A lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses a priest, formerly of churches inCrystal Lake and Johnsburg, of sexually abusing a 7- to 9-year-old child while assigned to an Aurora church.
The lawsuit names the Rev. John C. Holdren, who retired in 1994 from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Johnsburg, where he spent 10 years as a priest. He also spent six years in the 1970s at St. Thomas the Apostle in Crystal Lake. Holdren also served at St. Peter in Geneva from 1981 to 1983.
Holdren, now 70, told WGN News he had nothing to do with the abuse, which is said to have happened in the early 1970s.
The Catholic Diocese of Rockford was notified of the lawsuit Tuesday, spokeswoman Penny Wiegert said, adding the diocese didn’t have a comment as of Wednesday afternoon.
Holdren retired as a pastor in 1994 and remains unassigned and not working as a priest, she said.
An unnamed 49-year-old man is the sole complainant in the lawsuit, his attorney, Tim Freiberg said, adding that in similar cases, others have come forward after the lawsuits were filed.
“What I see in a lot of these cases is the memory of the abuse doesn’t come back for years, and it’s usually triggered by an event,” Freiberg said, pointing in this case to the man learning that several of his friends said they also had been abused, moving out of state to Maryland where he began seeing a therapist and reading about other instances of abuse in the Catholic Church.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and Voice of the Faithful, a group that works to support victims of clergy sexual abuse, plan on developing a flier to be distributed at the parishes where Holdren was assigned.
The statute of limitations on cases of child sexual abuse is 20 years from the 18th birthday of the child or 10 years from when the abuse is remembered, Freiberg said, adding the five other similar cases he’s handled have survived motions to dismiss based on the statute of limitations.
According to the lawsuit, the man was sexually abused by Holdren, including through inappropriate touching and acts of penetration, when Holdren was a priest at St. Rita of Cascia in Aurora from 1972 to 1973.
The lawsuit seeks monetary damages of at least $50,000 from the diocese, St. Rita of Cascia and Holdren, arguing the diocese and church are liable because the policies they adopted “enabled and emboldened” Holdren because he “knew any complaints about his conduct would be minimized and he would be protected from public disclosure.”
The lawsuit also alleges those at the church and diocese had been informed Holdren was a “serious threat to the physical and mental well-being” of children and concealed that knowledge.
The leaders of the diocese “placed concern for the church’s reputation and financial well-being over the safety and well-being of its parishioners and children everywhere,” the complaint said.
Full article: http://www.nwherald.com/2015/09/09/former-crystal-lake-johnsburg-priest-accused-of-sexually-abusing-child/a80bh9d/?page=2
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2015-09-11 11:51:152015-09-11 11:51:15Emily Coleman, Former Crystal Lake, Johnsburg priest accused of sexually abusing child, Northwest Herald
Come out to cheer on Fred Marigliano as he begins his walk across NJ to Abolish SOL!
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2015-09-11 11:47:352015-09-11 11:47:35NJ Alert: Fred's Walk to Abolish SOL Starts Friday, Sept. 11
The national spotlight shined recently on Jared Fogle for possessing child pornography. A few weeks ago, a Mashpee physician was sentenced in federal court in Boston after he was convicted of child pornography. A priest in Louisville, Kentucky, was arrested for taking and having sexually inappropriate photos of his littlest parishioners. The list could go on and on.
These are just a few stories from the police blotter and, while none of these cases is all that unique, all constitute what those of us in child advocacy are charged to combat every day: the sobering statistics that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday and 1 in 5 will be solicited for sex online. It’s our charge to educate our community that child sexual abuse happens on the public stage, at churches and in our own backyards.
What we don’t talk about often are the children and their stories. We don’t because we are bound to protect the children and their families from further trauma and respect their right to privacy. You see, it’s at the core of a child advocate to protect children from further trauma at all costs.
We see little boys whose cousins come down the Cape to visit and abuse them in the safest place they know: their own home. We see girls who post on backpage.com and whisper.com that they’ll have sex for $40. We help children who are in protective custody and/or in residential treatment facilities who have done nothing except trust someone who later abused them.
These are composite stories, and no specific cases are revealed here. But what they all share is that these children didn’t know how to protect themselves, and they had no one they trusted to protect them.
When children know about body safety and healthy boundaries and have a trusted adult in their lives, they may still become victims. But they will know it when they do and can recognize and report it. They will have the tools to say no and can set healthy boundaries. Also, they will know how to help others stay safe.
Please take five minutes to talk to your children about body safety and healthy boundaries so that you can educate and empower your children and other children you love about child sexual abuse so we can stop it before it happens.
Join us at childrenscove.org and we’ll help you start the conversation.
Full article: http://www.capecodtimes.com/article/20150908/OPINION/150909732/101019
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2015-09-09 10:48:402015-09-09 10:48:40Stacy Gallagher, Start the conversation with children, Cape Code Times
Join us for a 2 hour scenic ride through northern Chester County, followed by lunch, raffle prizes and much more to spread awareness & benefit Child Sexual Abuse Prevention!
Where/When?
The Office Bar and Grille
1021 Morehall Rd, Malvern PA 19355
Saturday September 19th
10am
Featuring Guest Speaker Chester County DA Tom Hogan
Riders can check out the latest motorcycle models and have a chance to win a $300 Gift Card from Harley Davidson of Chester Springs!
A county clerk in Kentucky has again refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, invoking her religious beliefs and “God’s authority” — this time in defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against her.
On Tuesday morning, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis’ office denied the licenses to at least two couples. At first, Davis was in her office with the door closed and blinds drawn. But she emerged a few minutes later, telling the couples and the activists gathered there that her office is continuing to deny the licenses “under God’s authority.”
ADVERTISING
Davis asked David Moore and David Ermold, a couple who has been rejected four times by her office, to leave. They refused, surrounded by reporters and cameras.
“We’re not leaving until we have a license,” Ermold said.
“Then you’re going to have a long day,” Davis told him.
From the back of the room, Davis’ supporters said: “Praise the Lord! … Stand your ground.”
Other activists shouted that Davis is a bigot and told her: “Do your job.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to intervene in the case, leaving Davis no legal grounds to refuse to grant licenses to gay couples. A district judge could now hold her in contempt, which can carry steep fines or jail time.
Davis has steadfastly refused to issue the licenses, saying her deeply held Christian beliefs don’t let her endorse gay marriages.
Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses in the days after U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage across the nation. Two gay couples and two straight couples sued her, arguing that she must fulfill her duties as an elected official despite her personal religious faith. A federal judge ordered her to issue the licenses, and an appeals court upheld that decision. Her lawyers with the Liberty Counsel filed a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court on Friday, asking that they grant her “asylum for her conscience.”
Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees the 6th district, referred Davis’ request to the full court, which denied the stay without comment.
On Tuesday morning, shortly after Davis’ remarks, the sheriff’s office cleared the county office of those gathered to support both sides of the issue.
The two groups lined up on either side of the courthouse entrance to chant at each other. Davis’ supporters told her to “stand firm,” while gay-rights activists shouted “do your job.”
The rejected couples’ supporters called the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit on their behalf. They asked that their attorneys file to have Davis held in contempt.
Randy Smith, leading the group supporting Davis, said he knows following their instruction to “stand firm” might mean Davis goes to jail.
“But at the end of the day, we have to stand before God, which has higher authority than the Supreme Court,” he said.
Ermold hugged Moore, his partner of 17 years, and they cried and swayed as they left the clerk’s office. Davis’ supporters marched by, chanting.
“I feel sad, I feel devastated,” Ermold said. “I feel like I’ve been humiliated on such a national level, I can’t even comprehend it.”
FACSA Staff Meet with Legislative Representatives
and Advocacy Groups to Promote SOL Reform in PA
Delilah Rumburg, CEO, PCAR
PA Rep. Tom Murt, Marci Hamilton, PA Rep Mark Rozzi
On Tuesday August 25th dozens of concerned SOL Reform advocates met in the Harrisburg area to develop a plan for successfully getting SOL Legislative Reform done here in PA. The meeting was hosted by PCAR (PA Coalition Against Rape) and chaired by PCAR’s CEO Delilah Rumburg, and Vice President of Public Relations, Kristen Houser. Other attendees included PA House Reps. Mark Rozzi and Tom Murt, Marci Hamilton, constitutional attorney, representatives from PDAA(PA District Attorneys’ Association), Jennifer Storm, PA’s Victim Advocate , and FACSA’s VP Tammy Lerner and Communications Coordinator Marie Whitehead as well as several other advocates.
What was obvious from our meeting is that we are not alone in wanting significant changes in current PA legislation that offers roadblocks to victims obtaining justice for the crimes committed against them. Our next steps are to finalize plans for actions that we all will carry out in the next several months. More to follow.
http://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpg00SOL Reformhttp://sol-reform.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hamilton-Logo.jpgSOL Reform2015-09-02 02:49:152015-09-02 02:49:15FACSA | Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse
Emily Coleman, Former Crystal Lake, Johnsburg priest accused of sexually abusing child, Northwest Herald
/in Illinois /by SOL ReformA lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses a priest, formerly of churches inCrystal Lake and Johnsburg, of sexually abusing a 7- to 9-year-old child while assigned to an Aurora church.
The lawsuit names the Rev. John C. Holdren, who retired in 1994 from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Johnsburg, where he spent 10 years as a priest. He also spent six years in the 1970s at St. Thomas the Apostle in Crystal Lake. Holdren also served at St. Peter in Geneva from 1981 to 1983.
Holdren, now 70, told WGN News he had nothing to do with the abuse, which is said to have happened in the early 1970s.
The Catholic Diocese of Rockford was notified of the lawsuit Tuesday, spokeswoman Penny Wiegert said, adding the diocese didn’t have a comment as of Wednesday afternoon.
Holdren retired as a pastor in 1994 and remains unassigned and not working as a priest, she said.
An unnamed 49-year-old man is the sole complainant in the lawsuit, his attorney, Tim Freiberg said, adding that in similar cases, others have come forward after the lawsuits were filed.
“What I see in a lot of these cases is the memory of the abuse doesn’t come back for years, and it’s usually triggered by an event,” Freiberg said, pointing in this case to the man learning that several of his friends said they also had been abused, moving out of state to Maryland where he began seeing a therapist and reading about other instances of abuse in the Catholic Church.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests and Voice of the Faithful, a group that works to support victims of clergy sexual abuse, plan on developing a flier to be distributed at the parishes where Holdren was assigned.
The statute of limitations on cases of child sexual abuse is 20 years from the 18th birthday of the child or 10 years from when the abuse is remembered, Freiberg said, adding the five other similar cases he’s handled have survived motions to dismiss based on the statute of limitations.
According to the lawsuit, the man was sexually abused by Holdren, including through inappropriate touching and acts of penetration, when Holdren was a priest at St. Rita of Cascia in Aurora from 1972 to 1973.
The lawsuit seeks monetary damages of at least $50,000 from the diocese, St. Rita of Cascia and Holdren, arguing the diocese and church are liable because the policies they adopted “enabled and emboldened” Holdren because he “knew any complaints about his conduct would be minimized and he would be protected from public disclosure.”
The lawsuit also alleges those at the church and diocese had been informed Holdren was a “serious threat to the physical and mental well-being” of children and concealed that knowledge.
The leaders of the diocese “placed concern for the church’s reputation and financial well-being over the safety and well-being of its parishioners and children everywhere,” the complaint said.
Full article: http://www.nwherald.com/2015/09/09/former-crystal-lake-johnsburg-priest-accused-of-sexually-abusing-child/a80bh9d/?page=2
NJ Alert: Fred’s Walk to Abolish SOL Starts Friday, Sept. 11
/in New Jersey /by SOL ReformStacy Gallagher, Start the conversation with children, Cape Code Times
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformPA Event September 19th
/in Pennsylvania /by SOL ReformSaturday September 19th
10am
Riders can check out the latest motorcycle models and have a chance to win a $300 Gift Card from Harley Davidson of Chester Springs!
Claire Galofaro, Ky. Clerk Invokes ‘God’s Authority,’ Still Refuses To Grant Same-Sex Marriage Licenses, Talking Points Memo
/in Kentucky /by SOL ReformA county clerk in Kentucky has again refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, invoking her religious beliefs and “God’s authority” — this time in defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against her.
On Tuesday morning, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis’ office denied the licenses to at least two couples. At first, Davis was in her office with the door closed and blinds drawn. But she emerged a few minutes later, telling the couples and the activists gathered there that her office is continuing to deny the licenses “under God’s authority.”
ADVERTISING
Davis asked David Moore and David Ermold, a couple who has been rejected four times by her office, to leave. They refused, surrounded by reporters and cameras.
“We’re not leaving until we have a license,” Ermold said.
“Then you’re going to have a long day,” Davis told him.
From the back of the room, Davis’ supporters said: “Praise the Lord! … Stand your ground.”
Other activists shouted that Davis is a bigot and told her: “Do your job.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to intervene in the case, leaving Davis no legal grounds to refuse to grant licenses to gay couples. A district judge could now hold her in contempt, which can carry steep fines or jail time.
Davis has steadfastly refused to issue the licenses, saying her deeply held Christian beliefs don’t let her endorse gay marriages.
Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses in the days after U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage across the nation. Two gay couples and two straight couples sued her, arguing that she must fulfill her duties as an elected official despite her personal religious faith. A federal judge ordered her to issue the licenses, and an appeals court upheld that decision. Her lawyers with the Liberty Counsel filed a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court on Friday, asking that they grant her “asylum for her conscience.”
Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees the 6th district, referred Davis’ request to the full court, which denied the stay without comment.
On Tuesday morning, shortly after Davis’ remarks, the sheriff’s office cleared the county office of those gathered to support both sides of the issue.
The two groups lined up on either side of the courthouse entrance to chant at each other. Davis’ supporters told her to “stand firm,” while gay-rights activists shouted “do your job.”
The rejected couples’ supporters called the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit on their behalf. They asked that their attorneys file to have Davis held in contempt.
Randy Smith, leading the group supporting Davis, said he knows following their instruction to “stand firm” might mean Davis goes to jail.
“But at the end of the day, we have to stand before God, which has higher authority than the Supreme Court,” he said.
Ermold hugged Moore, his partner of 17 years, and they cried and swayed as they left the clerk’s office. Davis’ supporters marched by, chanting.
“I feel sad, I feel devastated,” Ermold said. “I feel like I’ve been humiliated on such a national level, I can’t even comprehend it.”
Ky
FACSA | Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse
/in Uncategorized /by SOL ReformWashington Post article highlighting John Salveson HERE
+++++++++++++++++++++
and Advocacy Groups to Promote SOL Reform in PA
Delilah Rumburg, CEO, PCAR
PA Rep. Tom Murt, Marci Hamilton, PA Rep Mark Rozzi