrick raised this incident before I’d had a chance to ask about it. “The thing about the confession, it’s a horrible thing,” he said, sounding suddenly more urgent. “I was a priest for 60 years, and I would never have done anything like that. … That was horrible, to take the holy sacrament and to make it a sinful thing.” The same day I spoke to McCarrick, Grein announced at a news conference that he is suing the Archdiocese of New York, thanks to a state law passed in January that expanded the ability of child sex abuse victims to file lawsuits. Mitchell Garabedian, Grein’s lawyer, said he also plans to sue McCarrick personally when a broader window for abuse claims reopens in New Jersey in December. Told about McCarrick’s denial to me, Garabedian responded, “Father McCarrick’s claim that he did not sexually abuse James Grein in the confessional rings hollow given that McCarrick has shown himself to be a child molester without a conscience.”

 

But why would so many people lie? I asked McCarrick. In the case of the seminarians at the beach house, how did they come up with such similar stories? “I think that they were encouraged to do that,” McCarrick said. “There were many who were in that situation who never had any problems like that.” This was a point he made several times: that plenty of young men had come to the beach house and had no problems there. He couldn’t have done it, in other words, because look at all the people he didn’t harass. As for who would have orchestrated such a campaign, he declined to name names, but referred vaguely to “enemies.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[China]

Rochester diocese, facing flood of sex-abuse claims, files for bankruptcy protection

 

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, facing potentially huge judgments for past sexual abuse by its priests and other ministers, filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday.

 

"This was a very difficult and painful decision," Rochester Bishop Salvatore Matano said at an afternoon news conference that detailed the action.

 

The diocese filed its petition for Chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Rochester at about 9:30 a.m. The petition estimates the diocese's assets as $50 million to $100 million – and its financial liabilities as $100 million to $500 million.

 

Rochester’s diocese becomes the first of New York state’s eight dioceses – and the 20th nationwide — to seek protection from creditors in bankruptcy court because of financial fallout from the Catholic Church’s decades-long child sexual abuse scandal.

 

The bankruptcy filing does not mean the diocese is penniless and does not mean its churches will close.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

 

True Detective Season 4

[China]

The Diocese of Harrisburg files for bankruptcy

 

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHP) — The U.S. Bankruptcy Court Middle District confirms that the Diocese of Harrisburg is filing for bankruptcy.

 

Bishop Ronald Gainer will hold a press conference scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Feb. 19.

 

This filing comes amid the Pennsylvania dioceses offering $84 million to over 500 clergy abuse victims.

 

The report, released in August, concludes a two-year long investigation into alleged abuse and subsequent cover up in the Catholic church in dioceses in Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Scranton.

 

Of the 301 so called 'predator priests' identified in the report, 45 of the named offenders were from the Harrisburg diocese.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Lawsuit filed against Diocese of Greensburg alleges years of abuse, orgies involving minor

 

GREENSBURG, Pa. (WJAC) — A lawsuit filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg in western Pennsylvania alleges that a former priest raped and sexually abused a minor for nearly six years.

 

The 25-page complaint was first filed on June 5 by attorneys Richard Serbin and Andrew Janet on behalf of the victim. The lawsuit was officially confirmed for filing pseudonymously on June 22.

 

It claims that Father Joseph Sredzinski abused a minor, identified as John Doe MR, beginning in 1991 when he was 11 years old and until 1997. The alleged abuse had occurred during Sredzinski's time at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church.

 

The lawsuit also claims that the diocese and other parties affiliated with the church knew about the abuse and failed to take action against Sredzinski.

 

The defendants named in the lawsuit include the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg, Bishop Edward C. Malesic, St. John the Baptist and St. Joseph (formerly known as Saint Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church) and Donald Wuerl.

 

In a release, Serbin and Janet say the victim was exposed to pornography among various forms of inappropriate touching and sexual acts. They also allege that Sredzinski would invite other priests to the church rectory to rape the victim during orgies.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Meanwhile in California...

 

Selma priest removed from church over photos and accusations of sex, drugs, and weapons

 

A Catholic priest with a past got removed from his church in Selma this weekend over a story of sex, drugs, and weapons.

 

"You don't expect a priest to be packed, to have those type of weapons," said legal analyst Ralph Torres.

 

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno got a restraining order to protect church employees -- all the way up to Bishop Joseph Brennan -- from one of their own priests.

 

Father Guadalupe Rios still has his name on the church marquee at St. Joseph's Church in Selma, but the man himself is not allowed within 100 yards of the property.

 

Several parishioners told us they knew Rios was either in a gang or affiliated with one, as the diocese mentioned in their application for a restraining order against him.

 

Parishioners have also seen social media photos of Rios with an AK-47 or an AR-556 or a .357 Magnum.

 

So they were afraid to be interviewed.

 

"The fact that he is having photographs published like that, to me, would be a little disturbing and certainly something you would think the bishop would've nipped in the bud," said Melanie Sakoda, a survivor support specialist for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

 

We asked Sakoda to weigh in because the the diocese also accused Rios of physically and emotionally abusing the church secretary who said she had a physical and romantic relationship with Rios for five years.

 

"You have a double pressure there," Sakoda said. "Not only is he a priest, but he's your employer, you know? You're job's dependent on him. So, I think it's very easy for someone to be sexually abused in that situation."

 

She said studies have shown fewer than 10% of priests will abuse children, but somewhere around half of them will break their vows of celibacy.

 

Action News also found court records showing Rios was convicted of a 2016 DUI with a blood alcohol content of .19 -- more than twice the legal limit for drivers.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Vatican Report Says Pope John Paul II Knew About Allegations Against Former Cardinal

 

A new Vatican report on former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked last year amid allegations of sexual misconduct that spanned decades, shows that Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI were aware of the accusations against him.

 

The Vatican on Tuesday made public a detailed 461-page report on an internal investigation revealing that the Holy See repeatedly downplayed or dismissed reports of McCarrick's alleged sexual transgressions involving both minors and adults.

 

Last year, Pope Francis dismissed McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., after a church tribunal found him guilty of "solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power."

 

The most striking revelation in the newly released report is that Pope John Paul II, who was made a saint in 2014, appointed McCarrick to the position of archbishop of Washington despite a letter from the late New York Cardinal John O'Connor in 1999 detailing allegations against him. McCarrick retired from the archdiocese in 2006.

 

Among other things, the report reveals that at the time of McCarrick's appointment as archbishop of Washington in late 2000, the Vatican was aware of allegations that included a report dating to 1987 by a priest who said he observed sexual conduct between McCarrick and another priest, and an anonymous letter charging the McCarrick with pedophilia with his "nephews."

 

The report says that at the time, McCarrick was also "known to have shared a bed" with multiple men at his residences and a beach house in New Jersey.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Former Cape pastor indicted on rape, assault and battery charges

 

A grand jury returned indictments against a former Cape pastor on Friday, with multiple counts of rape and assault and battery. 

 

The Rev. Mark Hession was indicted out of Barnstable Superior Court on two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and battery on a child less than 14 and one count of intimidation of a witness, a superior court official confirmed Monday.

 

Hession was previously pastor of Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville from 2000 to 2014 and also served at St. Joan of Arc Church in Orleans. In 2009, he delivered the homily at the funeral for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

 

In March 2019, the Diocese of Fall River placed Hession on leave from “active priestly ministry” after parishioners of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Seekonk complained that he had sent inappropriate communications. 

 

Click on the link for the full article