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French priest gets 16 years for rapes

COLMAR, France  — A French priest was sentenced to 16 years in jail on charges of raping seven young boys between 1992 and 1998.

A court in the eastern French town of Colmar ruled late Friday that the priest, 38-year-old Jean-Luc Heckner, was ineligible for parole until he has served two-thirds of his sentence.

Heckner, who worked in three parishes, asked for forgiveness from his victims, who were 11 to 14 years old at the time.

France's Roman Catholic Church has been criticized for ignoring pedophilia in its clergy. After a meeting of the country's leading bishops late last year, the Church condemned such acts and said priests found guilty of such crimes must be brought before the law.

Priest arrested on child rape charges

BOSTON  — A Roman Catholic priest was arrested on child rape charges for allegedly assaulting a 15-year-old girl repeatedly over a four-month period.

The Rev. Kelvin Iguabita, 33, was arrested Monday. He pleaded innocent Tuesday and was ordered held on $15,000 bail.

The arrest came as defrocked priest John Geoghan went on trial on charges of molesting a 10-year-old boy in 1991. Geoghan also faces two more criminal trials and 84 lawsuits. More than 130 people have claimed he fondled or raped them during the three decades he served in Boston-area parishes.

Last week, Cardinal Bernard Law publicly apologized to Geoghan's alleged victims and ordered clergy and volunteers to report allegations of abuse to authorities.

In a statement Tuesday, the Archdiocese of Boston said Iguabita would not be given any assignment pending the outcome of the criminal charges and a church review. The archdiocese said Iguabita took a leave of absence last July but did not say why.

Iguabita was assigned to All Saints Parish in Haverhill as parochial vicar when the alleged assaults took place in 2000, police said. Police would not say whether the assaults took place on church property.

Joseph Gannon, an attorney for Iguabita, did not immediately return calls for comment.

Priest swiped $130,000 from parish, police say

ARLINGTON, Va.  — Police arrested a Roman Catholic priest Wednesday and charged him with embezzling $130,000 that belonged to his former parish in Burke, Va., a Washington suburb.

The Rev. Salvator Ciullo, 70, was charged after police searched his home and seized documents, police spokesman Warren Carmichael said. He declined to say what materials were taken.

Ciullo, accompanied by his attorney, turned himself in to police and was released on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond.

Fairfax police said their investigation found Ciullo embezzled the funds from Church of the Nativity in Burke while he was its pastor. The priest opened a bank account "without the knowledge of the church or the diocese, deposited church funds in that account and subsequently diverted about $130,000 from that account to his own personal account," a police statement said.

It said the diversions occurred from April 1994 to July 1996.

Ciullo's arrest follows a seven-month investigation by the diocese. He has been on leave with pay since December.

Diocesan officials said their investigation examined how Ciullo was able to afford several homes, including the $298,000 Alexandria town house where he has been living, on an annual salary of about $12,000.

Church officials determined that Ciullo inherited some but not all of the properties, a diocesan official has said.

Catholic Church settles sex abuse suit for $5.2M

SANTA ANA, Calif.  — Roman Catholic leaders in Orange and Los Angeles counties agreed to pay $5.2 million to settle a lawsuit accusing a once-popular priest of molestation.

Church leaders also agreed to a code of conduct, which would be enforced by a judge, to crack down on clergymen who prey on children.

The settlement, which still needs to be approved by a judge, stems from accusations that Monsignor Michael Harris, 56, molested a 17-year-old Catholic high school student, Ryan DiMaria, in 1991.

"I'm very happy with what we got accomplished," DiMaria, now 28, told The Orange County Register.

"I think it will protect a lot of victims in the future," DiMaria, said Monday.

Harris, who declined to be interviewed, has always denied wrongdoing and never has been charged with a crime. However, he agreed to leave the priesthood and has been on inactive leave from the church since 1994.

The settlement in DiMaria's suit against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Orange calls for a toll-free number and the creation of a Web site for reporting molestation, as well as for educational pamphlets to be distributed to Catholic churches and schools. It also requires that priests sign agreements not to molest, among other things.

DiMaria, a former Santa Margarita Catholic High School student, brought the suit because he claimed that the dioceses turned their backs on the predatory behavior of Harris, who allegedly targeted young men in need of spiritual counseling.

Tod D. Brown, bishop of the Diocese of Orange, said he was deeply disturbed by the allegations against Harris and believes the church acted properly in suspending him.

DiMaria also sued Harris, and that case was recently settled. In a statement, Harris said he had done nothing wrong but couldn't afford to defend himself.

"For over 25 years, Monsignor Harris has devoted his life to working with high school students," said the statement from Harris' lawyer, Mike Trotter.

A former pillar of Orange County's Catholic community, Harris raised most of the money to open Santa Margarita in 1987 and was its principal until 1994.

Ex-priest sentenced to 10 years for sex scandal

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.  — A former priest who has become a central figure in a sexual abuse scandal that has shaken Boston's Roman Catholic community was sentenced to the maximum of nine to 10 years Thursday for fondling a 10-year-old boy.

Former priest John Geogan "hid behind his collar" and his position in the church to prey on young boys, Judge Sandra Hamlin said in announcing the sentence.

She detailed Geoghan's admissions of molesting other children and psychological evaluations citing his lack of concern for his victims and his tendency to blame them for his acts as evidence he was not a candidate for rehabilitation.

Under the sentence, Geoghan could be eligible for parole in six years. The judge ordered strict monitoring after any later release.

Geoghan, 66, was convicted last month of indecent assault and battery for fondling the boy in 1991 at a community swimming pool. The victim had testified that he was trying to teach himself how to dive when Geoghan, who had been coaching him verbally, reached inside his swimming trunks and squeezed his buttocks.

Since 1995, more than 130 people have claimed Geoghan fondled or raped them during the three decades he served in Boston-area parishes. The trial was the first of three criminal cases against Geoghan. He also is named in more than 80 civil suits.

The second trial, which was to have started Wednesday, is delayed while the judge hears arguments on whether the statute of limitations for the alleged crime has expired.

Geoghan's attorneys argued Wednesday in that case that the molestation accusations were made in 1986, when the statute of limitations was 10 years. Prosecutor David Deakin countered that the charges are based on specific allegations made in 1989, within the current 15-year limit. The hearing is to continue Friday.

The allegations against Geoghan and questions of how much church officials knew have created a scandal for the church and led to major changes in how the Archdiocese of Boston deals with allegations of abuse.

Last month, Cardinal Bernard Law ordered that church officials report all accusations of sexual abuse against minors, including past allegations. Law has since given prosecutors the names of more than 80 active and former priests accused of abuse during the last four decades. Nine active priests have been suspended.

The archdiocese also has been criticized over documents showing that church officials knew of allegations against Geoghan years ago but continued to move him from parish to parish.

During Geoghan's sentencing Thursday, the victim, now a 20-year-old college junior, told the court he felt "nauseous" and that he was angered by the "emotionless" face Geoghan showed at the trial.

"I think as much time away from the outside world as possible will do him so good," he said.

Assistant District Attorney Lynn Rooney requested the maximum sentence for Geoghan, calling the former priest "a predatory pedophile."

Geoghan didn't testify at his trial or at his sentencing, and no one but his lawyer spoke on his behalf.

Defense attorney Geoffrey Packard on Thursday asked the judge to sentence Geoghan to probation, saying he was a good priest and neighbor. He asked the judge not to go outside the sentencing guidelines just because Geoghan "is the flashpoint for the issue that has shaken the foundation of the Archdiocese of Boston."

After the hearing, Packard said he was concerned about Geoghan's safety and his state of mind.

"I think he's stunned," the attorney said. "He's just been sent to state prison and he's 66 years old. I am afraid for him."

Bishop who hid sexual abuse convicted in France

PARIS  — A bishop was convicted Tuesday of keeping quiet about a priest who sexually abused children, marking the first time in more than 150 years that a high-ranking French clergyman has been found guilty of a crime.

Bishop Pierre Pican, 66, received a three-month suspended sentence for hiding knowledge that a priest in his diocese had raped and molested boys from 1996 to 1998.

The sentence by the court in the Normandy town of Caen was lighter than the 4 to 6 month suspended prison term sought by the prosecution, and the three years in prison the bishop could have faced.

Still, it shocked church officials that a court would convict a man named by the pope, and that so-called "professional secrecy" was at issue in the trial.

The priest, the Rev. Rene Bissey, was convicted in October of raping and sexually abusing 11 minors in the mid-1990s, and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Bissey told a court last week that he had decided not to appeal his conviction.

Pican, in charge of the Bayeux-Lisieux diocese in Normandy, in western France, had learned of Bissey's acts in confidential talks — outside the church confessional where secrets are considered sacrosanct.

Defense lawyers argued the bishop's silence was motivated by respect for "professional secrecy," which gives priests and bishops the right to speak confidentially to one another.

"This judgment is today the starting point for a dusting off of the notion of professional secrets ..." said attorney Jean Chevais, representing victims of the priest. "The church must no longer cover up these crimes."

Pican made no comment as police escorted him from the courtroom in Caen. He has 10 days to appeal the decision.

Several cases of pedophilia have prompted the Conference of Bishops of France to reaffirm its condemnation of pedophilia among priests — and lay down guidelines for bishops.

In November, the conference said priests who sexually abuse children "must answer before the law," and that no bishop "can remain passive ... and even less so cover up (such) acts."

During his trial in June, Pican acknowledged he knew about the priest's behavior but later conceded he had made an "error of appreciation," in terms of how serious they were.

A spokesman for the Conference of Bishops said he was pleased the relatively light punishment "does not call into question" the right to keep professional secrets.

"This isn't a severe sentence, but I'm still surprised," the Rev. Stanislas Lalanne said, noting that there were no allegations children were sexually abused after Pican spoke with the priest.

Bissey is one of nearly 30 priests in France convicted over the past decade of pedophilia, according to the conference. Eleven received prison terms. Another 20 pedophilia-related cases involving priests are pending.

While such cases are increasingly ending up in courtrooms, it is rare that the church hierarchy faces trial for covering up.

William Ryan, a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said no Catholic clergyman in the United States has ever been convicted of failing to come forward to report sexual abuse.

However, a bill pending in the Massachusetts legislature would require clergy to report suspected child abuse. The bill, which passed a House committee in July and is awaiting hearings before the full House and Senate, won crucial endorsement last month from the state's Roman Catholic Church.

While the legislation would require clergy to report suspicions of child abuse, that does not include anything they learned from church confessions.

The Massachusetts church reversed its opposition to the bill just as Boston Cardinal Bernard Law was named in a lawsuit by two dozen alleged victims of a former priest in eastern Massachusetts. As part of the suit, Law admitted in court documents in June that he transferred John Geoghan to another parish even after he had been told that Geoghan had molested seven boys.

In Britain, two archbishops have faced controversy over their handling of pedophile cases among priests. Between 1995 and 1999, 21 Catholic priests in Britain and Wales were convicted of offenses against children.

"This is the end of a long battle," said Yann Rebillard, one of Bissey's victims after the verdict. "The church now has to take a long look at itself. It must break the wall of silence."

The last time a bishop was convicted of anything in France was in 1841 in Angers, but, then, it was over a murder by a priest in his diocese.

France has about 26,000 Roman Catholic priests and about 100 bishops.

Bishop resigns after admitting sexual misconduct

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla.  — A Roman Catholic bishop who admitted molesting a teen-ager 25 years ago submitted his resignation Friday, becoming the highest-ranking clergyman brought down in a wave of allegations touched off by the sex scandal in Boston.

"I am truly deeply sorry for the pain, hurt, anger and confusion I have caused," said the Rev. Anthony J. O'Connell, bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach. "I've been loved since I entered this diocese, far more than anyone should be loved."

O'Connell, 63, admitted to the allegations leveled by Christopher Dixon, his former student at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Hannibal, Mo. O'Connell was the rector there at the time.

Dixon, now 40, said the two touched inappropriately in bed after he sought out O'Connell for counseling. Dixon said the abuse began in 1977, when he was 15, and continued to 1980.

"For those who will be angry, I certainly ask, when the time is right, that they pray for my forgiveness," O'Connell said.

Asked whether he had been involved with other youngsters, O'Connell said there could be "one other person of a somewhat similar situation, in a somewhat similar time frame." He would not elaborate.

O'Connell offered his resignation to the pope's top representative in the United States, and diocese spokesman Sam Barbaro said the final decision would be made by the Vatican.

No one was available to comment at the papal nuncio in Washington.

The nation's latest and biggest sex-abuse scandal involving priests began in the Archdiocese of Boston, where Cardinal Bernard Law admitted that a former priest molested children for years but was shuttled from parish to parish anyway. More than 130 people have come forward to say the defrocked priest, John Geoghan, abused them.

Since the Boston case gained national attention in January, dozens of priests out of more than 47,000 nationwide have been suspended or forced to resign, and priests' names have been turned over to prosecutors.

Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement Friday night expressing "profound sorrow and regret" about O'Connell's wrongdoing.

He restated the church's commitment to end abuse by clergy and apologized directly to Dixon.

O'Connell, who has been a priest for 38 years, was bishop of Knoxville, Tenn., before coming to Palm Beach in 1999. He succeeded J. Keith Symons, the first U.S. bishop to resign because of sexual involvement with boys.

After that scandal, Florida's bishops began background checks for all clergy, lay employees and volunteers who work with children, elderly and disabled people.

O'Connell said he failed to tell his superiors about the relationship when he was asked to replace Symons.

"It should have come up from myself," said O'Connell, whose admission was first reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"I was as wrong as I can be in taking that approach with him and I am sorry," he said of Dixon. "There was nothing in the relationship that was anything other than touches."

O'Connell's admission came only hours after Florida's bishops issued a statement calling sexual abuse "both criminal and sinful" and assuring their 2.2 million followers that the church has procedures to deal with such allegations.

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests in St. Louis, called O'Connell's disclosure "one more painful reminder that an enormous gap exists between the church's wonderful, flowery words and its leaders' terrible deeds."

Dixon said O'Connell's decision was bittersweet to him.

"In some ways I feel good that the truth is out there and he's admitted to it," he said. "The bad part is that I know a lot of people are going to be upset. But you know, I had to tell the story."

The Jefferson City, Mo., Diocese paid Dixon $125,000 in a 1996 settlement, and he promised not to pursue further claims against the diocese, O'Connell and two other priests. The diocese did not admit any wrongdoing.

The other priests were the Rev. Manus Daly, who allegedly abused Dixon at the seminary, and the Rev. John Fischer, who allegedly began abusing Dixon at a Catholic school when he was 11. Daly was removed from a Marceline, Mo., church this week and Fischer was removed from the priesthood in 1993 after allegations involving other children.

Dixon said he thought he could trust O'Connell when he told him about the abuse from Fischer.

"But under the guise of trying to help me come to terms with my own body, he ultimately took me to bed with him," Dixon said.

Dixon himself was a priest for five years before he was diagnosed with depression in 1995. He said the depression came after he was assigned to work at the Hannibal seminary under Daly — a move that brought back memories of abuse. He later left the priesthood.

"I had a wonderful way of burying the impact it had on me, emotionally and psychologically," Dixon said Friday. When it resurfaced, "I was either going to kill myself or get help."

O'Connell is not the highest-ranking clergyman felled by a sex scandal.

In 1993, Archbishop Robert Sanchez of Santa Fe, N.M., resigned over his involvement with several women, some of them teen-agers. Archbishop Eugene Marino of Atlanta and Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann

 

 

(These recent articles were discovered on the Internet after a 3 minute search for the phrase “catholic priest”.  Do it yourself and you’ll find thousands upon thousands of articles about the perversion and abuse of power by Rome’s priests.)