Catholic Crimes

Clergy sex crime cases 5th, 6th for COGIC denomination in 2010

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 02:43:03 +1100

Tag: usa

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that Rev. Dr. Laneer Fisher, pastor of the Miracle COGIC in Alquippa, PA in suburban Pittsburgh was arrested and charged with indecent assault and corruption of minors. Laneer, who was arrested August 31st, allegedly has a history of sexual improprieties with young males.

This is the fifth known case of clergy abuse/misconduct this year for the nation’s largest pentecostal denomination.

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The pastor of a church in Aliquippa was arraigned yesterday on charges of molesting two teenage boys.

The Rev. Dr. Laneer Fisher, 38, of Moon, who is the pastor of the Miracle Church of God in Christ on Wilker Street, was charged by Aliquippa police with unlawful contact with a minor, indecent assault and corruption of minors. He was charged with those crimes as well as aggravated indecent assault, sexual assault and indecent exposure by Beaver Falls police.

“My client vehemently denies these allegations and will defend himself against them,” said attorney Dirk Allen Goodwald, who wonders why the two young men waited until now to go to police.

“My client understands that these allegations stem from a time when these people were young and came from broken relationships and that they may have misinterpreted, misconstrued, misunderstood and could not accept the nurturing and caring from a pastor and man of God.”

Then on October 13th, Palm Beach, FL police arrested Michael Charles Campbell pastor of the House of Worship COGIC in Deland, FL [source]. According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Campbell devised a scheme to sexually molest a 15 year old girl. He later used the same scheme on a 13 year old girl.

A former funeral home employee accused of sexually molesting a teenage girl, then photographing another in the nude, is a pastor at a small DeLand church.

The suspect, 46-year-old Michael Charles Campbell, is pastor of the House of Worship Church of God In Christ in the 300 block of South Woodland Boulevard.

Campbell, charged with lewd and lascivious molestation and lewd and lascivious conduct, was also employed by Lohman’s Funeral Home in Daytona Beach, police said.

The day police say he accosted the 15-year-old girl at a beachside motel in Daytona Beach in the spring of 2007, Campbell first picked up the girl at her residence. He was driving a hearse with a body in it, one he was supposed to deliver to Daytona Beach International Airport, a police report shows. Investigators said Campbell told the teenager’s father that he needed the girl to help him do some work at the funeral home. The youngster’s parents agreed and Campbell went to get the child.

The national church’s leadership however continues to deny that the problem of clergy sexual abuse is anything significant. Enoch Perry, head of the church’s legal department told a gathering of leaders last year that the denomination had only had about 20-25 cases since it began in 1906. Asked by the Memphis Commercial Appeal about the mounting sexual abuse documented by Report COGIC Abuse, Bishop Charles Blake downplayed the cases saying too much attention was being given to them. He later admitted that COGIC spends $800,000 a year on sexual abuse cases.

http://www.gcmwatch.com/5574/5574

Reports about both Catholic and Protestant leaders involved in sex abuse of children

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 02:38:13 +1100

Tag: usa

GHN Editor - "We all have great pain – we are grieving and praying for healing," she said. Linda Valentine, executive director of the General Assembly Mission Council expressed the pain of the leadership of the Presbyterian Church regarding the report of sexual abuse on mission fields.

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Over the past six years, an Independent Abuse Review Panel set up by the General Assembly Mission Council Executive Committee, received "disturbing stories of harms to children."

These reports come on the heels of years of scandals involving the Catholic Church, that has been scrutinized for its flaws in allowing children to be sexually abused, recent reports from Presbyterian leadership reveals similar concerns in Protestant groups.

The Presbyterian Church has gone on record with an official apology about the molestation of children that has taken place on mission fields.

85 reports alleging abuse had been received by the denomination, involving incidents that had occurred during a 40-year period on ten different mission field. The Assembly has agreed abuse did occur in 30 instances on eight different mission fields, that includes countries both in Asia and Africa. These are Cameroon, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Mexico, Pakistan, and Thailand. Other 46 reports could not be substantiated because of incomplete information.

"Children in boarding school felt vulnerable. Was it the separation from their parents with whom they might have communicated their fears? Was it the code of silence through censorship of letters home or implicit messages to not worry busy parents? Was it the loneliness and abandonment they felt? Or was it feeling they must be bad?"the report observes as it details the impact of the abuse on victims' lives.

"To this day I do not fully understand why I did not cry out as he attempted to rape me; why I wanted this crisis solved without others knowing," one witness was cited as saying in the report.

Others who did make reports continued to be victimized. There are nine offenders named in the report, including a Presbyterian teacher, an indigenous African male, a Presbyterian missionary, a child of a Presbyterian missionary and Presbyterian clergy houseparents.

Linda Valentine, executive director of the General Assembly Mission Council, expressed horror and the church body's deepest apologies as it released a detailed report last week.

http://greenheritagenews.com/entries/...f-children

Australian tribunal finds Bishop of The Murray guilty of misconduct:

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 02:54:05 +1100

Tag: australia

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Special Tribunal of the Anglican Church of Australia has found the former Bishop of The Murray guilty of eight of the nine charges of misconduct brought against him by the bishops of the province of South Australia.

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In an Oct 5 letter to the Australian bishops, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall reported the Tribunal recommended Bishop Ross Davies be removed from office, prohibited from functioning as a bishop, and be rebuked. Dr. Aspinall added that though some newspapers reported that Bishop Davies had been received into the Roman Catholic Church on Sept 28, “I have received no confirmation of this.”

On Sept 24, Bishop Davies, resigned as Bishop of the Murray on the eve of his trial. Dr. Aspinall stated that “on the same date, Bishop Davies also signed a deed of relinquishment of his orders.”

However the “deed” was not accepted by the Metropolitan of South Australia, Archbishop Jeffrey Driver, and the Special Tribunal “determined that it had jurisdiction to hear charges brought against Bishop Davies.”

In February 2010, the Episcopal Standards Commission lodged a formal complaint of misconduct with the church’s Special Tribunal accusing Bishop Davies with conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy and abuse of office.

The seventeen page complaint listed nine causes of action and offered 108 examples of misconduct, including seeking a £600,000 payout from the diocese in exchange for his early retirement. Bishop Davies denied the accusations, and a three-man Tribunal led by the Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr. Philip Freier, was charged with adjudicating the complaint..

It was alleged that Bishop Davies lived outside the diocese and worshiped at a Roman Catholic parish in Adelaide, engaged in abusive and bullying behavior, sought to extract a financial settlement from the diocese in exchange for his retirement, and failed to discipline an archdeacon accused of sexual misconduct.

In its Sept 28 decision, the Special Tribunal noted that Bishop Davies’ claim that illness prevented him from attending the trial or offering a defence, was not substantiated by a physician. The tribunal examined the evidence presented in the case and found that “the charge of Disgraceful Conduct” was “made out by the evidence relating to eight counts” while the ninth count of misconduct was “not proven.”

“The difficulties in the Diocese of The Murray have been significant and protracted,” Dr. Aspinall said, and the “situation has involved considerable pain for the diocese as a whole.”

He asked the bishops to “keep the diocese, Ross and Christine Davies, and all involved in your prayers as the work of restoration and healing now unfolds.”

http://geoconger.wordpress.com/2010/1...-2010-p-8/

Bishop Eddie Long Not The Only Pastor In Teen Sex Scandal: Billy McCurdy

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 04:36:57 +1100

Tag: usa

Seems that Bishop Eddie Long is not the only one allegedly sexually abusing young teen boys. Pastor Billy Eckstine McCurdy, 57, of the Las Vegas church Revival Temple Church of God in Christ was arrested on Friday after a eight month investigation for sexually assaulting young boys at his home. McCurdy is being held at Clark County Detention Center and faces 11 sexual abuse charges.

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According to reports, Billy Eckstine McCurdy, had a similar case 5 years ago that was dropped due to lack of evidence.

Two teens boys have accused Billy Eckstine McCurdy of sexual assaulting and claim that he forced them into sexual relationships by using his authority and bible scriptures which is similar in the Bishop Eddie Long civil lawsuit, as covered on HipHopRx.com.

On last Thursday, the young men had Billy McCurdy indicted after testifying to a grand jury. Billy Eckstine McCurdy was charged with five counts of open or gross lewdness and six counts of sexual assault. McCurdy is being held without bail.

Meanwhile, authorities feel that there are more victims, but they haven’t came forward yet.

Billy Eckstine McCurdy is known for being involved in youth functions and sponsoring trips, having youth events at his home as well as sleepovers.

McCurdy also opened his home and allowed young teen boys to leave with him for extended periods, which is the deal with the two latest victims.

In the 2005 case, McCurdy was accused of trying to fondle a high school student at his home after at youth slumber party. The victim claimed that he and other students where at McCurdy’s home and split up to go to bed after swimming. Authorities stated that victim told them that he was going to sleep on the floor in the Pastor’s room, but McCurdy invited him to sleep in his bed and when he woke up he felt McCurdy trying to place his hand on his privates. The boy is stated to have left and walked to a relatives home.

The D.A. didn’t prosecute for that particular case stating that it was due to lack of evidence and conflicts. Hmm…

The church stood behind Billy Eckstine McCurdy in that case. Let’s see if they still stand behind him in this one.

Currently they have no comments.

http://www.hiphoprx.com/2010/10/14/bi...dy-photos/

Tax investigation could land Pope with €8bn bill

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 03:43:08 +1100

Tag: european_union

By Michael Day in Milan

European Commission to investigate exemption allowing the Vatican to avoid paying £2bn a year levy on 100,000 properties

Eight billion euros worth of tax breaks pocketed by the Catholic Church in Italy could be in breach of European law and may have to be repaid, it has emerged.

The development is the latest blow to an institution that has been rocked by an annus horribilis following the global clerical paedophilia scandal that broke earlier this year, and investigations into money laundering.

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The European Commission has said that tax relief on 100,000 Italian properties enjoyed by the Holy See since 2005 was under the spotlight, after announcing an "in-depth" investigation.

A spokesperson for Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the EC suspected the exemption amounted to state aid that was at odds with European Union law.

"These exemptions may distort competition," he said. "Thus far, Italian authorities have not provided sufficient evidence to enable the Commission to conclude that the contested measures are justified by the principles of the Italian tax system".

The crux is whether the EC decides Church-run businesses should really be considered as commercial enterprises and therefore liable to taxation.

The Church was exempted from paying the tax, known as ICI in 2005 by a centre-right government under the then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The conservative premier is now back in power after re-election in 2008.

When the 2005 rules were introduced, humanist and secularist organisations claimed it was "unfair help" and breached the principle of division between church and state.

The EU initially questioned the ICI exemption in 2005, which resulted in the measure being modified a year later by the then centre-left government of Romano Prodi. The EC twice shelved the case, first in 2008 and again this year. News agency Ansa reported that its decision to reopen the case now was made after the Radical Party filed a complaint with the European Court of Justice.

If Italy is found to have violated EU subsidy laws, it will have to cancel the exemption and seek reimbursement from the church. If that happened, the financial consequences for the Catholic Church would be grave.

Estimates value the Vatican's property tax breaks at €2bn (£1.75bn) a year. No one from the Vatican was available to comment on the EC probe. However, a statement by the Italian foreign ministry said: "The Italian government is convinced that it can demonstrate to the EC in a clear and definitive manner the good reasons that justify the current regulations, which do not violate EU rules on state help in favour of the church."

The church currently avoids paying tax on about 100,000 non-commercial properties including 8,779 schools, 26,300 ecclesiastical structures and 4,714 hospitals and clinics.

In addition to avoiding ICI, the church also benefits by paying only 50 per cent of the IRES business tax on its commercial earnings, thanks to Italian tax laws adopted in the 1950s which granted deductions for charitable organisations.

Italian and EU authorities were already poring over the Vatican's opaque finances. Last month it emerged that Vatican Bank president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi and director-general Paolo Cipriani are being investigated following two transactions that were reported as "suspicious". The announcement by magistrates was seen as the judiciary's way of pressuring the Vatican into being more open about its financial operations. Both men strongly deny the allegations.

More serious investigations are thought to relate to suspicions by magistrates Nello Rossi and Stefano Rocco Fava that other Vatican Bank officials used the institution, known as IOR, and its status as a non-Italian entity, to avoid taxes as well as to launder money.

News of the EC probe on tax breaks will also send a shudder through Vatican financiers, who already fear the effect the paedophilia scandal will have on voluntary donations – the financial life-blood of the church, not to mention the raft of litigation they may face from abuse victims in the coming years.

In Italy, taxpayers can opt to earmark 0.8 per cent of income tax payments to the religions of their choice – in most cases the Catholic Church, which last year benefited to the tune of €900m. The proportion of taxpayers donating this money to the church peaked at 90 per cent in 2004. It fell slightly to 87 per cent in 2008, however, and church authorities fear further slides on the back of this year's dreadful headlines.

The EC has previously investigated how other member states tax former state religions, including probes into subsidies for the Catholic church in Spain and sales tax rules for churches in Belgium. The EC also plans to examine rules giving tax breaks to church institutions and amateur sports clubs by ensuring they maintain non-commercial status.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wor...06113.html

Former Allentown priest removed after sexual assault accusation

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 04:07:24 +1100

Tag: usa

By Devon Lash, OF THE MORNING CALL

A Catholic priest with a controversial history in the Lehigh Valley was removed from his New Jersey church last week after allegations that he sexually assaulted a minor some 30 years ago when he was assigned in the Allentown Diocese.

The Rev. Gregory Uhrig, 63, was removed as the pastor of St. Luke Roman Catholic Church in North Plainfield. He has denied the allegations, according to a letter from the Metuchen Diocese.

Uhrig did not return calls for comment.

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Uhrig began serving in the Allentown Diocese at St. Anthony of Padua in Easton in 1978 before moving to St. Ursula's in Fountain Hill in 1982. He was reassigned to St. Francis Cathedral in New Jersey for three years before returning to the Lehigh Valley in 1986 for another eight years. His later years in the Valley were marked by tumult, including protests and police officers at Mass, as he implemented controversial changes in his last parish here.

Matt Kerr, spokesman for the Allentown Diocese, said his diocese contacted Metuchen officials and police last spring after learning of the allegations.

Kerr said he does not know where Uhrig was assigned or what year the alleged assault took place.

"Once we reported it, then it became a Metuchen matter," he said.

Although Uhrig denied the allegations against him, he was removed from service as a precautionary measure because the accusations were deemed credible, according to an Oct. 9 letter from Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski to the St. Luke congregation.

A retired investigator from the Sex Crimes Unit in the Middlesex County prosecutor's office and a diocesan review board interviewed the priest and his accuser, and agreed the claim was "not frivolous" and had "a semblance of truth," according to the bishop's letter.

Charges were not pursued in Pennsylvania because the statute of limitations had expired, according to the letter.

Bootkoski wrote the matter will likely be resolved with a canonical trial.

"Uhrig is considered innocent until proven guilty," he wrote, "and will continue to receive financial support from the diocese pending the trial."

Uhrig was the chaplain at Muhlenberg and Cedar Crest colleges from 1986 to 1988.

He then worked as the assistant pastor of St. Thomas More Church, Salisbury, before he was transferred to St. John's in Whitehall, where he met with resistance to changes he implemented, including ending weekly bingo games and disbanding the choir to promote more singing among parishioners.

In July 1991, Uhrig's unorthodox approach led several dozen parishioners to file a 12-page complaint against him with the bishop. One of the criticisms was that he took some parish children out to a field for their first confessions in a Communion class. Another was that the sacramental wine offered at every Communion was more popular with children than with adults.

Two years later, Bishop Thomas Welsh's decision to transfer Uhrig led his supporters to protest outside the bishop's home and run a full-page advertisement in The Morning Call.

Two Whitehall Township police officers attended each of Uhrig's final Masses because of apparent death threats from parishioners against the Catholic priest.

Uhrig began his assignment at St. Luke in North Plainfield in 2007 by replacing another pastor facing similar accusations, according to a story on the Gannett news website mycentraljersey.com.

The website reported that Rev. John Giordano told parishioners at the church in May 2007 that he was resigning so that similar charges of sexual misconduct would not be disruptive to the Metuchen Diocese. Giordano also denied the allegations, the story reported.

Before the North Plainfield assignment, Uhrig also served in Metuchen Diocese parishes in Metuchen, Bernardsville, Somerville and Woodbridge Township, the story said.

devon.lash@mcall.com

610-820-6613

Timeline of Fr. Uhrig's service

1978-1982: St. Anthony of Padua parish in Easton

1982-1983: St. Ursula's in Fountain Hill

1983-1986: St. Francis Cathedral in Metuchen, N.J.

1986-1988: Chaplain for Muhlenberg and Cedar Crest colleges in Allentown

1988 -1989: St. Thomas More Church in Allentown

1989-1993: St. John's in Whitehall

Source: Morning Call archives

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc...full.story

Sri Lanka's Catholic Church and Child Sex Abuse

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 03:33:29 +1100

Tag: sri-lanka
Tag: youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBIGN7...ata_player

Investigation of clergy sex abuse in Ireland to include meetings with victims

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 01:37:08 +1100

Tag: vatican
Tag: ireland

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican says its investigation of sexual abuse by clergy throughout Ireland will include meetings with victims and families.

Pope Benedict XVI earlier this year named nine top prelates to start the investigation this fall.

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The Holy See said in a statement that a preparatory meeting was held Tuesday in Rome with Vatican officials and the investigators, including Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley, who will examine Dublin's archdiocese. Ireland's top archbishops were among those celebrating Mass Wednesday before discussion about what it called "the tragic abuse of children."

The Vatican says it is hoping for healing in the Irish church and regained trust by the faithful.

http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/Canada--...-victims/1

Ex-priest 'had dreadful weakness for young boys'

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 01:04:31 +1100

Tag: england

A former clergyman with a "dreadful weakness" for young boys moved from parish to parish sexually abusing children over 24 years, a court heard.

Richard John James Robinson is alleged to have committed offences against six boys aged under 16 between 1959 and 1983 at churches in the West Midlands.

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The 73-year-old former Roman Catholic priest denies 22 charges.

He had "something of a knack for spotting the quiet child of the family", prosecutor John Attwood said.
'Predatory manner'

The prosecutor told Birmingham Crown Court: "Although he moved from one boy to another over the years, there are, we suggest, marked similarities in the way he behaved towards the boys and their families.

"There would be presents, there would be visits, there would be trips out in his car."

Mr Robinson faces 22 charges, including five counts of buggery, two of attempted buggery, 12 counts of indecent assault and three counts of indecency with a child.

The former clergyman, who was known to parishioners as "Father Jim", worked in churches in Staffordshire, Birmingham and Coventry until the mid-1980s, when he moved to California.
'Vulnerable children'

He was extradited from the US in August last year.

Mr Attwood said: "The defendant, Mr Robinson, was sexually attracted to young boys and he used the trust and respect that came with his position within the church to prey in a predatory manner on vulnerable children for his own sexual gratification."

The prosecutor said Mr Robinson used his position as a priest to gain "unfettered and unlimited" access to the young boys who "caught his eye", giving them gifts and taking them on trips in his sports car.

He said Mr Robinson had "a dreadful weakness" for young boys but told jurors his behaviour did not appear suspicious to his victims' families because "it was a different world back then".

The court heard that Mr Robinson took the boys to football matches and rock concerts, and some of them stayed overnight at the house he shared with his mother.

The prosecutor said the alleged abuse had left some of the men emotionally damaged and needing counselling in their adult lives.

He said the boys did not speak out at the time because they were bewildered, ashamed, and felt they would not be believed.

Mr Robinson was remanded in custody and the case was adjourned to Tuesday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11470740

Woman Comes Forward Claiming Area Priests Molested Her

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:30:56 +1100

Tag: usa

By: Tess Koppelman

KANSAS CITY, MO - New court papers reveal sex abuse allegations against two priests who served for many years in the Kansas City area. The victim says a priest abused her after he learned during confession that she was being abused by a relative.

The allegations date back to 1979. The victim, who no longer lives in the area, said she repressed the memories until recently. On Monday the executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, called attention to the case.

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Court papers name Father John Tulipana, who has faced sex abuse allegations before, but it also names Father Thomas Cronin, who has not been named before in sex abuse cases.

The victim says she was 17 years old when she confessed to Father Cronin that she was sexually abused by a relative. He told her she was chosen by God and then began molesting her. She says Father Tulipana got involved in the sex abuse while at a retreat, called Teens Encounter Christ.

SNAP's director said these cases don't draw the same media attention they once did, but it's important that people remain vigilant to protect children.

"We would beg anyone who saw or suspected or suffered crimes by either Father Tulipana or Cronin to come forward, get help, start recovering and hopefully protect others from them," said David Clohessy, SNAP executive director.

In a statement, the Kansas City - St. Joseph Catholic Diocese said the victim in this case was in contact with the dioceses last year about the abuse and has received counseling. Read the full statement here.

The diocese says Tulipana has not worked in the ministry since 1994 when allegations of abuse first surfaced. Father Cronin served in four metro area parishes from the 1970's until 1996 when he went to Nevada and he's now retired. The diocese says it responds to all allegations of abuse and works with the victim for healing and reconciliation.

http://www.fox4kc.com/news/wdaf-catho...3464.story