Second Va. priest resigns amid sex charges

RICHMOND (VA)
The Virginian-Pilot
Associated Press
RICHMOND — A Petersburg priest was forced to resign for sexually abusing a male teenager 20 years ago, the Catholic Diocese of Richmond said today.
The Rev. John P. Blankenship resigned as Catholic chaplain at the Federal Correctional Institution in Petersburg and from active ministry, the diocese said in a statement. He had served as a priest in the Richmond diocese since his ordination in 1963.
The diocese said that in 1982, while he was pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Prince George County, Blankenship sexually abused a 14-year-old male. Bishop Walter Sullivan learned of the abuse in 1988 and put Blankenship on administrative leave, requiring him to receive psychiatric treatment at Saint Luke’s Institute in Silver Spring, Md., the diocese said.
Sullivan met with Blankenship Tuesday and ordered his resignation effective Friday, the diocese said.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 02:06:32 PM

ANTIOCH (CA)
Defrocked East Bay priest sued
Former altar boy, 32, claims Robert Ponciroli molested and battered him
Contra Costa Times
By Brian Anderson
A defrocked East Bay priest at the center of sexual abuse investigations in two cities where he once served has been blamed in a lawsuit filed this week of molesting an altar boy over the course of a year.
Robert Ponciroli, 65, who is the subject of an Antioch police investigation, exploited, molested and battered the now 32-year-old man from 1980-81 while at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Antioch, lawyers for the unidentified victim said in the lawsuit.
Ponciroli’s alleged victim was a trusting altar boy who was assured the conduct was proper, according to the suit.
What’s more, lawyers said in court papers, Catholic church officials knew or at least should have known of his “dangerous and exploitative propensities.”
posted by Jayson Landeza on 8/9/2002 01:55:38 PM

OAKLAND (CA)
Suits accuse 2 priests of molestation
Damages sought in alleged sexual abuse of children by clerics in Belmont, Antioch
Oakland Tribune
By Josh Richman
STAFF WRITER
A Belmont priest was placed on administrative leave Thursday, two days after a lawsuit accused him of child molestation and more than four months after the Archdiocese of San Francisco heard the alleged victim’s claims.
The civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court claims the Rev. Daniel Carter — now pastor of the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary — molested a girl in the late 1970s while teaching at San Francisco’s Notre Dame des Victoires Parochial School before his 1979 ordination.
Another lawsuit filed Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court claims the Rev. Robert Ponciroli, now retired and living in Florida, molested a boy in 1980 and 1981 while he was at St. Ignatius Church in Antioch, one of his many East Bay assignments in his 30 years as a priest.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 8/9/2002 01:45:51 PM

WORCESTER (Mass.)
Committee reviews case before leave of absence imposed on priest
The Catholic Free Press
By Kevin Luperchio
When a bishop places a priest on administrative leave following sexual abuse allegations, he is not declaring that priest guilty, according to Msgr. F. Stephen Pedone, diocesan canon lawyer.
Administrative leave, Msgr. Pedone said, allows the accused priest to deal with the effects of the allegations while ensuring his parish does not suffer.
“A person’s ability to minister can be negatively impacted (by sexual abuse allegations),” he said.
Oftentimes the public considers a person guilty just based on an allegation, he added.
While on leave, priests cannot engage in any public ministry; this includes preaching and celebrating Masses and sacraments. They can, however, celebrate Masses and sacraments privately, Msgr. Pedone said.
Contrary to popular belief, priests are not placed on administrative leave solely because an allegation has been made, he said.
Any allegation against a priest in the diocese is brought before the Pastoral Care Committee; a lay and clergy advisory panel of legal, medical and religious experts that investigates allegations of abuse against diocesan employees and volunteers. Msgr. Pedone is a memebr of that committee.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 12:25:03 PM

WORCESTER (Mass.)
Parish turns out in support
The Catholic Free Press
By Kevin Luperchio and Tanya Connor
WORCESTER – Loyal supporters of Father Joseph A. Coonan gathered at St. John Parish again Wednesday to form a plan to get their pastor back.
“It was very productive,” said Jonathan Slavinskas, 18. “There are a lot of good ideas out there.”
Father Coonan, pastor of St. John’s, was removed due to allegations of sexual misconduct with minors in the 1970s before entering the seminary, according to a statement by Bishop Reilly released Friday.
The Diocese’s Office for Healing and Prevention had representatives at St. John’s weekend Masses to give information and answer parishioners’ questions, according to Patricia O’Leary-Engdahl, director of the office. She said the office also organized Monday’s healing service. No one from the office attended Wednesday’s meeting.
Mr. Slavinskas, who organized the parish meeting, began by reading Father Coonan’s press release to the congregation. The statement reads in part: “I will not let these false allegations deter me from my mission of helping those in need. In these times, I believe that many Roman Catholic priests are extremely vulnerable to false allegations. I intend to defend my name, my character and my integrity, and I remain committed to helping people.”



posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 12:23:13 PM

WORCESTER (Mass.)
Father Coonan placed on leave after allegations
The Catholic Free Press
By Kevin Luperchio
WORCESTER – Bishop Reilly placed Father Joseph A. Coonan, pastor of St. John Parish, on administrative leave Aug. 1 due to allegations of sexual misconduct with minors.
Raymond L. Delisle, diocesan director of communications, said both the diocese and the Worcester district attorney’s office received allegations of abuse against Father Coonan. The allegations date back to the 1970s.
In a statement, Father Coonan called the allegations “false and baseless in fact.”
Father Coonan said the incidents are alleged to have occurred in 1977, 12 years prior to his ordination. At the time, he said, he worked with heroin addicts at the Webster, Dudley, Oxford Crisis Center.
An alleged victim talked to reporters for the Telegram and Gazette and said the incident occurred while he was a student at Oxford High School and the then Mr. Coonan was a teacher there. A phone call made to the man’s home in Oxford was not returned Thursday.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 12:19:58 PM

WORCESTER (Mass.)
Bishop calls for healing prayer
The Catholic Free Press
Bishop Reilly has asked the parishes in the diocese to pray during the observance of the Feast of the Assumption next week for the healing of all those injured by sexual abuse.
The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven falls on Thursday. It is a holy day of obligation. Vigil or advent Masses will be celebrated Wednesday afternoon and/or evening in many parishes as well as on Thursday.
In a letter to pastors, Bishop Reilly asked that they “incorporate into the celebration of the Eucharist the Litany for Healng and the Prayer of Healing prepared by the Bishop’s Committee on the Liturgy.”
In his letter, Bishop Reilly asked that a time of prayer and reparation be observed “for the sexual abuse of minors by some clergy. … In prayerful communion, let us all, bishops, priests, deacons, men and women religious, and the faithful laypeople of our diocese make this day a part of our spiritual response to the problem we are experiencing at the present time.”



posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 12:18:09 PM

HONOLULU (HI)
Catholic bishop acts
to restore confidence
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Editorials
Bishop Francis DiLorenzo acted in the best interests of the Roman Catholic Church’s Honolulu diocese in removing a Maui priest accused of sexual misconduct from public ministry. The removal was consistent with a policy adopted two months ago by Catholic bishops in the United States aimed at isolating sexual abusers. The church’s religious orders also need to adopt a policy of strong measures.
The Rev. Joseph Bukoski, 49, was placed on administrative leave from his duties at a Lahaina church in May because of accusations of sexual misconduct while he was assigned to a Honolulu church in 1982. While the diocesan Standing Committee on Sexual Misconduct was reviewing the accusations, a second complaint dating to his seminary days 25 years ago was lodged against Bukoski.
Diocesan spokesman Patrick Downes said the second complaint “strengthened the previous recommendation of the standing committee” that Bukoski be permanently removed. The complaint “was corroborated by other credible people, and, because of this accumulation of evidence, the bishop found veracity in the second allegation,” Downes added.
posted by Jayson Landeza on 8/9/2002 10:16:44 AM

NORWICH (CT)
Diocese faces new sex abuse lawsuit
Norwich Bulletin
By BRIAN SCHEID
Norwich Bulletin
NORWICH — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich is facing another civil complaint of sexual abuse allegedly committed by one of its former priests.
This week, the diocese, former Norwich Bishop Daniel P. Reilly and former Westbrook priest Bruno Primavera were served with a civil summons claiming Primavera repeatedly sexually molested and assaulted 14-year-old Michael Nelligan in the late 1970s.
The summons was filed in Middletown Superior Court Aug. 5.
The lawyer representing Nelligan said Thursday that diocesan officials knew of Primavera’s illegal sexual activities and later sent him to a New Mexico treatment center specializing in treating pedophile priests.
“The church failed to recognize this problem and instead has disregarded it,” Nelligan’s lawyer, Robert Reardon of New London, said. “The church has turned a blind eye for too long.”
In the complaint, Nelligan, now 38 and living in Westbrook and Portland, Maine, claims he was 14 and a parishioner at St. Mark the Evangelist Church in Westbrook when he met Primavera, who was his parish’s priest.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 09:40:34 AM

CLEVELAND (OH)
Removal of priests urged
Yahoo! News
Akron Beacon Journal
By Colette M. Jenkins, Beacon Journal religion writer
An independent commission established to review the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland’s policy on sexual abuse is recommending that a priest or deacon be permanently removed from ministry “for even a single act of sexual abuse of a minor — past, present or future.”
That recommendation is in a 25-page preliminary report expected to be released today.
The report, including appendices, is divided into seven sections dealing with prevention, reporting, investigation, response, ministry and service, a review board and communications.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 08:17:01 AM

CATONSVILLE (MD)
Priest receives probation for false carjacking report
Ex-pastor lied to cover up his night with prostitute
Baltimore Sun
By Dennis O’Brien
Sun Staff
With a group of supporters seated behind him, a Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to one year of supervised probation yesterday after he admitted in Catonsville District Court that he filed a false carjacking report to cover up a night spent with a male prostitute.
The Rev. Steven P. Girard, former pastor of St. Clement I Catholic Church, also was ordered to complete treatment at a Catholic psychiatric facility in Silver Spring as a condition of being granted probation before judgment by Judge John H. Garmer.
Girard’s trial was attended by about 10 supporters and parishioners from the 2,000-member Lansdowne church, where he worked for 15 years before he was forced to resign this year.
“He’s been missed terribly at the church,” said Sharon Ellis, a parishioner and a community supervisor for the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 08:04:17 AM

BALTIMORE (MD)
Man says Blackwell raped him in mid-’70s
Floridian, 42, speaks out to support Dontee Stokes
Baltimore Sun
By Allison Klein
Sun Staff
A Florida man came forward yesterday and said he was repeatedly raped as a teen-ager by the Rev. Maurice J. Blackwell at the rectory of St. Bernardine Roman Catholic Church in West Baltimore, where, the man said, he and as many as 10 other youths would routinely spend the night.
Warren Hart, a native Baltimorean who is now 42 years old, said he is telling his story publicly to show support for a man he has never met, Dontee Stokes.
Stokes, an alleged victim of Blackwell, told police he shot the priest in May because Blackwell refused to apologize for molesting him.
“I came here to help Dontee,” said Hart, who spoke tearfully to the press yesterday afternoon at the office of his lawyer, Joanne L. Suder. “When I heard what happened, I called up Joanne and said, ‘This kid is not lying. I can see why he did it.'”



posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 08:02:07 AM

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Religious orders set to adopt milder stance on sex abusers
Officials part with bishops, would not force out clergy
Baltimore Sun
By John Rivera
Sun Staff
PHILADELPHIA – While the U.S. bishops have adopted a get-tough “one-strike-and-you’re- out” policy toward clergy who sexually abuse minors, the leaders of the Roman Catholic religious orders representing a third of the nation’s priests say they will not force offenders from their fold.
The Conference of Major Superiors of Men, which represents 20,000 priests and brothers in about 120 religious orders, is meeting here this week behind closed doors to decide how to carry out the policy approved by the bishops nearly two months ago in Dallas.
Officials said yesterday that although they will keep sexual abusers away from minors, forcing their members who have abused children to resign from their religious orders runs counter to their mission and is not an option.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 08:00:18 AM

Selecting bishops
The Tidings
By Father Richard P. McBrien
Most Catholics assume that only the pope can appoint a priest to the hierarchy, or can transfer a bishop from one diocese to another, or can accept his resignation from office. As a matter of historical fact, these are relatively late developments – as late as the 19th century, in fact.
From the very beginning of the church’s history, pastoral leaders were elected by the laity and clergy of the various local churches, or dioceses. And this included even the Bishop of Rome, the pope.
How did the communities decide? Did members of the local church present themselves as candidates? Was there a kind of political campaign, after which a formal election would take place?
We do not have precise answers because there is so little that we know about the organizational structures of the church in those earliest years. We do know that the faith communities were small by today’s standards, and we can perhaps assume that its members who had an evident capacity for spiritual leadership were easily recognized.





posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 07:56:20 AM

ST. PETERSBURG (FL)
Synod called off over scandal
The yearlong series of meetings was to address the church’s future. Now the focus is on the present.
St. Petersburg Times
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
ST. PETERSBURG — A historic gathering of area Roman Catholics scheduled to begin this fall has fallen victim to the church’s sexual misconduct scandal and questions of financial accountability.
The synod, a yearlong series of meetings during which Tampa Bay area Catholics were to discuss important issues facing the diocese and plan for its future, has been canceled and may not be rescheduled for another year or two.
Bishop Robert N. Lynch, head of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, made the announcement Thursday during his daily On The Air program on the diocese radio station, WBVM-FM.
“It was a combined judgment of everyone that with the attention so strongly placed at the moment on the sexual misconduct of priests and others that if we were going to get beyond the issues of sex to talk about visioning and forming the church of the future, this probably wasn’t going to be the best time in order to do that,” Lynch told his audience.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 07:49:48 AM
NEW PORT RICHEY (FL)
Ex-Episcopal priest faces sex charges
The 73-year-old is arrested after his accuser, now an adult, confronts him while wearing a wire.
St. Petersburg Times
By ROBERT FARLEY and TAMARA LUSH
While wearing a hidden recorder earlier this week, a 38-year-old man who said he was molested as a boy
confronted former Episcopal priest Richard Pollard.
What did you do to me, the man asked.
“He not only apologized for all the pain he’d caused, but he admits to sexually molesting him,” said Al Danna, an agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
On Thursday, agents arrested Pollard at his home at 4601 Floramar Ter. in New Port Richey. The 73-year-old was charged with eight counts of capital sexual battery.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 07:46:49 AM

RICHMOND (VA)
Another local priest stepping down over sex abuse
The Virginian Pilot
By STEVE STONE, The Virginian-Pilot
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond is expected to announce today that a second priest with ties to Hampton Roads is giving up his ministry amid allegations of sexual improprieties.
“Another priest is going to be stepping down,” said the Rev. Pasquale Apuzzo, a church spokesman. “He has been in active ministry until now, and it is an incident of sexual abuse.”
Apuzzo said the incident dates back more than two decades.
The name of the priest and details about the allegations were not released Thursday night. A news conference has been scheduled for noon today at diocese headquarters.
On Wednesday, the church announced that a Charlottesville priest, the Rev. Julian Goodman, had been forced to resign. He reportedly abused a seminary student more than two decades ago.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 07:40:47 AM

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Pope removes abusive priest from priesthood
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Norm Parish
Of the Post-Dispatch
One of the first of seven St. Louis-area priests removed this year from their church duties for sexual misconduct has been removed from the priesthood by Pope John Paul II, St. Louis Archdiocese officials said Wednesday.
Joseph D. Ross, a former priest at St. Cronan Catholic Church in St. Louis who once pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy during confession, was removed by the pope at the request of the St. Louis Archdiocese, said Jim Orso, a spokesman for the archdiocese. Orso said the archdiocese received the news within the last 10 days.
Archdiocesan officials declined to say whether they have asked the pope to remove other priests.
The U.S. Conference of Bishops and the archdiocese said they were unsure if Ross is the first priest to be removed from the priesthood, or laicized, since the nationwide sex scandal involving children and priests mushroomed in the spring.
Archbishop Justin Rigali petitioned the pope in May to start laicization proceedings against Ross, at least two months before the U.S. Conference of Bishops’ new tougher policy on ousting priests for sexual misconduct. Under laicization, a priest is returned to the status of layman and the diocese no longer financially supports him.
Ross, who has served as a priest in several churches, was assigned to St. Cronan in 1991 – three years after he pleaded guilty in the sexual abuse incident. The archdiocese never informed parishioners of Ross’ conviction.





posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 07:37:26 AM

ST. PETERSBURG (FL)
Priest Who Died In 1984 Accused Of Sexually Abusing Children
Tampa Tribune
MICHELLE BEARDEN mbearden@tampatrib.com.
ST. PETERSBURG – A priest who died nearly 20 years ago has been accused of sexually abusing children while he served at Tampa Bay area churches.
Several individuals have come forward with “credible accusations” against the Rev. Hubert J. Reason, who died of natural causes at age 60 on July 10, 1984, said diocesan spokeswoman Mary Jo Murphy.
“They requested anonymity,” Murphy said. “What they asked for from us is assistance for healing and reconciliation, and we’re providing that.”




posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 07:30:05 AM

RICHMOND (VA)
Second Virginia priest to be forced out
NBC12 News
Rob Richardson, NBC12 News
RICHMOND, VA, Aug. 8 – One day after forcing a Charlottesville area priest to resign, Bishop Walter Sullivan will do it again. A second area priest will be forced to step down tomorrow.
Sources tell NBC12 Bishop Walter Sullivan has already met with the priest. We can’t release his name yet. Sources say there was one victim. And the alleged abuse occurred at least 20 years ago.
Tomorrow’s announcement will be the second resignation this week to rock the Catholic Church.
his man was the first to resign. Bishop Walter Sullivan asked Father Julian Goodman to leave after he admitted abusing James Kronzer, a former seminary student.


posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 07:23:12 AM

RICHMOND (VA)
Accusers speak out on Catholic Church crisis
13WVEC.com
Reported by: Dale Gauding
Bishop Walter Sullivan is expected to announce Friday that a second priest from the Richmond Diocese will be relieved of his duties because of sexual abuse.
Father Julian Goodman was forced to resign on Wednesday from his parish in Charlottesville.
But Thor Gormley and Bill Bryant remain disappointed that the man they claim abused them is still in the pulpit. They say Father John Leonard sexually abused them back in the 1970’s. An investigation led the bishop to reinstate Leonard to his Richmond-area parish.
Father John Leonard was cleared of any wrongdoing.
“My issue is we want to start moving toward healing, and until we get the truth out, we really can’t start moving in that direction,” Gormley said.
Gormley has become the reluctant point man for those who claim they were abused by Father John Leonard decades ago. Talking at his church in Virginia Beach Thursday, he reflected on the forced resignation of Father Goodman. “The movement by the Bishop in asking for the resignation of Goodman is a step in the right direction, but don’t lose focus. What happened with Father Leonard is unacceptable behavior.”
Gormley tried to be diplomatic about it.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 07:17:31 AM

DALLAS (TX)
Catholic Orders Police Abuse, But Slow To Defrock
The Hartford Courant
Combined Wire Services
DALLAS — Nearly a decade ago, after allegations of sexual abuse first surfaced at a Franciscan boarding school in California, leaders of that religious order bowed to demands for an outside investigation. Its conclusion: One-fourth of the priests and brothers who worked there over a 23-year period had molested students.
Such clusters of clergy offenders have appeared repeatedly at schools, seminaries, orphanages and other Catholic institutions run by religious orders – dwarfing, in some cases, anything seen in the country’s more scrutinized dioceses.
And some of the nation’s largest religious orders have let members suspected of abuse continue to work in ministry even today.
Despite U.S. bishops’ recent adoption of a one-strike-and-you’re-out policy, many of these priests and brothers may keep their collars – because their bosses, who are meeting this week in Philadelphia, have not supported removing them from the priesthood.
About 15,000 of the nation’s 46,000 priests belong to orders – religious communities of priests and brothers, such as the Jesuits and Benedictines, that are independent of dioceses and whose top leaders answer to the Vatican.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 06:51:16 AM

BOSTON (Mass.)
Priest Indicted in Sex Abuse of Teenage Boy During the 80’s
The New York Times
By PAM BELLUCK
BOSTON, Aug. 8 — A Roman Catholic priest was indicted today on two counts of child rape, accused of paying a boy to have oral sex in the rectory of a Cambridge, Mass., church.
The priest, the Rev. Paul W. Hurley, 59, is accused of abusing the boy as often as once a month for about 12 months in 1987 and 1988, said Martha Coakley, the Middlesex district attorney.
Ms. Coakley said Father Hurley befriended the boy, now 29, in a South Boston church where he was pastor. When the priest was transferred to the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Cambridge, he took the boy there, where he forced him to engage in oral sex, she said.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 06:35:03 AM LONG ISLAND (NY)
Lay Group Can’t Meet at LI Church
Bishop bars it from using parish hall in Wyandanch
Newsday
By Rita Ciolli
Staff Writer
A Long Island lay group demanding a greater role in the Catholic church in the wake of priest sex abuse scandals has been prohibited from using a Wyandanch parish hall for a planned meeting next month.
Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre has issued an edict barring the Long Island Regional Assembly of the Voice of the Faithful from holding their September meeting at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.
The ban was relayed by Auxiliary Bishop John Dunne in a Tuesday telephone call to the Rev. William Brisotti, pastor of the church. Dunne said such a meeting was against the bishop’s wishes. “Is the bishop forbidding it?” Brisotti asked Dunne. “That is a reasonable interpretation,” Dunne replied, according to Brisotti.



posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 06:31:44 AM

WORCESTER (Mass.)
2 more speak out on Coonan
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
By Richard Nangle
Telegram & Gazette Staff
Two more Oxford natives have come forward with details of alleged sexual misconduct by the Rev. Joseph A. Coonan of St. John Church in Worcester.
They said they have given statements to state police that in the 1970s the former camp counselor and high school teacher was delving into sexual perversion under the guise of being a covert government operative.
They say Rev. Coonan urged them to urinate or defecate in his presence.
Bishop Daniel P. Reilly last week placed Rev. Coonan on administrative leave after being notified by the district attorney’s office of reports that the priest sexually abused more than one minor. Rev. Coonan, through his lawyer, attempted to clarify the matter, saying the allegations stemmed from his work with heroin addicts in the 1970s.
In recent days, three of his alleged victims have come forward, however, saying they knew Rev. Coonan not through drug counseling but as a psychology teacher or a camp counselor who took his anti-drug message to an extreme.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 06:24:06 AM

CAMBRIDGE (Mass.)
Cambridge priest indicted: Defense lawyer says accuser is inmate in federal prison
Boston Herald
by Tom Mashberg
A veteran Cambridge pastor described by former parishioners as kindly and good with children was indicted yesterday on two counts of child rape dating to 1987-1988.
Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley painted a sordid picture of the Rev. Paul W. Hurley, 59, of Sandwich, who was removed from Blessed Sacrament Church, near Central Square, nine months ago and placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Boston.
Coakley said Hurley lured the alleged victim more than once to his rectory rooms and offered him cash in exchange for oral sex.
But Hurley’s attorney, James J. Coviello, said his client is “absolutely innocent” and eager for his day in court. Coviello said the accuser, 29, is a federal inmate who was sent up in 1999 on armed robbery charges, and whose past includes arrests for drug offenses.




posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 06:17:16 AM
FORT PIERCE (FL)
Catholic school educators learn about abuse
Palm Beach Post
By Elizabeth Clarke, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
August 8, 2002
FORT PIERCE — Child sexual abusers probably aren’t who you think they are.
They aren’t strangers to their victims or oddballs in the community. They’re usually heterosexual. They’re often educated husbands and fathers. They appear to love kids.
And they aren’t stupid.
Those are a few of the lessons roughly 250 Catholic school employees learned during a mandatory sexual abuse prevention seminar Wednesday at St. Anastasia Catholic School. About 600 Palm Beach County principals, teachers, counselors, secretaries, aides and custodians will attend identical sessions today at St. Paul of the Cross in North Palm Beach.
“You are one of the first lines of defense,” Sister Joan Dawson, superintendent of schools, told the group. “The safety of these children is in your hands.”


posted by Bill Mitchell on 8/9/2002 06:14:34 AM

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Religious orders won’t oust priests
Stance on abuse from bishops’ policy
Boston Globe
By Sacha Pfeiffer, Globe Staff, 8/9/2002
PHILADELPHIA – The leaders of the nation’s Catholic religious orders, which count among their members one-third of all priests in the United States, said yesterday they are unwilling to cast priests who engage in sexual abuse out of the ”family” of the clergy, though they would bar them from ministries that involve contact with children.
Officials of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the umbrella group for religious orders, meeting here for its annual national conference, said they support the spirit of a national child protection policy approved by American Catholic bishops in June. They also stressed their deep regret at the way the clergy sex abuse crisis has ”scarred the church and raised profound and fundamental questions about its moral leadership.”
But they said that while they will bar guilty priests from public ministries, they will, in accordance with the church’s tradition of forgiveness and reconciliation, seek to find administrative or other roles for the offenders within the church.





posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 06:13:07 AM

PORTLAND (ME)
Public alerted to suspended priest
Portland Press Herald
By GREGORY D. KESICH, Portland Press Herald Writer
A Virginia-based Roman Catholic religious order recently took the unusual step of advertising in a northern Maine newspaper to warn readers that a member of the order lost the right to serve as a priest eight years ago.
According to officials of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, the Rev. Ernest Justin Hill, 80, cannot hear confessions or celebrate Mass because he disobeyed orders from his superiors.
Hill was the subject of an allegation of sexual abuse reported to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland in 1999. The conduct allegedly took place in Maine when Hill was a temporary priest in several churches between 1979 and 1981.





posted by Kathy Shaw on 8/9/2002 06:08:42 AM
CAMBRIDGE (MA)
Priest indicted for alleged abuse in Cambridge
Boston.com
By Associated Press
08/08/02
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A Roman Catholic priest was indicted Thursday for allegedly abusing a 15-year-old boy in the rectory of a Cambridge church in 1987 and 1988.
The Rev. Paul William Hurley, 59, of Sandwich, faces two counts of rape of a child. He is on administrative leave and restricted from practicing any public ministry, the Boston Archdiocese said…
Reached at his home, Hurley referred questions to his attorney, James Coviello, who did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment. But Coviello told WHDH-TV that “we expect that the case will be tried by a jury and he will be found not guilty and allowed to resume his pastoral duties.”

posted by Bill Mitchell on 8/9/2002 05:43:11 AM
SAN FRANCISCO
Woman says S.F. priest molested her in ’70s
Woman seeks priest’s removal
S.F. suit claims ’70s molestation
San Francisco Chronicle
August 9, 2002
San Francisco — A woman who says she was molested by a Roman Catholic priest in the late 1970s has called on the Archdiocese of San Francisco to remove the priest from his pastoral duties.
The woman filed suit against the archdiocese and the Rev. Daniel E. Carter in San Francisco Superior Court this week, seeking unspecified damages. She said Carter molested her in 1978 or 1979, when, as a child, she was seeing him for spiritual guidance at Notre Dame des Victoires Parochial School in San Francisco.
The woman, a San Francisco social worker, is not identified in the lawsuit…
Carter, 51, is the pastor at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Belmont. Through his attorney, Joseph O’Sullivan, he flatly denied the alleged abuse.


posted by Bill Mitchell on 8/9/2002 05:29:42 AM