Former priest charged with sex offences

[Source] August 23, 2008:

A former Wollongong priest has been charged with a series of sex offences dating back to the 60s.

Kelvin Gerald Sharkey, an 81-year-old retired Catholic priest who now lives in Victoria, has been charged with 10 counts of indecent assault and two counts of buggery of an altar boy at St John Vianney’s, Fairy Meadow, which runs a primary school.

Police allege the offences occurred from 1969 to 1976, starting when the victim was 10 years old.

The Bishop of the Diocese of Wollongong, the Most Reverend Peter Ingham, said the priest had been retired from active ministry since 1988.

“I wish to assure the community that the Diocese of Wollongong is committed to the protection of children and young people,” he said.

“The Diocese will cooperate fully with police and other relevant authorities in bringing this matter to a just resolution.”

He would not say if the church knew of the offences or any other allegations against the priest or whether the priest had been sanctioned over child-abuse allegations, saying that it was inappropriate to make any further comment because the matter is in front of the courts.

A former student of St John Vianney’s school said she remembered Sharkey at the school in 1968 as a “dark figure”.

“He was a bit of a fire and brimstone priest, he would yell from the pulpit,” said the woman who wished to remain anonymous.

The victim, now in his late 40s, complained about the assault to a victims support group, who alerted police.

NSW Police travelled to Melbourne to interview Sharkey and charged him on August 6.

Sharkey was living in two-bedroom apartment owned by Diocese of Wollongong in the Melbourne bayside suburb of Mordialloc for 10 years until it was sold in March. A spokeswoman for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said he is no longer living on church premises.

Sharkey has been summoned to appear in the Wollongong Local Court on September 30.

It is the third arrest in eight days of retired or serving Catholic priests in the state.

Police last week arrested a 65-year-old priest at an Adamstown high school and charged him with 30 child sex offences commited on 18 boys during the 1970s and 1980s.

Two days later another priest at the same school was charged with perverting the course of justice in a police probe into the allegations at the school.

German Bishop Removes Priest for Same-Sex ‘Blessing’

[Source]:

Catholics “have a duty to protest the legal recognition of homosexual partnerships” said Bishop Tebartz-van Elst LIMBURG (LifeSiteNews) – The Catholic bishop of Limburg, Franz Peter Tebartz van Elst, has removed a priest from office after reports that the latter had “blessed” or “consecrated” the partnership of a pair of homosexual men.

Fr. Peter Kollas, a dean of priests in the city of Wetzlar, participated in the “blessing” of the two men who had undertaken a civil “marriage” ceremony.

The event, Friday August 15, was also witnessed by a Protestant minister and about 150 guests, local news reports.

The bishop, appointed to the diocese of Limburg by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007, said that Catholics “have a duty to protest the legal recognition of homosexual partnerships.”

In a statement appearing on the diocese’s website, Bishop Tebartz-van Elst said he had removed Fr. Kollas as dean of priests to avoid further “damage” to the Church’s reputation.

The bishop met with Fr. Kollas, who said that he would promise to “omit” such blessings in future and said he had never done them before. In the near future, a new dean of priests will be chosen who has the “confidence of the bishop”. The statement comes after protests over the event, not only from Catholics, but also from evangelical Protestants in the area.

The bishop’s office said there is no hatred for homosexuals in the Church, and the Church does not tolerate unjust discrimination. But this cannot give way to legal acknowledgement to homosexual unions analogous to “marriage”

Pastor detained over child molesting

[Source] August 23:

Pastor Jackson Ssenyonga, the senior pastor of Christian Life Centre was arrested last Saturday for allegedly molesting a 13-year-old girl while on a flight in the United States of America (USA).

The Contra Costa Times newspaper in the US reported that Sheriff’s deputies (American policemen) apprehended Past Ssenyonga at Oakland International Airport accused of molesting the girl on a flight that originated in Denver to Oakland.

According to the newspaper report of August 20, 2008, Pastor Ssenyonga, 41, was arrested on suspicion of committing a lewd and lascivious act on a child younger than 14 years.

Mr Senyonga, the proprietor of Top Radio and Television could also face federal charges and is under investigation by the FBI. Mr Ssenyonga was described by the publication as “a minister of a Ugandan mega-church and known internationally as a poverty-relief advocate.”

The alleged victim, who was traveling alone, told flight attendants that a man seated next to her had fondled her, and she asked to be moved, a US security officer ,Mr J. Nelson said. The man was later identified as Mr Senyonga.

Sheriff’s youth and family services bureau investigators interviewed Mr Senyonga and his accuser when they got off the plane, Mr Nelson said. The girl’s account was deemed credible, Nelson said. The girl suffered no physical injuries.

Mr Senyonga was initially taken to Santa Rita jail in Dublin, but his current custody status wasn’t immediatly available on Wednesday, Mr Nelson said.

The Chairman of the National Association of Born Again Churches in Uganda (NABC), Mr. Alex Mitala said he was not aware of Mr Senyonga’s arrest. NABC is the umbrella body that oversees the operation of several born-again churches.

“First of all Ssenyonga is not under the organization I lead. But I know him as a person who married a young woman when he was a young man and they are happily married,” Mr Mitala said.

Pastor Moses Male of Arise for Christ, an organisation that is fighting immorality in born-again churches described the incident as a shame to the community.

“It’s not surprising because we have gays, rapists, conmen and extortionists who are masquerading as pastors in Uganda. What surprised me is that the incident happened on a 13-year-old and on a plane which is a public place, Mr. Male who already knew of Senyonga’s arrest by the time he was contacted by Saturday Monitor, said.

 Pastor Senyonga arrested in USA
New Vision – Kampala,Uganda
BY L. NAMUBIRU AND AGENCIES America’s Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is probing allegations that Pastor Jackson Senyonga of Christian Life …

Clergy Sex Abuse Is Measured: Arbitrator Calculates

[Source]:

A contract is sealed between forty seven men and women and the Kansas City St. Joseph Catholic diocese. Bishop Robert Finn admits plaintiffs suffered sexual abuse when they were young boys or girls and over a period that spanned five decades.

Outside Crown Center District law offices where arbitrations are deciding how $10 million in church funds will be divided among the forty seven, lawyers say the atmosphere inside is so charged nearly everyone has been weeping.

The independent arbitrator is hearing descriptions of abuse and gauging duration and severity. But the outside subject is the non money settlement, point after point detailed by attorney Rebecca Randles who says, “these are the most far reaching non monetary commitments that have ever been negotiated between a diocese and the victims of childhood sexual abuse anywhere in the united states and as far as we know, anywhere in the world.”

Still, there is dissatisfaction not all the offending clergy will be stripped of their clerical powers. Plaintiffs say the bishop refused to go that far. Others wanted guarantees the bishop would visit every parish where molestations occured, but there is no contractual agreement.

Attorneys File Sex Abuse Case Against Diocese of Wilmington

[Source]:

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – Attorneys have filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Wilmington alleging child sexual abuse against one of its former priests.

Lawyers say their client was abused in 1970, when he was 12 years old, by the Rev. Leonard Mackiewicz at St. Francis de Sales Church in Salisbury, Md. The priest died in 1994.

Bob Krebs, a spokesman for the diocese, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The lawsuit alleges that the diocese had prior knowledge that Mackiewicz was sexually abusing young children.

The lawsuit was filed in Sussex County Superior Court.

A Claymont, Del., woman filed a lawsuit last week claiming that she was sexually abused as a child by Mackiewicz.

Abuse victims say Diocese is delaying settlements

[Source]:

“I feel like I’m being raped again.”

Frustrated victims of pedophile priest Charles Sylvestre say the London diocese is prolonging their pain by dragging its feet over compensation and forcing them to repeatedly relive the horrors of their youth.

“I feel like I’m being raped again,” said Lou Ann Soontiens, who was assaulted from about age 11 to 17, when she had a forced abortion.

“Bishop (Ronald) Fabbro made comments of a speedy resolution and compassion. Where’s the compassion? We want to move on with our lives and we’ve got this hanging over us.”

Sylvestre pleaded guilty Aug. 4, 2006, to sexually assaulting 47 girls over nearly 40 years in Chatham, Pain Court, Sarnia, London and Windsor. Police have said many more victims have since come forward. It was also discovered that church officials knew of the abuse and did nothing.

Sylvestre died Jan. 22, 2007, at Kingston Penitentiary, after serving less than four months of his three-year sentence.

More than two years after the guilty pleas, dozens of victims represented by different law firms are still waiting for the swift and compassionate conclusion they say was promised. A group of them is planning a news conference to express their anger.

“Bishop Fabbro in his homily apologized and said we were going to be dealt with expediently and gently,” said Karen Schram, whose abuse began in 1971 at age 10. “That has not happened. I believe the majority of the Catholic congregation believes we’ve reached a resolution. We haven’t. Every time we turn around somebody is preventing us from reaching a resolution.”

Soontiens said the diocese is requiring her and others to undergo more psychological evaluations, something the women involved in the criminal proceedings have been through many times before.

“The courtroom girls have already went through that with the police, the Crown attorney, and now I’m going through it three or four different times over again,” said Soontiens, whose lawsuit began four years ago. “Each time I go, they say that’s the same we’ve heard from the beginning. Why makes us all go through it, live that over and over again?“

Mark Adkinson, director of communications for the London diocese, said he couldn’t comment on that.

“I’m not intimately involved in the process,” he said. “I know that the diocesan co-ordinator for this is aware this is something that is painful for people to have to go through again. I know he is working really hard on addressing those concerns. To be honest, I haven’t heard of that complaint in a long time.”

Adding to the long delay, the victims say, is that the lawyer heading up the diocese’s defence has taken a job as a judge.

“Now they’re putting a new person on that doesn’t know what’s going on, and has to take time to read all our files,” said Soontiens. “This is going to drag on and on and on.”

Adkinson said the diocese was also disappointed by its lawyer’s departure.

“We’re just as disappointed as anybody else because we were hoping to move forward and meet the needs of any victims,” he said.

Senior partner Paul Ledroit of Ledroit Beckett law firm in London, representing 34 victims, said he had four mediations scheduled for August. They all got cancelled.

“It’s frustrating to these women because they had been promised by the diocese that things would be dealt with expeditiously, and you’re now looking at years since this process started,” he said.

The survivors said they’re dealing with the added stress from public perception that the cases have been settled, the victims got millions and churches are closing to pay for it.

“They make it sound like Bishop Fabbro has to sell his house because he needs the money for sexual abuse victims,” said Soontiens. “It’s not true.”

The diocese put Fabbro’s house on the market in December 2007, asking $850,000. At the time, the diocese said it was to pay for the lawsuits.

Adkinson said he doesn’t remember that being given as a reason for putting the house up.

“There were a number of factors, I hadn’t heard of that one before,” he said, adding the house was old and needed extensive repairs.

Despite that, he said proceeds from the house — which sold last month for $625,000 — have been earmarked to pay for the lawsuits.

But he also said the diocese has insurance.

“The diocese has had various insurance companies over the years that will pay for all, most or part of it,” said Adkinson.

Published: Friday, August 22, 2008