The Rev. Robert Bullock, who sharply criticized Boston’s Archdiocese for dragging its heels in tackling a church sex-abuse scandal and urged its cardinal to resign, died of cancer over the weekend after having been diagnosed with the disease in May.
(Boston, Massachusetts)
The Dallas Morning News found in a yearlong investigation that an international movement of Roman Catholic priests out of countries where they have been accused of abusing children has continued even after the abuse scandal that swept the US church in 2002. In one case, the Rev. Frank Klep, a convicted child molester who has admitted abusing one boy and is wanted on more charges in Australia, was placed in Apia, Samoa, in the south Pacific. Australia has no extradition treaty with Samoa. Among the newspaper’s findings:
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A federal grand jury in Boston is investigating Bishop William Murphy’s role in certifying to the US Department of Veterans Affairs that a Boston priest whose file included several memos warning about the priest’s attraction to boys had no adverse information that would disqualify him as a Catholic chaplain at a California VA hospital. The probe is also examining Murphy’s handling of sex abuse incidents at the Diocese of Rockville Centre. The criminal investigation centers on the case of Rev. William Scanlan, a retired Boston priest who is living in
US Catholic bishops voted overwhelmingly to conduct an audit this year to see if each diocese is doing what is necessary to combat clergy sexual abuse. Two years ago in Dallas, the bishops announced reforms to deal with the sexual abuse scandal and approved a charter that requires the church’s Office of Child and Youth Protection to conduct an annual review.
Jonathan Rees-Williams, a 55 year old former choirmaster at a royal chapel, was convicted yesterday of a series of indecent assaults on children, one as young as 9. He quit his post as organist and master of the choristers at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle in 2002, molested a series of children over a 14 year period from the mid-1970s. None of the allegations dated from his time at Windsor. Rees-Williams abused his young victims in a cathedral organ loft, a church crypt, his home, on buses and on a
Gary Ruiz, a 37 year old New York Fire Department emergency medical technician, was arrested by Nassau police and charged with sexually abusing his son’s 7 year old playmate over three years. Ruiz coerced the girl into sexual acts during sleepovers at his former Hicksville home. He was arraigned on one count of first-degree sexual conduct against a child and pleaded not guilty to the Class B felony, which is punishable by up to 25 years in prison upon conviction. He is being held at the Nassau County jail in