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On the eve of the first meeting of a lay panel reviewing how U.S. bishops punish alleged abusers, advocates for molestation victims said yesterday that the national policy for disciplining sexually abusive priests isn’t being consistently followed.  Under the policy adopted June 14, priests are to be removed from the ministry as soon as allegations of abuse are found credible.  David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, cited several cases and said the church was violating the spirit of its policy by fighting in

Experts say kidnapping by strangers, the crime so dreaded by so many parents, has always been rare and is probably on the downswing.  From San Diego, Salt Lake City and Stanton, California, the grim news reports suggest an epidemic of child abductions.  FBI spokeswoman Angela bell said yesterday, Any child that’s missing is one too many, but the media publicity that these cases are getting making it seem like a big jump, and that’s just not the case.  Most abductions are carried out by relatives of the child as part

At a big outdoor Mass yesterday Pope John Paul II urged a drenched but ecstatic crowd of 800,000 to stand by their church and not let priest sex scandals shake their faith.  Do not be discouraged by the sins and failings of some of her [the church’s] members, he said.  He added the scandal should not deter people with the calling from becoming priests.  

(Toronto, Canada)

Johnny Johnson, a 24 year old homeless man, was charged yesterday with the kidnap-killing of 6 year old Cassandra Casey Williamson.  Cops said the deranged drifter had planned in advance to rape and murder the kindergartner.  He struck her on the head with a rock or brick after he lured the girl out of her dad’s Valley Park house about 7:30 a.m. Friday.  Johnson was a house guest of Cassandra’s dad, Ernie Williamson.  Johnson snatched the girl just moments after Ernie had left the kitchen briefly before he was to

Sharon Cooper was charged with two counts of unlawful imprisonment and one count of child endangerment and a Brooklyn toddler who was missing for three days was returned to her overjoyed mom yesterday.  The charges could land the babysitter a year in prison.  Elisa Owens, the child’s mother, had pleaded to Cooper for the safe

return of her 2 year old daughter, Kenya Banks.  Cooper, a family friend for 20 years, came over to Owens’ Coney Island apartment to baby-sit Kenya on Tuesday morning.  Owens went out for a job

John Bambrick dreamed of becoming a priest as a 15 year old boy.  He remembers the Rev. Anthony Eremito holding his hand and thought it was strange.  Eremito clung tightly to it during the movie they were watching together in 1980, shortly after they first met.  Bambrick, now 37 and a priest himself, doesn’t remember the title of the film, but recalls the handholding, the hand-kissing and the intense hugging that followed as the weeks went on.  He remembers how, over the next six months, Eremito began rubbing his torso,