John Paul II pedophile priest in Orange County: In the rectory and in the sacristy

John Paul II led his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army for over 26 years together with the genius cover-up strategies by the Opus Dei at the Vatican see the John Paul II Millstone www.jp2m.blogspot.com.

Benedict XVI as Cardinal Ratzinger God's Rottweiler silenced the Jesuit Jon sobrino who critcized the papacy of John Paul II see www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com The legacy of the pedophilia-Achilles Heel of John Paul II thrives on in the United States of America and therefore he must never be called a "saint" in American soil.


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Published: July 28, 2009

In the rectory and in the sacristy

Retired priest of Orange diocese arrested on felony child-abuse charges in sexual molestation allegations dating back to 1992

Police arrested a 75-year-old retired priest of the Orange diocese on July 20 as he was playing cards at Leisure World in Seal Beach, the Orange County District attorney announced in a press release. Fr. Denis Lyons was charged with repeatedly sexually abusing a boy in the rectory and the sacristy of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Costa Mesa between 1992 and 1995, the district attorney said.

Fr. Lyons had previously been charged in 2003 with the repeated sexual abuse of another boy between 1978 and 1981, but those charges were dismissed following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a California law extending the statute of limitations in such cases was unconstitutional. In addition, said the district attorney, two other alleged victims of the now retired priest provided corroboration of the molestations but charges were never filed because of the statute of limitations. The three boys, said the district attorney, attended parish school at St. John the Baptist, where Fr. Lyons served as a priest.

Following his arrest, Fr. Lyons was booked into the county jail at Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach on $100,000 bail, charged with four felony counts of lewd acts on a child under the age of 14, said the district attorney. In addition, a charge of “substantial sexual conduct with a child” was added, which would require a mandatory sentence of 14 years if Fr. Lyons is convicted. According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Fr. Lyons posted bail and was released from jail at 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 23.

In addition to working as a priest at St. John the Baptist in Costa Mesa, Fr. Lyons also served at St. Edwards the Confessor in Dana Point and at St. Mary’s by the Sea in Huntington Beach, the district attorney said. Investigators have asked that anyone with information pertinent to the case or anyone who believes he or she may have been a victim of sexual abuse by Fr. Lyons to contact the DA’s investigative supervisor, Tim Craig, at (714) 347-8558, or Costa Mesa detective Mike Manson at (714) 754-5360.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Orange diocese earlier this year announced it had reached a settlement with a 24-year-old man who sued the diocese, alleging he had been abused repeatedly by Fr. Lyons while he was in the second grade at St. John the Baptist parish school. KTLA News reported, “Several people have accused Lyons of sexual abuse, prompting the Diocese of Orange to pay out $4 million to settle such sex abuse claims.”

Ryan Lilyengren, a spokesman for the diocese, told the Times that Fr. Lyons had been removed from active ministry in 2002. "Rev. Lyons has not been permitted to return to ministry or the Diocese of Orange in any public capacity since his removal," Lilyengren told the Times.

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Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 5:22 AM By C. M. Henry
From comments by Ryan Lilyengren, a spokesman for the Diocese of Orange it sounds like Denis Lyons is just another retired priest IN GOOD STANDING & SUPPORTED BY THE CHURCH. Is this true? Why is it that he and other like him continue to be supported by the diocese which means money from ordinary peoples' pockets, even those abused or their families who have never come forward and chose to continue their church membership? Why hasn't Ryan been laicized and defrocked? And who paid his bail when he should remain in jail as a known sexual predator?
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 5:22 AM By Richard Flores

Who has paid for all of his legal bills? It sounds as if this man is sick and should have been admitted for psychiatric care a long time ago! However, we all know how the anti-Catholic media loves to nail a priest! I guess that I look at this many ways...First, there is never any excuse for this type of sin...ever! Second, if he did it, I don't doubt that someone knew about his problem long before it was revealed! Third, I also know that many of the claims against priests are false. My first question would be, "Did he ever confess his sins to his confessor?" If so, his confessor is guilty, too. (He is bound to STOP any type of felony that a priest is involved with by whatever means are necessary. At the very least, he should have been immediately relieved if he is guilty.) I just pray that anyone associated with this comes clean and this gets resolved properly. If he is guilty, he's guilty. If not, then defend him. As the bible demands, we must be above reproach!
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 6:02 AM By Kay Ebeling
Where do all these priests and bishops get the money for bail and high powered attorneys? They always seem to have it. . . Kay Ebeling, Producer City of Angels Network cityofangels5.blogspot.com

Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 8:55 AM By Greg Bullough
Mr. Flores: How do you "know that many of the claims against priests are false?" Or is that just as you would wish it to be? The fact is that juries as well as dioceses and religious orders paying settlements out of court don't believe that these claims are false. And in many, if not most, cases when you look at the historical record you find that multiple accusers have made multiple accusations totally independently and unaware of one another. In many cases only to be lied to and told "you're the first" or "you're the only one." How is the media "anti Catholic?" Does telling the truths which the bishops, monsignors, and superiors have as a matter of policy tried to cover up for decades make them so? And who is more "anti Catholic" anyway. Let's not forget, shall we that the vast, vast, majority of abuse victims were Catholic kids, many more devout that most (which put them in harm's way more often and made them more vulnerable). So it was Catholics who were injured, and Catholics who were not protected by those in power. So who is "anti Catholic?" The abusive clerics who destroy faith and psyches, the clergy who protected them, rather than the victims, or the media who report these crimes as they would report a Watergate or a Manson murder? As to confession, what if the confessor is himself an abuser? We know that these guys operated together. How can someone who has his own dirty laundry find a means, or even a desire, to air one of this brother priests' transgressions? Before you make pronouncements, take time to learn about these issues from the inside, with your eyes and ears open.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 9:04 AM By Abeca Christian
This news just made my stomach want to puke. God have mercy on us. God help this innocent child heal from this.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 9:17 AM By Clean House
The Diocese of Orange is not interested in holiness. The Diocese of Orange needs a thorough housecleaning. There will be continued problems until we receive a holy new Bishop and Catholics refuse to pay for sin in the collection basket and finance expensive homosexual lifestyles.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 9:30 AM By Willi H
The Bishops of this country never cease to amaze me. They cannot admit they were wrong about letting certain types into the priesthood since V2 and are willing to bankrupt their diocese instead of driving these predators from our midst! Fr. Lyons is entitled to his day in court but if he is convicted...off to prison!
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 9:52 AM By lome
Another one bites the dust. It will be an act of mercy to deny gays to enter the seminaries. Putting a sex confused and the diehards among unsuspecting and trusting novices will be toooooo much temptations. Only exposes them to damnation.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:36 AM By JLS

If he goes to prison, there he'll meet some who were seriously abused as children. He does not look too healthy, so maybe this will be his time to begin penance.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:50 AM By JLS

Greg B., I'm not convinced that the victims were the most devout. Devotion brings with it the power and authority of God in defense of oneself. It is more likely that the victims were betrayed by slothful parents and communities which worshiped the clergy or ignored them. It is tantemount to selling one's child to the pimps of temple prostitution. Look at the fact that half the Catholic voters installed the arch abortionist Obama as the most powerful ruler on earth. It is the same type of naiivite' that entrusts children to perverts. Parents have the obligation to God and neihgbor to protect their children at all costs. This requires them to stay married, keep to devotion instead of drunkeness, keep up to the minute with the child's daily life, sacrifice their time goofing around to spending it wisely with and for their children. This goes for the neighbors and parish acquaintenances of people whose marriages ended or been widowed, and make sure that children are accounted for: This is why priests are called "Father" and not "Dude". Now even if victims themselves were devout, it is likely that those who were charged to protect them were negligent, and share in the sin that cries out to God for vengeance. An example of how people should protect the innocent can be found in various saints who gave their lives keeping the Sacred Hosts from sacrilege. But now look at how well the Blessed Sacrament is protected from sacrilege, what with the scumbucket politicians claiming to be Catholic yet being rabid abortionists and sodomite advocates and still being given Holy Communion: This is where the buck stops, the perpetrators of sacrilege against the most defenseless of all, the most humble of all, Jesus Christ both unborn baby and God.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:54 AM By Frank A. Lostaunau
The rape of children by clergy is about criminal behavior that harms children and that has been covered up by bishops. Thank you courageous survivors for speaking and reporting this child molester to the police.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 12:33 PM By Gregory
Richard Flores, Canon 983 states, "The sacramental seal is inviolable. Accordingly, it is absolutely wrong for a confessor in any way to betray the penitent, for any reason whatsoever, whether by word or in any other fashion."
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 12:49 PM By In The Choir Loft
That's where most of my abuse took place. And sometimes down on the church floor, in the Divine Presence of the Blessed Sacrament. And when the abuse was discovered, I was branded the aggressor.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 1:16 PM By Gregory
Also Canon 984, "A confessor is prohibited completely from using knowledge acquired from confession to the detriment of the penitent even when any danger of revelation is excluded. A person who has been placed in authority cannot use in any manner for external governance the knowledge about sins which he has received in confession at any time."

Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 1:39 PM By Georgina
I had lunch with some other Catholic ladies yesterday. One lady remembered that, when this Father Lyons used to say Mass at her parish, he would insist on placing the Blessed Sacrament on the tongues of the recipients, refusing to place the Consecrated Host in the palms of their hands. I found this to be significant because a pedophile priest that was assigned to our parish was also very, "static" about conserative ritualism, and yet lived a life of sacriligous depravity. Leaves one to wonder what goes on in the scambled minds of these men who have spent years in study and training in order to serve the Lord, yet cannot tell the difference between good and evil as it pertains to them and the way they personally live their lives.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 3:24 PM By Mark from PA

To lome: We don't know if this man was sexually active at all with adults, male or female. He was a pedophile. It is not fair to punish one person for the sins of another. The point isn't gays in the ministry. Priests need to be faithful to their vow of celibacy. Would you kick heterosexual men out of the seminaries because some priests cheat with women? Greg, I agree with most of what you said, it is sad but true. Those priests who abused and bishops who covered for them should hang their heads in shame. Don't blame the media, they have done us a service, hopefully bringing this out in the open has saved numerous innocents from this garbage.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 6:16 PM By Bob
The priest will go to jail, no doubt. But what about the bishop who moved him from one church to another, who hid the pedophilia of other priest. He too belongs in jail. In jail for life is not to short. These bishops are the ones who are trully depraved. Let's get them out of the nursing homes and put them in jail where they belong. At this point, in this country, bishops have no moral authority. We need to clean house and bring the chruch back to the people.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 7:00 PM By MarkF

Mark from PA, you are willfully blind. This man preyed only on boys. As that Church documents said, there is a connection here between homosexuality and the abuse. You act as if homosexuality had nothing to do with this. Your standards would put these same people back into contact with kids. You can't get a group of homosexuals together without getting a lot of child abuse, substance abuse and. dissent. But you're right, we don't know if he was sexually active with adults. If we knew that he was, how much would you bet that he was only sexually active with men? I'd bet $1,000 or more. Thank God that Pope Benedict is in charge here. And we don't know why the bishops covered this up. They've been mostly silent. That awful ex-bishop from Milwaukee is a homosexual and he covered up other homosexuals who abused young boys. Hmmm. Perhaps there's a pattern here.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 7:12 PM By JLS
PA, the point is indeed "gays in ministry": the Pope says no.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 7:14 PM By JLS

Gregory, a confessor can prohibit a homosexualist from the Sacraments and can tell him not to apply to seminary, or have you never heard of penance?
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 8:54 PM By JLS

I still maintain that the purpose of Vatican II was to out the corruption by tearing away the veneer used by unscroupulous blasphemers to hide their sins and crimes. When the Pope was a Cdl he wrote that he preferred the Latin Mass and hoped for its return, but thought it would not happen for a long time if ever. It likely will take a long time to roust the pervs out of the hierarchy to a satisfactory degree.
Posted Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:05 PM By mark4four

Willi H, would you kindly explain the connection between a 75-year-old priest’s molestation of children and “letting certain types into the priesthood since V2”? Vatican II ran from the early to mid 1960s. Unless this man entered seminary at a very late age, he most likely was let into the priesthood via admission to the seminary a good five to 10 years before the Council even started.

Posted Wednesday, July 29, 2009 2:46 AM By Victoria
JLS, this article is about children being raped by a priest, and you go on about "scumbucket" politicians and abortion. I thought we were not allowed to go off topic on this blog. Stick with the story at hand... Scumbucket priests who rape and sodomize little children.

Posted Wednesday, July 29, 2009 7:41 AM By canisius
Mark from PA is again defending the sodomite, yes it as about gays in the priesthood. No gay men should be admitted to the priesthood, it is already infested with enough of them. Allowing gays in the priesthood is like allowing alcoholics to be bartenders. Homosexuality is a disease

John Paul II's 25 pedophile priests in Chicago

John Paul II led his John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army for over 26 years together with the genius cover-up strategies by the Opus Dei at the Vatican see the John Paul II Millstone www.jp2m.blogspot.com.

Benedict XVI as Cardinal Ratzinger God's Rottweiler silenced the Jesuit Jon sobrino who critcized the papacy of John Paul II see www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com The legacy of the pedophilia-Achilles Heel of John Paul II thrives on in the United States of America and therefore he must never be called a "saint" in American soil.
For immediate release: Tuesday, July 21, 2009

SNAP's analysis of Catholic bishop's 'damning' deposition & documents
Statement by Barbara Dorris, SNAP outreach director (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell)

Every Chicago Catholic should read this deposition and documents. Here's the most important part.

Retired Auxiliary Bishop Raymond Goedert said that he handled at least 25 Chicago pedophile priest cases.

But not once did he ever report an accused priest to civil authorities, Goedert said.
Not even in cases where priests admitted their guilt.

“My experience in dealing with the priests who I had to confront with this was that they admitted it,” said Goedert in the newly released deposition.

“I knew the civil law considered it a crime,” Goedert said.

But Goedert, the past president of the national Canon Law Society, said he felt church law – and archdiocese officials – required that he treat the matters confidentially.

“I simply would not talk about [the cases] to anyone except those who had a right to know because of their position in the diocese,” Goedert said.

That “confidentially” allowed the archdiocese to move serial predators from parish to parish without congregations’ knowledge about child abuse allegations.
One of those priests, Bill Cloutier, remained in ministry even after being accused of raping two kids and threatening their lives at gunpoint, Goedert confirmed.
“[He] was kept in ministry under monitoring,” Goedert said.

But Cloutier’s priest supervisor at his parish wasn’t told about the allegations, Goedert said.

So how good could the monitoring be, asked an attorney for the victims?
The lawyer drew parallels between archdiocese practices described by Goedert and the recent case of Fr. Daniel McCormack, a serial pedophile priest convicted in 2007.

In that case, again, parishioners and employees around McCormack were never told that he was allegedly being "monitored.”
Monitoring?
When he became Vicar For Priests, Goedert said he learned about a child molestation settlement involving Father Robert Mayer.

But archdiocesan officials, the documents show, didn’t seek Mayer’s removal. Neither did Goedert.
(Remember: this was NOT an accusation, but rather a settlement.)

>Allegations of abuse continued to surface at every parish where Mayer worked, Goedert has admitted. Mayer also was accused of plying kids with alcohol and marijuana at his residence.

Goedert claimed that Mayer was repeatedly told not to have contact with children. But a 1988 archdiocesan document shows that Goedert’s primary concern was protecting the priest’s reputation, rather than children's safety, “Again, the purpose of this is not our concern that something inappropriate might happen, but rather for your own protection lest any occasion be given to persons who may want to hurt you by bringing up again the charges from the past,” Goedert wrote.
Deceit

Several priests - Joe Kissane, Vincent McCaffrey, Michael Hogan, Joseph Fitzharris, James Ray and others - were removed from parishes for credible abuse reports.
But the parishioners and public were seldom, if ever, told about the abuse. Instead, the archdiocese said the priests’ departures were for “health” or “personal” reasons, these new documents show.

Fox watching chickens

Another priest, Father Robert Kealy, who investigated complaints of sexual abuse by priests as the archdiocese’s chancellor, was also a child molester. He resigned in 2006.

Incompetence?

Goedert said whenever allegations surfaced against a priest, he conducted the interviews. But he admitted he’d had no training on working with sexual abuse victims.
Reform? No.
The archdiocese claims it changed in 1992 after several of the predator priests were exposed through civil lawsuits.

Bernardin appointed a commission, issued a public apology and promised reform.
The evidence suggests little changed.

In 1993, for example, several accused priests, resigned and were given benefit packages but parishioners weren’t told why, archdiocesan documents show. Goedert had no explanation.

(Among the priests: Kissane, McCaffrey, Hogan and Weston.)
There's plenty more proof - and more recent proof - that little has changed in the archdiocese.

In 2006, despite his being arrested and against the advice of George's own lay review panel, George left Fr. McCormack in a parish.

(George didn’t tell the principal at the school where McCormack hung out that the priest was allegedly being 'monitored.' Nor did he warn the parish.)
In 2006, despite at least four allegations of child sex abuse and against two recommendations from his own lay panel, George left Fr. Joseph R. Bennett in a parish.

In January 2008, George admitted writing letters recently to try to free a convicted predator, Fr. Norbert Maday, from prison.

Later in 2008, despite his criminal conviction for child molestation, George kept Fr. Kenneth Martin on the church payroll.

Just as in 1992, after the Bennett and McCormack cases became public in 2006, the archdiocese apologized and called for scrutiny of its procedures, which revealed reckless practices that the cardinal promised to correct. But in an ancient, secretive, rigid, all-male, top-down monarchical system, a man like George can pledge change, change nothing, and never face consequences. So, in fact, little or nothing changes.

What's the significance of all this?

New York grand jurors, who spent months there interviewing victims, witnesses and clerics, determined that Catholic officials were “incapable” of handling child sex cases honestly and compassionately. We agree.

The deposition and documents show how deeply ingrained secrecy , deceit and recklessness are in this archdiocese. Only a fool would believe that decades-old, deeply rooted patters on of ingrained secrecy , deceit and recklessness have magically been transformed.

What's to be done now?

We urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes in the Chicagoland - especially those hurt by Fr. Russell Romano - to call police, protect others and start healing. (Today is apparently the first time Romano's been publicly disclosed as a credibly accused predator.) Please do not make the tempting but serious mistake so many others have made, assuming that the church hierarchy has 'changed.' Child sex abuse is a crime and should be reported to criminal authorities, not church authorities.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 21 years and have more than 9,000 members across the country. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, 314-645-5915 home), Peter Isely (414-429-7259) Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688 home, 314-503-0003 cell

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
www.snapnetwork.org

John Paul II pedophile priest of Allentown, Pennsylvania

The Opus Dei controlled and run the papacy of John Paul II the Great for over 26 years and so they covered-up all the pedophilia reports that were coming in because they wanted his papacy to be "great". This pedophile priest from Allentown was one of them and they push under the rug his report. The Opus Dei even "silenced" the Jesuit Jon Sobrino who has been working for more than 40 years with the poorest in El Salvador because he criticized the hypocrisy of the papacy of John Paul II. Those Opus Dei eunuchs tolerate no criticisms and tolerate no bad news that will tarnish the image of John Paul II see the John Paul II Millstone for in-depth coverage www.jp2m.blogspot.com and the Benedict XVI-Ratzinger God’s Rottweiler www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com .


http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/today/index.ssf/2009/05/diocese_of_allentown_the_rev_j.html


Diocese of Allentown, the Rev. James McHale named in sexual abuse lawsuitby Express-Times staff
Thursday May 14, 2009, 12:35 AM


Photo Courtesy of Sharon Tell

Sharon Tell, second from left, says the Rev. James McHale, third from right, abused her for two decades. They are seen here with Pope Paul VI, center, during a visit to Rome.



Express-Times Photo | KELBY ANDERKOSharon

Tell, center, stands with her attorney and family members during a news conference Wednesday outside the Diocese of Allentown headquarters.

Sharon Tell, of Millersville, Pa., says a Diocese of Allentown priest abused her over a 20-year period that began when she was 12 years old. The weight of her suffering, allegedly at the hands of the Rev. James McHale, landed Tell in a psychiatric ward after she suffered a mental breakdown in the 1980s.

"She was abused for 20 years, and spent another 20 years in silence and pain," Tell's son Patrick Conlin said. "So this is a person who has been in pain for 80 percent of her life. This is her day to be heard."

Conlin and other members of Tell's family were on hand to support her Wednesday when she announced a lawsuit against the diocese and McHale, who is deceased.

"While the Diocese of Allentown regrets that any person may have been the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of any cleric, the diocese does reserve its right to defend itself against the charges in this lawsuit," diocese spokesman Matt Kerr says in a prepared statement.

The alleged abuse started when Tell attended Notre Dame parish in Bethlehem and continued even after her family moved to Smyrna, Del.

In Delaware, the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse is two years after the victim turns 18. However, a piece of legislation passed in 2007 created a two-year window during which victims could bring civil action in cases previously barred by the current statute.

When Conlin learned about the window, which closes in July, he urged his mother to file suit.

"People wouldn't believe how you could be abused for 20 years, until she was 32 and had kids," Tell's husband, Jeff Gundel, said. "But perpetrators know how to pick their victims and condition them, and she was certainly conditioned."

Should there be a statute of limitations for civil claims involving sexual abuse of a minor?
Post a comment.

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Comments


Posted by maryMcPherso on 05/14/09 at 3:29PM

People who say that others (ministers, rabbis) have done this TOTALLY MISS THE POINT! Sure, there are terrible people everywhere... But the Catholic church is the only organization that purposely cover up for these people and then sent them to find new victims in other communities. No other religion did this!!!!

I hope the Express-Times will continue to have the courage to keep covering this story. I am sure they will get pressure to minimize the coverage. Pennsylvania needs to change the law and provide a window for victims to come forward ... as so many other states have done. But in Harrisburg, the Church fought against this bit of justice.

Posted by Heimat on 05/14/09 at 5:07PM

Remember, also, that the current pope (the guy who was once in the Hitler Youth), was the guy who wrote that infamous memo to the American Catholic Churches telling them to delay as long as possible the investigations into the allegations by all those people who claimed to have been abused by priests. You really have to wonder about the integrity of this mess. The Spanish Inquisition was bad enough, but the list of crimes they have committed over the years is quite extensive.

John Paul II pedophile priest in Monterey

Richard Garcia Bishop leads the Diocese of Monterey.



The clones of John Paul II keep covering-up the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army see the John Paul II Millstone www.jp2m.blogspot.com and Benedict XVI God's Rottweiler www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com for more details. John Paul II must never be called a saint by American lips because he neglected more than 12,000 American children and abandonned them to be sexually abused by his pedophile priests during his 26 years papacy. Benedict XVI and the Opus Dei are speeding up JP2's canonization but American justice must prevail and ignore his hypocritical holiness see the John Paul II Millstone www.jp2m.blogspot.com and Benedict XVI God's Rottweiler www.pope-ratz.blogspot.com for more details.

Path to abuse: Monterey Diocese turned blind eye to priests' victims

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Herald Salinas Bureau
Updated: 07/20/2009 08:51:35 AM PDT

Records released by the Diocese of Monterey paint a damning picture of an era that church officials say has since ended.

It was a time when priests wandered in and out of parishes, celebrating Mass and interacting with children without the knowledge or oversight of diocesan leaders.

A time when a priest could arrive unannounced from another diocese and be named associate pastor without a background check. A time when a report of a priest's sexual misconduct sent the diocese scrambling to protect itself rather than the victim.

The unwritten policy then was to call the diocese's lawyer rather than police. Accused clergy were shuffled to new parishes or whisked out of the country and nothing was done to alert parishioners.

It was a flawed system that led to the repeated sexual abuse of at least two children, an 11-year-old altar boy and his younger brother. And while the church has instituted new safeguards to prevent such tragedies, they were not put in place until 2002, nearly a decade after the diocese learned of the case.

When church leaders learned the altar boy was assaulted by a priest who'd been allowed into the diocese without a reference check, they called their attorney, not police, and did nothing to protect the boy or search for other potential victims.

"It didn't enter my mind really," said Monsignor Declan Murphy, who handled the report for the diocese.

Instead, the offending priest, the Rev. John Velez, was quickly ushered out of the
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country. Murphy said the priest admitted his conduct, saying he was trying to teach the boy "how to become a man," and the monsignor simply wanted him out of the diocese.

Velez was returned to his Marist order in Mexico. His whereabouts are uncertain, though one clergyman said Velez is practicing as a priest in his native Colombia. The revelations all come as a result of a lawsuit by the altar boy, identified in court as "John Doe." Now 29, the victim settled his suit three days before trial last month for $1.2 million on the condition that Bishop Richard Garcia apologize to him and his family and make public all records produced in his case.

More than 100 documents and dozens of depositions, containing well over 1,000 pages of testimony by church leaders and others, were released this month by the victim's attorneys, John Manly and Rebecca Rhoades of Newport Beach.

'Blood on its hands'

Manly said the documents prove the diocese has "blood on its hands." Because the church did not report Velez's abuse and no criminal investigation was initiated, a second priest, the Rev. Juan Guillen of Arizona, continued to assault the boy and eventually victimized his younger brother.

Some of that abuse took place in Salinas, where Guillen visited the boys' family and, according to a church secretary, celebrated Mass during the annual monthlong vacation of their pastor, Manual Canal. Diocese officials said Canal, like other pastors in the diocese, was allowed to schedule his vacations and replacements without approval or oversight.

John Doe reported the abuse to police in Yuma years later after learning that Guillen had also abused his brother. Suspected of molesting children for decades in Arizona, Guillen is now serving a 10-year prison sentence there for molestation.

Church leaders say the released documents depict a different time for the church. New policies require any allegations of child molestation be reported to law enforcement or child protective services and priests with "credible" accusations against them are suspended from celebrating the sacraments unless the claims are proven false.

Background checks

Diocese spokesman Warren Hoy said all diocese personnel who work with children — from priests to volunteers — must undergo background checks. Priests and deacons also undergo a psychological examination.

Hoy said incoming priests must have a letter of recommendation from their old diocese, whose officials will be contacted by the Monterey diocese. And visiting priests must be cleared by the diocese chancellor before they can perform "any duties whatsoever in the Diocese."

But those policies were not put into place until 2002, after the clergy-abuse scandal prompted a national conference of bishops which mandated the new rules. And the recently released records show those procedures have not always been followed rigorously in Monterey.

The diocese promptly suspended the ministerial rights of the Rev. Antonio Cortes in April after a Salinas teenager told police the priest had assaulted him. Cortes is now awaiting trial.

But in 2005, after a religious order settled an abuse claim against former diocese leader Monsignor Charles Fatooh — and after it was learned he rented a Maryland condominium to a notorious child molester — Fatooh was assigned to lead St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Cayucos, where he remains. The Rev. Paul Valdez also remains pastor of St. Jude Parish Community in Marina, where he was transferred after a young girl in Sacred Heart parish accused him of misconduct in 1999.

And when Garcia was installed as bishop in 2007, a known pedophile priest from his former parish in Sacramento was invited to the ceremony and greeted by Garcia. The Rev. Vincent Brady, who was once caught in bed with a 12-year-old girl, according to her parents, testified that no restrictions were placed on him when he attended a party for Garcia where children were present. Brady's diocese has said the claims against him were "credible."

Garcia declined to be interviewed for this report.

Hoy said all the priests of the Sacramento diocese were invited to Garcia's installation, a public event, and Brady did not participate in any ministerial duties.

"And since he was attending as a private citizen ... the Diocese didn't have any authority to place any restrictions on him," Hoy said. "The Bishop's authority only extends to priests in their official capacities."

Hoy said the claims against Fatooh and Valdez were investigated and determined to be unfounded.

Retired Bishop Sylvester Ryan testified, however, the allegation against Fatooh could not be thoroughly investigated because the alleged victim's attorney would not let him be interviewed. That man, who said he was abused when Fatooh was his principal at a Catholic high school in Southern California, settled the case with Fatooh's religious order.

The District Attorney's Office investigated the claim against Valdez and concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute, a standard that falls below "unfounded."

Hoy said the diocese track record has been clean since 2002.

"Every audit we've undergone since then has shown that we do a good job of protecting children and of responding whenever allegations are raised," he said.

"The Diocese (and the church as a whole) did a poor job of handling previous cases, but we've learned from those mistakes and today we work aggressively to prevent sexual misconduct of any form and to protect all of the people, especially the children, to whom we minister."

The documents released this month date back more than a decade. Included among them, for the first time publicly, is John Doe's heart-wrenching testimony about the painful breach of a young boy's unquestioning faith.

'God on Earth'

Now 29, the victim said he was first molested by Guillen in 1988, when he and his family moved from Mexico to Yuma. He told no one, believing the priest was "God on Earth." The abuse would last a decade, continuing as his family moved back and forth from Yuma to Salinas.

His trusting parents allowed Guillen to take him on monthlong vacations to Mexico. He said Guillen took two boys each year, molesting both.

The boy and his family first moved to Salinas in 1989, attending Christ the King, a mission church of the Sacred Heart parish known to its largely migrant population as Cristo Rey. In 1991, Velez arrived. As Guillen had done years earlier in Arizona, Velez recruited John Doe as an altar boy and began molesting him.

Testimony now made public depicts a whorl of diocesan finger-pointing over who was responsible for supervising Velez. In the end, no one did.

According to records, Velez arrived in the diocese unannounced in January 1991 and asked Bishop Thaddeus Shubsda for work. A native of Colombia, he'd been ordained by the Marist order in Mexico at the age of 37 and had left El Paso, Texas, the year before.

The Diocese of Sacramento had turned down his request for work after checking Velez's references in El Paso. Shubsda didn't inquire. Before dying that April, he welcomed Velez.

Shubsda's successor, Fatooh, named Velez associate pastor in Salinas' Sacred Heart parish and assigned him to work in the Cristo Rey mission church. According to testimony, no background check was conducted and no questions were asked.

In position to observe

Various priests were in position to observe and supervise Velez, including reverends Manual Canal, James Burdick and Gregory Sandman, who lived with Velez in the rectory.

Each of the men testified last year that Velez was someone else's responsibility. Canal said Burdick was in charge. Burdick, who has since left the priesthood and married, said he never heard of Velez. And for reasons he could not explain, Sandman said he rarely spoke to Velez and never shared a meal with him, despite the fact they lived under the same roof.

Meanwhile, Velez was spending an inordinate amount of time with the victim, some of it behind closed doors in church offices in Salinas and Watsonville and none of it questioned by church secretaries or the boy's parents.

Ryan testified it has always been wrong for a priest to bring a child into his room. Such behavior at the least carries an appearance of impropriety, he said, and should be reported by anyone who sees it.

The victim and former Yuma, Ariz., police investigator Jennifer Munns said the lack of scrutiny by lay people lies in the devout Catholicism found in the immigrant community.

"My parents being Catholic ... for us, a priest was God on Earth," John Doe testified.

Verbal attacks

Munns said parishioners in Yuma verbally attacked the victim and his family even after Guillen admitted the molestations there. That diocese did nothing to intervene, she said.

"I had parents that would say — and they would be very open in front of the kids — 'He couldn't have done this. A priest would never do that.'"

David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said such statements send a damaging message to children who are being abused, whether at the hands of a priest or a parent: Don't tell. No one will believe you.

Munns said parents she questioned felt so honored by the priest's attention that they believed his weekend requests to sleep with their children were innocent. Munns did not.

"Why would a priest that lives in Yuma go visit a house in Yuma and stay in the kids' bedrooms over the weekend when he had his own house?" she asked. "It doesn't make sense."

Ironically, it was this implicit trust that eventually led one of John Doe's abusers to report the other. Disturbed by the increasingly intimate nature of Velez's molestations, the boy turned to his lifelong "padre," Guillen.

Alarmed that his own conduct might be discovered, Guillen intervened. He reported the abuse to the diocese and the boy's parents, but told the parents to leave their son's therapy to him.

Because acting bishop Fatooh was away, Guillen's report went to Murphy, then pastor of the Carmel Basilica and Fatooh's second-in-command. He met with Sandman and Velez, who admitted his conduct. Murphy, now retired to Ireland, dispatched Sandman and diocese attorney Al Ham to meet with the boy's parents.

Money for counseling

They asked for money to pay for their son's counseling. According to the victim, his mother later told him Sandman laughed at her and dismissed the request, telling her the molestation was "no big deal," something that "happens to a lot of kids," and that her son would "get over" it.

Believing they had no recourse, the parents followed Guillen's advice and left the boy's well-being in his hands. Undiscovered, Guillen continued molesting the boy for more than six years.

Meanwhile, by his own admission, Murphy's focus was to remove Velez, who he'd never heard of before the molestation was reported. But he wasn't alarmed enough to do it immediately. He received the report on a Friday afternoon and instructed Sandman to bring Velez to the diocese office the following Monday.

"Were you concerned that between Friday and Monday that Father Velez would continue to abuse the little boy?" Murphy was asked in deposition.

"I guess ... no, it didn't enter my mind really," he said, adding that he did not call the parents, anyone at the parish or instruct any of his subordinates there to alert parishioners in case there were other victims.

"All I was interested in doing was that one case and getting ... him out of there right now," he said. "It wasn't my job to follow other things."

Who was in charge?

Canal, who was present in the parish when the alleged abuse occurred but gone on his annual trip to Spain when it was reported, also testified he made no inquiries upon his return. Velez was gone and Sandman was in charge of the investigation, he said, an assertion that Sandman denied.

Fatooh testified the abuse was not reported to authorities because diocese officials were not "mandated reporters," like teachers, who are required to report child abuse. Murphy sent Velez to a retreat house in San Juan Bautista where he attempted suicide with a drug overdose within hours.

Velez was transported to the Catholic-owned Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz. Ham, the diocese's attorney, said he informed Dr. David Hoban, the treating physician, that he was a mandated reporter.

Mandated reporters

Among the documents released by the diocese is a two-page copy of the California Penal Code section faxed to Hoban which defines mandated reporters. There is no indication a report was made or an investigation initiated; each of the priests and church secretaries deposed said they were never questioned about the abuse by anyone in the diocese or law enforcement.

Hoban, a Santa Cruz psychiatrist, is now the lead defendant in a criminal case naming six doctors for allegedly falsifying their time cards at Salinas Valley State Prison. By e-mail from Italy, he declined comment.

In July 2002, after the "Dallas Conference" of bishops, the diocese made its first official report of the Velez case, notifying the Monterey County District Attorney's Office. By then the criminal statute of limitations had run out and Velez had disappeared.

The one-page report says a complaint was filed and investigated by the "sensitive issues team." It said the priest was suspended and "returned to Mexico to his religious order." None of the priests deposed last year said they had ever heard of the sensitive issues team.

Virginia Hennessey can be reached at 753-6751 or vhennessey@montereyherald.com.

John Paul II Pedophile Priest to be sentenced in Maryland

The Opus Dei and John Paul II continually denied the existence of pedophile priests in the USA. This sentencing was a recent case as late as 2002 when John Paul II came for his World Youth Day in Toronto, a few drive from Boston where it was erupting. What a legacy the John Paul II Achiles Heel has left behind...

===
For immediate release: Monday, July 13, 2009

Predator priest is sentenced; Sex abuse victims respon
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 862 7688 home, 314 503 0003 cell)
We'd hoped for jail time, since that's the only proven way to stop a predator. We now hope that others who were hurt by this cunning child molester will call police and pursue charges, so Cote will be convicted again and get locked up.

He's a relatively young man, well-educated, well-spoken and savvy. We firmly believe he'll molest again. (Remember: he molested two very young Massachusetts boys very recently while he was on suspension for molesting a DC child years earlier.)
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 21 years and have more than 9,000 members across the country. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, 314-645-5915 home), Peter Isely (414-429-7259) Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747), Barbara Dorris (314-862-7688), Mary Grant (626-419-2930), Mark Serrano (703-727-4940)

http://www.gazette.net/stories/07132009/montnew91213_32534.shtml

Judge to decide case of priest accused of abusing altar boy
Cote would be sentenced to probation under terms of plea agreement

by Melissa A. Chadwick | Staff Writer

A former youth pastor at Mother Seton Parish in Germantown has agreed to serve 10 years probation for charges that he sexually abused a teenage altar boy in 2001 and 2002, according to a plea agreement filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court last week.

The Rev. Aaron Joseph Cote, 57, was indicted on one charge of third-degree sex abuse last year. The plea agreement, which is scheduled before a judge today, states that Cote will plead not guilty to the charge and prosecutors will lay out the case in a statement of facts to the judge. The plea agreement states that prosecutors and the defense agree to ask the judge to order Cote to "undergo a full sex offender evaluation" and complete counseling.

As part of the agreement, the defense attorney and prosecutors will not ask for jail time, and request that Cote serve five years supervised probation and five years unsupervised probation.

Cote was accused of abusing Brandon Rains, now 22, when he was 14 and 15 years old, from 2001 to 2002 in Germantown. Rains, who had been an altar boy, reported the abuse, which he said also occurred in Washington, D.C., in 2003. His family grew dissatisfied with the lack of police action and filed a lawsuit against Cote and the religious order to which he belonged in 2005.

Although The Gazette rarely names alleged victims of sex crimes, Rains and his family went public with the case. Rains' stepfather, Joe McMorrow, would not comment on the case Friday.

The lawsuit, which was filed in D.C. Superior Court, was settled for $1.2 million in August 2007. Montgomery County Police charged Cote with one count of sexual abuse in July 2008.

Documents filed in the lawsuit indicate that the Dominican Order of Fathers and Brothers had records from church officials and parents suspicious of Cote's relationship with children and possible abuse. Those reports date to the 1980s, when Cote was a pastor in Ohio.

Cote and his attorney could not be reached for comment before today's hearing.
Cote also served at St. Jane Frances de Chantal Catholic Church in Bethesda in the late 1990s, prior to his Mother Seton assignment. He was an associate pastor and youth minister at Mother Seton from 1999 to 2002.

After Rains' allegations were made in 2003, the Dominican order sent Cote for psychological evaluation, conducted an investigation and cleared him of any wrongdoing, church officials have said.

Cote then was assigned a position as youth minister and associate pastor at a Providence, R.I., church. When Rains went public and filed the lawsuit, Cote was placed on administrative leave from the church, church officials have said.
In 2008, a Massachusetts couple filed a lawsuit against Cote and the Dominican Order alleging that he abused their two young sons. The attorney in that case, Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, Minn., said late Friday that the lawsuit is on hold while they "evaluate what is in the best interest of these children."

John Paul II Pedophile Priest goes to trial in Maryland‏

In his last World Youth Day in 2002 in North America, John Paul II refused to address the USA priest pedophilia that was erupting in Boston. The Opus Dei wanted a glorious papacy and covered-up the thousands of pedophile priests under the rug and archives of the Vatican. See the John Paul II Millstone for more details of the the mystical marriage between John Paul II and the Opus Dei foudner St. Josemaria Escriva www.jp2m.blogspot.com And now the Opus Dei want a speedy canonization of John Paul II so that they can always pray and mention his name everytime they cite Escriva's name. See the morph of Escriva's name like Michael Jackson's face www.jp2m.blogspot.com

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http://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_press_releases/2009_press_releases/071309_pedophile_priest_goes_on_trial.htm

Pedophile priest goes on trial

He molested Maryland boy in 2002

That victim settled his civil sex abuse lawsuit for $1.2 million
Just recently, cleric was accused of assaulting two young Massachusetts boys too
Parents and co-workers warned church officials about predator at least 20 years earlier

WHAT

Before and after a criminal child sex abuse trial against a Catholic priest, clergy sex abuse victims will
-- be available to discuss the case,
-- prod Catholic officials to ‘aggressively reach out’ to other victims and witnesses, and .

-- urge anyone who saw suspected or suffered his crimes to come forward, get help and call police.

WHEN

Monday, July 13, 9:30 a.m.

WHERE

Judicial Center, 50 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, MD 20850

WHO

Three clergy sex abuse victims who are members of a support group called SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAPnetwork.org)

WHY

A criminal trial involving a serial predator priest is set to begin tomorrow, Monday, in Rockville, MD. The accused is Fr. Aaron (“A.J.”) Cote who turned himself in last year to the Montgomery County police for sexually
abusing an altar boy, Brandon Rains, at Mother Seton Parish in Germantown in 2001 and 2002. Cote was an associate pastor there at the time.

The trial will be in Court Room 17, 6th floor, before Judge Louise Scribner. There will be no jury.

In 2003, frustrated with the police investigation, Rains filed a civil lawsuit against Cote and his church superiors. The suit said the Catholic hierarchy knew Cote was “a threat to kids” for more than 20 years, yet kept
moving him and keeping him in ministry until he was sued in 2005. That suit was settled in 2007 for $1.2 million.

In April 2008, Cote was also sued for molesting two Springfield Massachusetts brothers in 2003. The victims were then less than five years old at the time.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/springfield_area_woman_alleges.html
Cote committed the Massachusetts crimes while on suspension for molesting Rains
Despite at least six separate, credible child sex abuse allegations, Catholic officials kept Cote working in parishes, until Rains filed his civil lawsuit. Church staffers also refused to tell police about an Ohio parochial teacher who was in touch with another young victim of Cote’s.

Thirty pages of previously-secret documents, disclosed by victims' attorneys, show that Catholic authorities were worried and warned about Cote’s excessive drinking and his disturbing interest in children even during his seminary days. They considered not ordaining him. The case is clear proof, SNAP says, of how church officials in general (and religious orders in particular) ignore the US bishops’ weak and vague child sex abuse policies adopted seven years ago.

Cote, a Massachusetts native, has worked in
-- Peru (where records show he repeatedly & inappropriately let kids be and stay in priests’ living quarters),
-- Ohio (where he was also accused of molesting a boy in the Columbus diocese),
-- Western Massachusetts (in Chicopee, Westfield and South Hadley),
-- Boston (at a home for emotionally disturbed kids in 1980-81),
-- Maryland (where he worked two parishes and abused Rains’) and (most recently),
-- Rhode Island (where he was transferred to a Providence parish after Rains reported his abuse).
Cote belongs to a religious order called the Dominicans. Their headquarters is in New York City. His victims have been represented by attorneys Jeff Anderson (of St. Paul MN, 612 817 8665 cell), MIchael Hoare (of DC) & Michael Dowd (of NY, 212 751 1640 office).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/16/AR2005111602414.html
CONTACT
Becky Ianni 703 801 6044, David Clohessy 314 566 9790 cell

John Paul II Pedophile Priests in Florida

EDITORIAL: Give abuse victims more time
Listen to this article or download audio file.Click-2-Listen

Palm Beach Post Editorial
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2009/07/10/a12a_dolce_edit_0711.html

Friday, July 10, 2009

Michael Dolce, a victim of childhood sexual abuse, is convinced that members of the Florida Legislature want to help children who are victims of sexual abuse. He's also convinced that they never will.

For five years, Mr. Dolce, a former legislative aide, has lobbied for a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for criminal charges and civil payouts long after a child underwent the trauma of sex abuse. Years or even decades after they grow up, many victims can't confront what happened to them. Current law doesn't give them the luxury of waiting.

So Mr. Dolce, a Palm Beach Gardens lawyer, is taking his cause to the voters. He will petition to place on the ballot a constitutional amendment that would erase the statute of limitations, both civil and criminal, for any "crime involving sexual battery" against children younger than 16. He'll need at least 700,000 signatures but that, he said, is more likely than obtaining majority votes of both houses of the Florida Legislature.

The problem hasn't been that legislators won't vote for his bill. It has passed many committees over the years. The problem is getting his bill heard. The obstacle, Mr. Dolce says, is the Catholic Church, which has paid millions to settle sex abuse claims against priests.

Even after Mr. Dolce proposed bills that would not be retroactive, meaning the church wouldn't have to pay for past sins, the church refused to drop its opposition. As a result, the bills went nowhere. In an interview with The Post's Dara Kam, Michael McCarron, executive director of the Florida Catholic Conference, said his group doesn't oppose lifting the time constraints on criminal prosecutions, but would support the civil cases only against the abuser themselves.

That's not good enough. On an issue that causes so much spiritual pain, the church needs to take a leadership role. With its history of overlooking abuse by shuffling priests from parish to parish and its recent claims that those days are over, the church is missing an opportunity to back up its high-minded words.

Aside from his nowhere-else-to-turn argument, Mr. Dolce makes a good case that his proposal would grant rights that are otherwise denied, rather than take rights away, as did last year's anti-gay marriage amendment.

It's disappointing that Mr. Dolce's just cause made no headway in the Legislature. Florida citizens deserve the chance to show legislators how wrong that is.

The morph of St. Josemaria's name...Opus Dei controlled John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army

Opus Dei controlled the 26 years papacy of John Paul II. Opus Dei his press relation managers, his ghost writers and his 24/7 entourage. Logistically and logically Opus Dei controlled the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. See the morph of St. Josemaria Escriva's name in the John Paul II Millstone www.jp2m.blogspot.com