Being filled with all unrighteousness... Romans 1:29
"For more than a decade, a Catholic diocese in Nebraska was the only church in the U.S. that refused to participate in annual reviews of sexual misconduct that were a key reform enacted in the wake of the 2002 Boston clergy abuse scandal.
Accusers have been coming forward in recent weeks with allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct by clergy in Nebraska, and the diocese is facing a potential criminal investigation and criticism that it mishandled abusive priests even as it should have been subjected to increased scrutiny after the Boston scandal.
From 2002 to 2015, leaders of the Lincoln diocese refused to participate in annual audits designed to uncover sex abuse allegations and gauge how well church officials were complying with child-protection policies. Church leaders called the audits a pointless endeavor that assumed wrongdoing by the diocese and its priests, but one of the bishops during that period knew of at least two allegations against priests, according to interviews and a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
The Nebraska attorney general's office has spoken with at least two accusers and urged others to come forward about abuse in the diocese. Lincoln police are also investigating a priest accused of having an "emotionally inappropriate, non-sexual relationship" with a 19-year-old male altar server that involved alcohol in 2017, church officials said.
A Lincoln police spokesman confirmed the investigation but declined to comment further. On Wednesday, the diocese unveiled a new, anonymous hotline and website to take complaints.
The scandals come amid accusations that Pope Francis was complicit in the face of sex-abuse allegations against a former high-ranking cardinal in Washington, D.C., and a grand jury investigation that identified more than 1,000 child victims in Pennsylvania.
Many of the new allegations in Lincoln focus on the actions of the Rev. James Benton, a 71-year-old priest who retired last year despite church leaders knowing about abuse allegations against him for at least 15 years.
Dr. Stan Schulte, a 37-year-old chiropractor in Lincoln, said Benton, his uncle, molested him at a rectory sleepover in the early 1990s when he was a boy. Another Lincoln man, Jeffrey Hoover, reported a similar experience with Benton during a camping trip in the early 1980s while he and the priest slept in the same bed.
Hoover said he reported his experience to a priest in 1997 and directly to then-Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz in 2002. Schulte notified the diocese in 2017 and said he probably would not have been molested if the diocese had properly responded to Hoover's allegations.
Conley, who succeeded Bruskewitz, reversed the diocese's policy on the audits and began participating in them in 2015 after declaring that the process had improved from its previous methodology.
Hoover said Benton touched his hip and groin area twice on a camping trip with other boys, when Hoover was around 10 years old.
Hoover said he was disgusted by the diocese response but didn't pursue it because he doubted the church would do anything more, he felt embarrassed...
The cases came to light after a defrocked priest leveled allegations this month against the late Monsignor Leonard Kalin, the former pastor of the University of Nebraska's Newman Center. Kalin served at the Newman Center from 1970 to 1998, and died in 2008.
Those accusations prompted another former seminarian, Wei Hsien Wan, to allege that Kalin made unwanted sexual advances toward him and another man when he was a young seminarian in 1998.
Wan said he doesn't believe the diocese has been transparent. He pointed to an Aug. 4 public statement from Conley, which acknowledged "one report of a physical boundary violation" by Kalin. Wan said the church was aware of allegations from him and another seminarian in 1998.
"The Diocese has proven itself incapable of handling allegations in a responsible manner," Wan said by email from his home in Malaysia."
FOX
"For more than a decade, a Catholic diocese in Nebraska was the only church in the U.S. that refused to participate in annual reviews of sexual misconduct that were a key reform enacted in the wake of the 2002 Boston clergy abuse scandal.
As a new wave of abuse scandals rock the Roman Catholic church, critics say the Diocese of Lincoln is now paying the price for its unwillingness to change and lack of transparency.
The Nebraska attorney general's office has spoken with at least two accusers and urged others to come forward about abuse in the diocese. Lincoln police are also investigating a priest accused of having an "emotionally inappropriate, non-sexual relationship" with a 19-year-old male altar server that involved alcohol in 2017, church officials said.
The scandals come amid accusations that Pope Francis was complicit in the face of sex-abuse allegations against a former high-ranking cardinal in Washington, D.C., and a grand jury investigation that identified more than 1,000 child victims in Pennsylvania.
Many of the new allegations in Lincoln focus on the actions of the Rev. James Benton, a 71-year-old priest who retired last year despite church leaders knowing about abuse allegations against him for at least 15 years.
Dr. Stan Schulte, a 37-year-old chiropractor in Lincoln, said Benton, his uncle, molested him at a rectory sleepover in the early 1990s when he was a boy. Another Lincoln man, Jeffrey Hoover, reported a similar experience with Benton during a camping trip in the early 1980s while he and the priest slept in the same bed.
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| Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska |
Hoover said he reported his experience to a priest in 1997 and directly to then-Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz in 2002. Schulte notified the diocese in 2017 and said he probably would not have been molested if the diocese had properly responded to Hoover's allegations.
Conley, who succeeded Bruskewitz, reversed the diocese's policy on the audits and began participating in them in 2015 after declaring that the process had improved from its previous methodology.
Hoover said Benton touched his hip and groin area twice on a camping trip with other boys, when Hoover was around 10 years old.
Hoover said he was disgusted by the diocese response but didn't pursue it because he doubted the church would do anything more, he felt embarrassed...
The cases came to light after a defrocked priest leveled allegations this month against the late Monsignor Leonard Kalin, the former pastor of the University of Nebraska's Newman Center. Kalin served at the Newman Center from 1970 to 1998, and died in 2008.
Those accusations prompted another former seminarian, Wei Hsien Wan, to allege that Kalin made unwanted sexual advances toward him and another man when he was a young seminarian in 1998.
Wan said he doesn't believe the diocese has been transparent. He pointed to an Aug. 4 public statement from Conley, which acknowledged "one report of a physical boundary violation" by Kalin. Wan said the church was aware of allegations from him and another seminarian in 1998.
"The Diocese has proven itself incapable of handling allegations in a responsible manner," Wan said by email from his home in Malaysia."
FOX
