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Catholic priests in the news. www.piperpost.net - 12.7.08 Catholic Church to be sued by Templars. www.piperpost.net
- 16.08.08
Seven centuries after Pope Clement 6th dissolved the Knights Templar a
legal suit has been instigated by their successors against the Catholic
Church.
Marist brother jailed. . . www.piperpost.net - 18.3.08
A
former Marist Brothers school teacher has been jailed in Sydney after
being found guilty on 17 charges of indecent assault involving young
boys.
The court was told that Ross Francis Murrin, 52, was given a teaching
job at a Marist Brothers' school in Daceyville, NSW in 1974. He was
aged 18 at the time of his appointment. Eight students aged between
nine and 11 years were molested by the priest.
Murrin asked the boys to come to his desk, after which he would sit
them on his lap and fondle them. He also abused boys on other
occasions, e.g. on a retreat and during periods of detention. On one
occasion he reportedly pinned a boy to the floor and pulled down his
pants.
The defence told the court Murrin had himself been abused between the
ages of eight and 16 by an older cousin. The priest had since
voluntarily undertaken a nine-month rehabilitation program for
offending clergy.
He was sentenced to a maximum of three years and three months with a minimum of eighteen months.
COMMENT:
Yet another one! The mills of the law are grinding slowly but they are
still squeezing out the truth of past misdeeds. And a PS: A
rehabilitation program for offending clergy? How appalling that such a
program is needed.
Another priest in trouble. . . www.piperpost.net - 20.3.08
Father
John Haines, 61,
has been stood down from his work as parish priest in the Catholic
Archdiocese of Melbourne. Father Haines was priest in the area near
Geelong, south of Melbourne.
The priest has been charged
with possessing child pornography, transmitting child pornography and
procuring a child for pornography. He is also charged with the indecent
assault of a child under 16 and indecent act with a child under 16.
The alleged offences were
raised after a community member laid a complaint with Colac police.
Colac is near Geelong.
Father Haines was bailed to
appear again on 29 May.
Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart
commented: 'I am deeply troubled by the laying of charges and concerned
for all persons involved.' He added that Fr Haines was entitled to the
presumption of innocence.'
COMMENT:
Naturally I cannot comment on this case until the court has
determined the priest's guilt or innocence. However, one comment
is possible: Years ago many priests accused of misbehaviour did not
always face police action but were quietly spirited away to another
place. These days have, thankfully, passed.
Pope tried to shift blame for child sex abuse. . . www.piperpost.net
- 20.4.08.
One
of the big issues that surfaced during the Pope's US visit
was the widespread abuse of children by Catholic clergy.
Many of those who had been abused protested at the Church's
handling of the issue.
The Pope expressed his deep regret over what had happened
but in doing so tried to shift some of the blame onto the
American people.
The United States and western nations had their own case to
answer on the exposure of violence and nudity in the media,
he claimed.
'What does it mean to speak of child protection when
pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes
through media widely available today?' he said.
Children, he said, 'should be spared the degrading
manifestations and the crude manipulation of sexuality so
prevalent today.'
While the Pontiff expressed his deep dismay over the actions
of abusing priests he failed to mention the many bishops and
other Church dignitaries who had for so long ignored the
criminal actions of their underlings and compounded such
actions by failing to report the crimes to police.
COMMENT:
Are we to assume Catholic priests who debauched so many
children did so because they watched the Playboy Channel or
pored over girlie magazines? The Pope is engaging in the old
game of shifting the blame away from where it really
belongs, very common today.
Weeping statue fraud. www.piperpost.net
- 11.5.08
Some time during 2006
elderly worshippers in the church of St Lucia's, Forli,
Italy, observed tears of blood being shed by a statue of the
Madonna. When the bishop learnt about the miraculous
tears he removed the statue from the church.
Curiously the statue ceased weeping when it was in the
bishop's office. Investigations resulted in a former church
employee, Vincenzo Di Constanzo, being charged with
'denigrating religion'. DNA testing showed the tears to be
blood from the official.
There have been so many weeping statues turning up in recent
times the Vatican is now very cautious about recognizing the
veracity of any. Thus the bishop's caution.
COMMENT:
Most 'miracles' are easily shown to be fraudulent if studied
with an open mind and a proper scientific attitude.
Death of controversial priest. www.piperpost.net - 18.5.08
The death has occurred of the Reverend Marcial Maciel, head of the Legionaries of Christ, an Order he founded in Mexico in 1941.
In 1997 nine men went public with accusations that they had been abused
by Maciel while studying under him in Spain and Rome in the 1940s and
1950s. The group included respected academics and priests. But the
Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict 16th - shelved the matter.
Eventually, however, investigaitons were reopened. In 2006 the Vatican
announced that Maciel would not be tried under canonical law due to his
age. His activities were, however, restricted. But no explicit apology
to the victims was ever forthcoming.
COMMENT: Another case where an abuser was found in the highest ranks of the Church.
Canadian PM apologizes for child abuse. . . www.piperpost.net
- 25.5.08
On 11 June the Canadian Prime Minister, the Hon Stephen
Harper, will formally apologize to residents of mission
schools who were physically and sexually abused.
The Government will also help fund the cost of numerous
lawsuits that have been brought by native Canadians. The
Anglican Church is reportedly facing a payout of $16 million
after the Government funds 70 percent of the claims.
Other churches, especially the Catholic Church also face
huge claims, yet to be quantified.
From the 1930s until the mid-1990s tens of thousands of
native Canadian children were consigned to residential
schools, most of them run by the churches. The plan was to
assimilate the children into society, essentially
obliterating the students' language, culture and religion,
much as was done in Australia with Aboriginal children.
However the result was a near-disaster for the lives of many
youngsters. Overcrowding, poor sanitation and absence of
medical care resulted in many deaths. In fact during the
early years of the program up to half the children died of
tuberculosis.
On top of this the children were often subjected to physical
and sexual abuse. This is just one of hundreds of
reports:
"I
saw many young children beaten up and strapped. I saw
Brother --- wake up young children and take them to a room
to sexually assault them. I saw children handcuffed to a
pillar in the basement. They would be pushed and kicked. I
saw Brother --- use a pool table stick to hit children if
they would not have anal sex with him. Children were given
cold showers then strapped. If I told any Brothers that
another Brother tried to have sex with me, I would be
strapped." From a report on abuse at St. Joseph's and
St. John's Training School for Boys.
(B.C. Hoffman)
[A detailed account of the abuse, not only in Catholic
institutions but in those of other churches, will be
published in a later issue of PiperPost.]
COMMENT: It
is scandalous that the Canadian Government is paying money
out of public funds to save the churches from bankruptcy -
which they were facing over these legal actions.
The Sydney Morning Herald
reports that Father Paul Raymond Evans of the Salesians, a dormitory
master at Boys Town, a Catholic shelter for youth, has been charged on
20 counts of acts of indecency, homosexual assault and indecent assault
against eight boys between 1977 and 1988. Father Evans strenuously
denies the charges.
The court was told that when one victim, aged about 13 or 14 at the
time, complained about being forced to engage in mutual fondling of
penises. But, he claims, he was told by the Rector, Father Flemming
(since deceased) to forget about the incident because 'men have urges.'
Evans claims any physical contact with the boys in his charge was
simply a case of comforting them or settling them down. He denies
sexually touching his students or lying in their beds.
In May of this year Father David O'Hearn, of St Michael's parish,
Nelson Bay (in the Newcastle region of NSW) was stood down pending
investigation of 'a professional conduct matter.'
The diocesan authorities have not stated the reason for their actions
but in 1999 the priest was involved in a court action when he was
allegedly punched in the face by the Principal of the Catholic Primary
School, Mike Stanwell.
Bishop brushes family's concerns aside?
www.piperpost.net - 19.7.08
Anthony Foster and his wife Christine flew all
the way from Scotland to attend World Youth Day, but not as pilgrims.
They wished to remind the Church and the world that both their young
daughters, Catherine and Emma, were raped by a priest, Father Kevin
O'Donnell, in their primary school. In later life Emma suicided.
Speaking from the podium, Bishop Anthony Fisher warned people against
'dwelling crankily, as a few people are doing, on old wounds...' The
Fosters believe the remark was directed at them. They have expressed
dismay at the Bishop's comments. They say that their compensation claim
was stalled for years by Cardinal George Pell, then Archbishop of
Melbourne.
The
story of the abuse of the two girls is one of the most appalling in the
many stories that have emerged from that era. Emma and Katie
(Catherine) were pupils of Sacred Heart Primary School, Oakleigh, a
suburb of Melbourne, between 1988 and 1993. Father O'Donnell was both
parish priest and school chaplain. The girls were repeatedly abused. A
long legal battle followed with a reluctant Church, under Dr Pell,
virtually threatening to send the Fosters broke fighting them in court
cases.
It has since emerged that Father O'Connell, now deceased, had a long
history of sex abuse, attacking both boys and girls. Broken Rites says of him: 'Father Kevin O'Donnell was a child abuser for 50 years —
from 1942 to
1992. He fitted Masses, weddings and funerals in between his sex-abuse
activities. His victims probably amounted to hundreds, mostly boys,
with some girls . . . During his career, the Melbourne church
authorities were told of
O'Donnell's crimes but chose to keep him in the ministry, thus
inflicting him on further victims.'
See a lengthy, detailed report about this priest at the Broken Rites website: http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au/nletter/page124-odonnell.html
Bishop Anthony Fisher
Boys Town priest found guilty of sex offences. www.piperpost.net - 26.7.08
Father Paul Raymond Evans, 57, was remanded in custody after a Sydney
jury found him guilty of 18 sex offences involving seven boys.
In the NSW District Court the priest was found guilty on nine counts of
homosexual intercourse by a teacher, seven counts of indecent assault,
and two acts of indecency. He was found not guilty on two other charges.
Evans was a Dormitory Master at Boys Town, in the Sydney southern
suburb of Engadine. Boys Town is a Catholic institution. The offences
occurred between 1977 and 1988. The defendant admitted 'sometimes
hugging and comforting' his teenage charges but denied touching them
sexually. Sentence submissions are to be heard on 19 September.
Father Frank Moloney SDB, the Australian head of the Salesian order, of
which Evans was a member, later issued a statement apologizing to
victims. 'The fact that a professed Catholic priest was capable
of [sexual abuse] is just disgusting,' he said.
Catholic sex treatment facility closed.
www.piperpost.net - 26.7.08
In 1997, at the height of the scandals over sex abusing
priests, a treatment facility known as Encompass was opened by the
Australian Catholic Church. The centre provided counselling and
assistance for clergy suffering 'psychosexual and other mental
disorders.'
During the decade or so since then more than 1,100 priests and other
workers passed through its doors. However, it is reported the church
hierarchy were unwilling to spend a further $200,000 required to
maintain the treatment program.
PRIEST SUPPORTED.
When Father Peter Dwyer faced court in Bathurst, NSW, recently he was
supported by a number of well-wishers. Dwyer is facing alleged child
sex assault charges in relation to his time as a teacher at St
Stanislaus College, Bathurst. Supporters claimed the case was one of
'trial by media'. www.piperpost.net - 16.11.08.
Two
priests face court action. www.piperpost.net
- 23.08.08
Father John Sidney Denham, 65, will face a
Newcastle (NSW) court on 1 October, on one count of buggery, 28 of
indecent assault on a male and one of attempted indecent assault. It is
alleged there were 18 victims involved - boys aged between 11 and 17
years.
Bail was refused when the priest was arraigned at Sydney Central Local
Court. Police advised the court that the priest had been placed on
restricted duties in 2001 after he had received a two-year suspended
sentence in 2000, being found guilty of two counts of indecent assault.
He had been working in a Catholic library opposite a primary school.
Meanwhile Father Tom Brennan, 70, Vicar-General of the
Maitland-Newcastle Diocese of the Catholic Church, has been arrested on
a charge of 'perverting the course of justice' in relation to a
statement he made to police while they were investigating a complaint
against a fellow-priest in 1998. The latter was a teacher at St Pius
10th Catholic Boys' High School at Adamstown and Brennan was the
school's Headmaster at the time. Brennan was granted bail and will
appear at Newcastle Local Court on 9 September.
Another Australian Catholic College under the spotlight. www.piperpost.net - 30.08.08
Accusation
of abuse in a major Australian Catholic college - St Stanislaus,
Bathurst (in western New South Wales) - have surfaced after a silence
of some twenty years.
Already one former teacher at the school has been arraigned and found
guilty of several offences while a former priest has been charged with
33 offences against schoolboys. Reportedly two other teachers are under
investigation and police have called for anyone else affected to come
forward.
Detective Superintendent Michael Goodwin, who is involved in
investigations, says police are inquiring at other schools where former
St Stanislaus staff may have been employed.
One man used the Internet to expose the abuse at the school. He and others have told The Daily Telegraph
(Sydney) of not only being abused sexually but of sometimes being
forced to assault one another. 'Private tutoring' by a priest might be
an excuse for a session of abuse and former students reported strange
sessions on 'speaking in tongues' and 'laying on of hands' during which
abuse was alleged to have occurred.
Investigations are continuing.
Members of the Association of the Sovereign Order of the Temple of
Christ have launched legal moves in Spain for compensation for the vast
portfolio of businesses and properties seized upon the disbanding of
the Order. It is estimated that between 8,000 and 9,000 entities
were involved in the seizure.
The Knights Templar, otherwise known as the Red Cross Knights (and
other names), was a military order founded by Baldwin 2nd, King of
Jerusalem, in 1118 CE. They took vows of obedience to a Grand Master,
and also bound themselves to purity of life, mutual assistance and to
fight against the infidel (Islam). They wore a white robe with a red
cross. In time they grew very powerful and wealthy and by the year 1250
the Templars had added to their material holdings to such a degree that
they owned thousands of properties from Denmark in the north to Spain
in the south.
But trouble was looming; in France from 1287 onwards Philip 4th set out
to curtail their power. For a time he was restrained by his own
problems and actually received financial support from them. The
Templars were, in fact, the chief financiers and money-lenders of
medieval Europe, outdoing the Jews. But Philip acted with duplicity for
he coveted their wealth for himself and he eventually turned on them.
As a result of Philip's actions the trial of the Templars stands in
history as an outrageous miscarriage of justice.
Informers in Philip's pay reported to the Holy Inquisition that the
Templars had preached heresy and were, in fact, secret Muslims.
Some alleged the knights were in league with the Devil. It was
easy to play on these beliefs and accuse the knights of worshipping
idols, spitting on the crucifix and engaging in 'unnatural crimes',
especially sodomy, 'obligatory' at that.
In October, 1307 the Grand Master, Jaques de Molay, and 60 brethren
were arrested in Paris. They were all put to torture to extract
confessions of guilt and 36 died under torture in the first attack on
the order. More were arrested. Templars in other countries were
also seized and tortured.
Pope Clement 5th, by now had issued a bull calling on monarchs
everywhere to arrest the Templars within their borders. Although the
Pope had his doubts about the guilt or otherwise of the Templars in the
end he sided with Philip, upon whom he was dependent to a great degree,
and many Templars were judged guilty of heresy and condemned to be
burnt to death. The Pope eventually abolished the order and most of the
Templars' possessions were transferred to the Knights of the Order of
St John. In 2007 the Vatican released trial records which
indicated Clement did not believe the men to be heretics.
A statement issued by the successors of the Order comments: 'We are not
trying to cause the economic collapse of the Roman Catholic Church, but
to illustrate to the court the magnitude of the plot against our order.'
The Templars
Fallout continues from nefarious priestly activities in college. www.piperpost.net - 14.09.08
The
police net has widened to take in several former priests who worked at
St Stanislaus College, Bathurst (NSW). Brian Spillane, a former priest
and school chaplain, who taught at the college, was the first charged.
He now facing a total of 93 counts relating to alleged sexual assaults
on former students.
Following the publicity generated by his arrest
police formed Strike Force Belle and called on the public to come
forward with any information about abuses at the school in the 1970s
and 1980s. As a result three more men have been arrested. One of
them, John Gaven, 66, charged with 28 alleged sex offences, was a World
Youth Day chaperone. According to The Sydney morning Herald Gaven was
one of six organisers for a Vincentian Fathers' trip to Bathurst with
300 young pilgrims who spent four nights at St Stanislaus' as part of
the Days in the Diocese event.
Two other men have also been arrested, one an unnamed 65-year-old
priest, charged with four offences committed at St Stanislaus'. The
other is an unnamed 65-year-old former lay teacher at All Saints
Anglican College in Bathurst, charged with three counts of indecent
assault.
At this date police have laid a total of 128 charges against the four
men and are reportedly working with 14 alleged victims, all male.
MORE CHARGES AGAINST FORMER PRIEST.
NSW police have laid a further 60 charges against Brian Spillane, a
former priest who taught at St Stanislaus College, Bathurst. Last month
Spillane faced court on 33 charges relating to the sexual assault of
former students. Since then other alleged victims have come forward
with information. At this point in time he has a total of 93 charges
against hm. He is next due to appear in court on 15 September. www.piperpost.net - 07.09.08
Catholics targeted by Ponzi scheme . . .
www.piperpost.net - 11.01.09.
Ponzi is alive and
well and carrying on as of old, not only in New York through the person
of Bernard Maddock but elsewhere in America. [If readers are unfamiliar
with the original Ponzi it is worth reading his amazing story which you
will easily find on the Net.]
A Buffalo (Nw York) man, Richard Piccoli,
has been charged with running a Ponzi scheme that allegedly fleeced
millions of dollars from Catholic churchgoers.
According to court records Piccoli, who is aged 82, took in more than
$17 million from at least 250 investors in the period since 2004 and
may have been involved in fraudulent activities the years before this
date. Many of his unsuspecting clients were contacted through
advertisements in Catholic newspapers, lending an air of respectability
to his operation. Piccoli provided lists of referees which included the
names of several priests.
It appeared that rather than investing in discounted real estate
mortgages s claimed, Piccoli was following the tried-and-true Ponzi
scheme - using deposits from new investors to pay the old ones. He and
family members also allegedly pocketed about $600,000.
A criminal complaint alleging mail fraud stated that Piccoli appeared
to deliberately target clergy, cemetery funds and other church entities
by limiting his advertising to Catholic publications.
COMMENT:
The particular psychological makeup of church members in my view tends
to leave them open to suggestions from con-men. There have been
innumerable frauds targeting church members. One of the classics was
infamous Miracle Cars scam of a few years back.
GROWTH IN TOTAL OF SEX CHARGES AGAINST PRIESTS. On
the last count a group of Catholic priests associated with an
Australian Catholic boarding school now have a total of 183 sexual
offences on the charge sheets between them. As reported in earlier
issues of Piper Post the
men had been associated with Saint Stanislaus College, Bathurst (NSW).
Since police began investigating complaints which referred back to 1979
and 1980 more alleged victims have come forward. www.piperpost.net - 04.01.09.
More troubles for Catholic church . . .
www.piperpost.net - 15.02.09.
Three more Australian Catholic priests have been charged over alleged
sexual abuse. The second most senior clergyman in the
Maitland-Newcastle Diocese of NSW, Vicar-General Thomas Brennan, 70, has been arrested by detectives of Strike Force Georgiana.
The
day prior to Brennan's arrest another priest, Father John Sidney
Denham, was charged with 30 child sex offences, relating to 18 boys
during the 1970s and 1980s. Both men had associations with St
Pius 10th College, a boys-only secondary school in the Newcastle suburb
of Adamstown. Police say investigations are continuing.
Meanwhile a former parish priest working in Cessnock, north of
Newcastle, David O'Hearn, 47, has been charged by detectives of the
Strike Force with seven offences involving a young boy. The offences
allegedly occurred about 20 years ago.
DRUG MONEY BUILDING CHURCHES?
Many Catholics in Mexico have been disturbed after learning that some
of their priests have accepted money from drug lords and used the funds
to build churches. Commented Mercedes Murillo, President of the Sinaloan Civic Front in the city of Culiacan, a major drug-trafficking centre: 'There are seminaries, churches, who accept money not knowing where it came from. They wash their hands like Pontius Pilate.' www.piperpost.net - 25.01.09.