News Story of the Day
More than a dozen abusive clergy served local parishes
By Cody Hooks, [email protected], September 22, 2017, The Taos News
Armando Martinez grew up in Questa, the village of alfalfa fields and a couple of thousand people at the western base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Martinez didn't look for work at the nearby molybdenum mine, like a lot of young men from the village. Instead, he went into a Catholic seminary, became a priest and headed parishes from Belen to Tucumcari, Springer to El Rito.
In May 1997, Martinez was found naked and dead, his body left in a ditch near Bernalillo. His murderer turned himself in days later.
Vasek asks court Wednesday in TRF to deny diocese’s attempts to throw out his claims
By Times Report, Crookston Times
Also, three more priests’ names added to list, and two served at the Diocese of Crookston in the 1940s and 1950s.
San Leandro teen: Catholic school, church diocese failed to prevent sex abuse by counselor
By Matthias Gafni, The Mercury News
SONOMA — A San Leandro teen sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa and an embattled school for traumatized boys Tuesday, claiming employees failed to prevent his sexual abuse by a counselor who took advantage of his troubled past.
Exclusive: Accused Vatican diplomat wrote 2003 dissertation on sex abuse church laws
By Joelle Casteix, September 18, 2017, The Worthy Adversary
A Vatican priest and diplomat under suspicion for violating US child pornography lawswrote his 2003 doctoral dissertation on church laws addressing how the Holy See deals with clerics accused of molesting children.
Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella, recalled by the Vatican last week, wrote The criminal protection of ecclesiastical celibacy in the canonical laws of 1917 and 1983: historical-juridical study to complete his studies in Canon Law. I took screenshots, in case the link “disappears.”
8 Rabbis Obligate Reporting Abuse
By COLlive reporter, Community News Service, September 18, 2017
8 Chabad Rabbis signed onto a letter stating, "there is no need to seek rabbinic approval prior to reporting" all forms of abuse.
A group of Chabad rabbis signed a proclamation addressing abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community, alluding to its effects that have resulted in multiple deaths due to drug overdoses and suicides over the past year alone in Jewish communities.
"The existence of child sexual abuse and other forms of child abuse which occurs in some of our communities, resulting in a number of tragic suicides as well as other physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual consequences," they wrote.
Baltimore archdiocese responds to petition calling for release of 'Keepers' priest Maskell's files
By Alison Knezevich, The Baltimore Sun, September 17, 2017
The Archdiocese of Baltimore has responded to the organizer of a petition that urged the release of personnel files of the late priest at the center of “The Keepers” documentary, saying it treated the request “very seriously” but is still declining to make the documents public.
More than 54,000 people have signed the change.org petition, which calls on church officials to release the records of A. Joseph Maskell. The priest worked as chaplain and counselor at Archbishop Keough High School in Southwest Baltimore during the 1960s and 1970s. Multiple people have accused him of sexual abuse. He denied the allegations before his death in 2001.
Amid Pornography Case, Vatican Recalls Priest From Washington Embassy
SEPT. 15, 2017, The New York Times
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has recalled a high-ranking priest working as a diplomat in the Holy See’s embassy in Washington after American authorities sought to strip his immunity and potentially charge him with possession of child pornography, the Vatican said Friday.
In a statement, the Vatican said that it had been notified by the State Department on Aug. 21 of “a possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images” by a member of its diplomatic corps.
The Vatican said the priest would face an investigation and potential trial in Vatican City. But some critics saw in the Vatican’s move a reflexive step to protect its own by whisking a priest away from a justice system in a foreign land.
Vatican diplomat recalled amid child porn investigation
VATICAN CITY — A high-ranking priest working in the Vatican’s embassy in Washington has been recalled after U.S. prosecutors asked for him to be charged there and face trial in a child pornography investigation, Vatican and U.S. officials said Friday.
The diplomat was suspected of possessing, but not producing or disseminating, child pornography including images of pre-pubescent children, a U.S. source familiar with the case said. The source was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s sexual abuse list brings relief — and questions
By Andrew Oxford, The New Mexican
As the Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal burst into the nation’s collective consciousness in the 1990s, two brothers filed lawsuits against a church order, charging that some of its members had molested them while they were growing up in Santa Fe.
Archdiocese of Santa Fe publicly names priests accused of molestation
By Andrew Oxford, The New Mexican
In a step toward accountability long demanded by survivors of sexual abuse at the of hands Roman Catholic clergy, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe on Tuesday released a list of 74 priests, deacons and brothers who it says have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct over the last several decades.