Tag: Sexual abuse

Haunted Jesuits

Latest highly placed, high-profile Jesuit to resign under fire. Past misdeeds keep popping up.

This one departed his post as trustee of Boston College.

When reports of Donald McGuire’s sexual abuse of minors came to Fr. Bradley Schaeffer’s attention in 1993, no significant action was taken to remove McGuire, a renowned retreat leader and close friend of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, from his ministry. Fr. Schaeffer, who was the Jesuit Provincial in Chicago at the time, never contacted the police regarding the allegations; instead, he sent McGuire for rehabilitative treatment which reportedly ended early and in failure due to McGuire’s lack of cooperation with therapists.

Mo. judge to SNAP: Hand over your files

Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment
Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To clergy defendants’ lawyers, that is, to see if they have been coaching complaining witnesses to dig out repressed memories that lead to accusation.  It’s an attack on the accuracy of the dredged-up memories, which are crucial in Missouri, where the five-year statue of limitation begins only at the time of the recovered memory of abuse.

If defense lawyers can prove that the plaintiffs did not actually suppress memories of sexual abuse for decades, judges would have to throw out the lawsuits under a five-year statute of limitations that the Missouri Supreme Court reaffirmed in 2006, The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/IeKExU ).

Read more: http://www.kmbc.com/news/30940594/detail.html#ixzz1szPf7S7m

It’s an “ironic reversal,” comments Catholic World News.

In scores of other cases, SNAP has demanded complete disclosure of confidential personnel files by Catholic dioceses. But the group has fought stubbornly to prevent disclosure of its own internal records. [Jackson County Judge Ann] Mesle said that she expected her order would be appealed.

Wheeling WV Bishop accused, his cathedral rector balking at giving testimony

 

Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment
Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Wheeling Intelligencer presents the Bishop Bransfield story, earlier part of a Phila. Inquirer story, in the starkest of terms:

PHILADELPHIA- A man testified Wednesday in a clergy abuse trial that a priest raped him in the 1970s at a beach house owned by the Most Rev. Michael J. Bransfield and that he was told that Bransfield, who currently serves as bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, also sexually abused a boy.

The 48-year-old man also testified that he saw Bransfield with a car full of boys at a farm owned by his accused abuser, the Rev. Stanley Gana. The witness said that Gana told him Bransfield was having sex with the boy who was in the front seat.

Another man has testified that Bransfield had a lewd conversation with him.

The testimony came at the trial of the Rev. James Brennan, who’s accused in a 1996 child-sex assault.

Bransfield has not been charged, nor has he ever been charged, the Intelligencer reports. Nor accused, as far as a monitoring of his history on the Internet can tell us.

The Wheeling diocese is withholding comment until “the facts and issues surrounding this testimony are made fully known to the Diocese,” except to urge Catholics “to remember all victims of sexual abuse and to pray for them and their families” and to dismiss the trial itself as a “circus” and part of a smear campaign by prosecutors.

“They seem to want to bludgeon witnesses, smear individuals not on trial, anything to bolster their persecution of the church,” the diocese said in a separate statement. “The trial appears to be evolving into a circus with no rules and boundaries.”

Apparently at issue is the appearance at the trial as a material witness of a Wheeling priest, Monsignor Kevin Quirk, rector of the cathedral. A local judge is expected to rule tomorrow (4/20) whether Monsignor Quirk is required to testify.

No sooner ordained, complaints about McGuire SJ

The most detailed account yet of Fr. Donald McGuire as molester and the Chicago Jesuit province as looking the other way — for decades.

The newly public documents date from the early 1960s, when a concerned Austrian priest, in imperfect English, first observed in a letter to Chicago Jesuits that Father McGuire, newly ordained and studying in Europe, had much relations with several boys. The reports extend into the last decade, when Father McGuire reportedly ignored admonitions to stop traveling with young assistants, molesting one as late as 2003, as law enforcement was closing in.
. . . . .
McGuire, now 80, was convicted on several counts of sex abuse in state and federal courts in 2006 and 2008, and is serving a 25-year federal sentence.

Gleeson SJ in Philadelphia: inquiring student minds at work

Are we Catholics past the point of settling with accusers to avoid bad publicity and/or losing in court in sexual abuse and/or harassment matters? Rev. Thomas Gleeson SJ, outed three weeks ago in Philadelphia, could have had his day in court 11 years ago, but Jesuits fought the very idea and settled with the accuser, a former Jesuit scholastic. Case closed, end of story, they thought or hoped. Hardly.

As a campus chaplain at St. Joseph’s U., he had been placed in a position too public to be ignored by The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), and there he was again, in the very limelight he’d wanted to avoid by the settlement. And people in charge of his new place of employment tried once again to slide under publicity radar, and once again failed. (His crucial role in ousting a fellow Jesuit from the Wheeling Jesuit U. presidency — under suspicious circumstances partly of Gleeson’s own making — was a bad move by someone seeking anonymity.)

This time, Phila. Daily News coverage drove the St. Joe’s president, Rev. Timothy Lannon, S.J., to issue a university-wide memo “as students were finishing midterms and packing up for spring break,” as the student newspaper, The Hawk, noted this week. The memo was terse, even perfunctory: Gleeson had been accused but had been vetted by the Jesuits — “cleared for assignment,” a spokeswoman told the News.

Missing from the memo was “information concerning Gleeson’s history and subsequent settlement,” The Hawk’s editors wrote. Indeed, “the poorly worded statement created more questions and concerns than conclusions, and the university has yet to reveal how it plans to move forward with Gleeson’s case in the future,” they wrote in a carefully constructed editorial.

They added:

Given the enormous accusations currently levied against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, it is surprising that Saint Joseph’s University officials did not think more carefully before responding in a seemingly distant and ineffective way.
The university could have opened the door for conversation about the circumstances and reasoning behind Gleeson’s hire, providing a great opportunity for community discussion on issues that are dominating Philadelphia’s headlines. Instead, St. Joe’s offered the same one-way declaration that has plagued the Catholic Church for decades.

Instead, the university offered “lackluster explanations” that did not inspire confidence. “When the university doesn’t defend their employees it makes it hard for students to get behind them with support,” the editorial noted.

That’s a fair description of how the Gleeson business has been handled, not only in Philadelphia but before that in West Virginia and before that in California. (It’s also how much or most priest abuse and/or harassment has been treated, for that matter.)

At what point, we must ask, does Jesuit loyalty to their own (as bishops’ to their priests) give way to the sort of “open communication” that has been respectfully requested by St. Joseph’s U. student editors?

Father Owino sentenced

Here are the stories:

Former NH priest sentenced on molestation charge

Fairfax County Circuit Judge Michael Devine sentenced Felix Owino on Friday to five years, but suspended all but nine months of the sentence, according to the court clerk’s office. Owino already has served seven months. Owino pleaded guilty in September NECN · 35 minutes ago

W.Va. priest sentenced on molestation conviction
Fairfax County Circuit Judge Michael Devine sentenced Felix Owino on Friday to five years, but suspended all but nine months of the sentence, according to the court clerk’s office. Owino already has served seven months. Owino pleaded guilty in September NECN · 53 minutes ago

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Priest Who Sexually Abused Girl Gets Suspended Sentence; Will Serve 1 1/2 Months
A former local priest will serve less than two more months in jail for sexual assaulting a child in Virginia. Rev. Felix Owino pleaded guilty in September to inappropriately touching an 11-year-old girl last year in Fairfax. WTOV 9 · 2 hours ago

imagenewsfetcher.aspx?q=http%3a%2f%2fwww.statejournal.com%2fimages%2f021811044517_owino1.jpg&id=4424BB9D5EC0D8589FC24B415290964E

Former Ohio Valley Priest Sentenced for Sexual Assault Against Child
FAIRFAX, Va. — A local priest is sentenced for sexual assault in a Fairfax, Va. courtroom. Father Felix Owino was sentenced Friday to five years, with all but nine months suspended. Owino was credited for the seven The State Journal · 1 hour ago

Former WV Priest Sentenced For Virginia Crime
Fr. Felix C. Owino was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison after a previous guilty to plea to aggravated sexual battery involving an 11-year-old girl. The judge suspended five years of the sentence and ordered Owino to jail for nine months.Metro News · 2 hours ago

Father Owino plea

Father Owino pleaded:

FAIRFAX, Va. — The Rev. Felix Owino entered a guilty plea to aggravated sexual battery Wednesday in Fairfax County, Va., Circuit Court according to court officials.

He will be sentenced Dec. 17.  He is

a former Associate Professor [sic] at Wheeling Jesuit University [where he had taught for two years] and also had a residence at St. Paul Parish in Weirton [WV, 30 miles north of Wheeling],

where he was an associate pastor. Associate pastor yes, associate professor not likely.  Rather, instructor, as below.

He is being held at the adult detention center in Fairfax, will serve no more than five years in prison, could be (after that) deported to his homeland of Kenya, according to officials cited by the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail.

Prosecutors said Owino was drinking the night he inappropriately touched an 11-year-old girl in Herndon.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) wants to hold officials’ feet to the fire.

“We suspect there are other crimes for which Owino could be prosecuted and convicted, which would likely keep him away from kids and behind bars even longer,” SNAP Outreach Director Barbara Dorris said in a news release.

SNAP is asking Wheeling Bishop Michael Bransfield and others to disclose any other allegations of sexual abuse made against Owino.

“Church and college officials have a chance to help law enforcement by aggressively seeking out others with information about Owino,” SNAP Director David Clohessy said in a news release. “It is their moral and civic responsibility to keep this child predator in jail and away from children.”

Later: Here’s a succinct, well-written account by Wash Post man Tom Jackman that adds key details:

A Catholic priest from West Virginia pleaded guilty in Fairfax County on Wednesday to aggravated sexual battery for inappropriately touching an 11-year-old girl while he was visiting the girl’s Herndon home.

The Rev. Felix Owino, 44, was arrested after the girl told her parents of the incident in July, which occurred while Owino, the girl and others were watching a movie on television. Police described Owino as a family friend.

Owino, originally from Nairobi, Kenya, is a member of the Apostles of Jesus missionary congregation, an African congregation of priests and brothers. He was serving as a philosophy instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia and as an associate pastor at St. Paul Roman Catholic Church in Weirton, W.Va. [italics added]

Yet later, yet other accounts (from Mike Fahy):

Washington Post [as above]

Centre Daily Times [AP]

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

A priest who lived at St. Bede Parish in Point Breeze [PA] on and off between 1997 and 2006 pleaded guilty Wednesday to molesting an 11-year-old girl in Virginia.

. . . . .

After learning about the criminal charges against Owino, Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik sent a letter to St. Bede parishioners urging them to contact the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office and the diocese if they knew of anyone with whom the priest might have had inappropriate contact.

There were no accusations against Owino during the time he lived at St. Bede, and nobody came forward after the bishop sent his letter to parishioners, said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the Pittsburgh diocese.

He spent a good deal of time in Pittsburgh:

Owino, who is a native of Nairobi, Kenya, lived at St. Bede from September 1997 to May 2001 and again from September 2003 to January 2006, while attending graduate school at Duquesne University. He earned a master’s degree in philosophy in 1999 and a doctorate in philosophy in 2005, according to school officials.

WTRF-TV-7- (CBS)

WTOV-TV-9

He confessed to the judge:

Prosecutors said the Rev. Felix Owino was drinking the night he inappropriately touched an 11-year-old girl.

“I did what they said,” Owino told a Fairfax County, Va., judge in a soft-spoken voice.

. . . . . .

Prosecutors said Owino was watching a movie at the family’s home when he moved to the back of the room next to the victim and rubbed the girl’s hands and feet. He then touched her in inappropriate places and told the girl, “Do not tell.”

The child told her mother, and the mother kicked Owino out of the house and ordered him to stay on the steps until police arrived. Prosecutors said Owino admitted he touched the girl and told police he’d not done anything like that before.

Prosecutors said the victim’s family accepted the plea deal, and victims’ advocates said families usually do that to protect their child from going to court.

Although Owino made a plea deal with prosecutors for a maximum of 5 years, the judge made it clear the decision is ultimately up to him. He could reject the plea bargain out and give Owino the maximum sentence of 20 years.

Owino could also be deported because he’s not an American citizen.

Yet later:

Comment by Judy Jones of SNAP:

This brave little girl is to be commended for doing the right thing by immediately telling her mom. Then her mom did the right thing by calling police.

Now hopefully others, who have been harmed by Owino, will also speak up and contact police. This predator priest needs to be kept in jail and away from kids.

— Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, 636-433-2511, snapjudy at gmail dot com

Very important observation.

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Rev. Felix Owino’s case to grand jury

Rev. Felix Owino’s sexual abuse case has been sent to a Fairfax VA grand jury.  No court date was set at the hearing in Fairfax on Sept. 2.

He’s the Nigerian priest who was on the faculty of Wheeling (WV) Jesuit U. at the time of the incident, when he inappropriately touched an 11–year-old girl on July 7 in her Herndon VA home, where he was staying as a family friend, prosecutors say.

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Seattle-bound

Bishop Sartain
Bishop to be archbishop

Bp J. Peter Sartain of Joliet off to Seattle to be youngest U.S. archbishop.

Sartain said dealing with the clergy sexual abuse scandal will be one of his challenges in Western Washington.

The Seattle archdiocese has paid about $42 million in settlements, counseling and attorneys fees to about 300 victims over the past 23 years, with about 70 percent of the money paid by insurance companies.

On Thursday, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) criticized Sartain for ordaining a priest last year who[m] Catholic officials allegedly caught with pornography on his computer a few months earlier. In January, Sartain removed the priest as parochial vicar at a parish after a boy accused the priest of sexually abusing him. The priest pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and was sentenced this month to four years in prison.

Sartain said Thursday he couldnt comment on the case.

What I have tried to do and will continue to try to do is to be very vigilant in the preparation of our priests and likewise very open to the suffering of victims, whether theyre recent or many, many years ago, he said. I will be available to meet with victims and their families because thats, I think, a very important, direct part of the process of healing that needs to take place.

Good luck.

When abusers were not sent to another parish

Basil of Caesarea
St. Basil of Caesarea

Once upon a time, long ago, clergy sex abusers were made short work of:

St. Basil (330-379) stated: A cleric or monk who seduces youths or young boys is to be publicly flogged . For six months he will languish in prison-like confinement he shall never again associate with youths neither in private conversation nor in counseling them.

That’s not the half of what Basil had in mind. Here’s a fuller version:

“The cleric or monk who molests youths or boys or is caught kissing or committing some turpitude, let him be whipped in public, deprived of his crown [tonsure] and, after having his head shaved, let his face be covered with spittle; and [let him be] bound in iron chains, condemned to six months in prison, reduced to eating rye bread once a day in the evening three times per week. After these six months living in a separate cell under the custody of a wise elder with great spiritual experience, let him be subjected to prayers, vigils and manual work, always under the guard of two spiritual brothers, without being allowed to have any relationship . . . with young people.”

Nailing this down in Basil’s writings has been a challenge, however. Best near-ancient source seems to be St. Peter Damian (1007-1071), in his ever-popular Liber Gomorrhianus, or Book of Gomorrha — a primary source book for protesters of ecclesiastical indifference to abuse.