Peru officials charge Chicago man in connection with Sodalitium abuse scandal

Crookston, Minn., Feb 4, 2020 / 12:45 pm (CNA).- The Diocese of Crookston announced Tuesday that the Vatican has ordered additional investigation into the conduct of Bishop Michael Hoeppner, the first U.S. bishop to be investigated through a process developed by Pope Francis last year.

Hoeppner will not be permitted to oversee sexual abuse cases in his diocese during the follow-up investigation.

“Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis has recently been authorized by the Congregation for Bishops in Rome, to conduct further investigation related to claims that Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner had engaged in ‘acts or omissions intended to interfere with or avoid civil or canonical investigations of clerical sexual misconduct’ as prescribed by the motu proprio, Vos estis lux mundi,” the Crookston diocese announced Feb. 4.

Hoeppner, 70, has been accused of mishandling the cases of priests accused of sexual misconduct: the bishop is reported to have pressured an alleged victim to drop his allegation of abuse against a priest, failed to follow mandatory reporting laws, and neglected to follow protocols designed to monitor priests accused of misconduct.

In depositions released Nov. 5 as part of a legal settlement, Hoeppner is seen to admit to several of the charges against him. In those depositions, Hoeppner also defended a diocesan decision to allow a priest to remain in ministry, without notifying parents or parishioners, after the priest admitted that while he was teenager he had sexually abused a younger child.

The first stage of the Vatican investigation was also undertaken by Hebda, under the auspices of Vos estis lux mundi, 2019 norms from Pope Francis on investigating bishops accused of mishandling or obstructing allegations of clerical sexual abuse.

It is not clear how many of the allegations against Hoeppner fell within the mandate of Hebda’s initial investigation, and how many will only be formally examined by the Vatican after the follow-up investigation.

Hebda sent his initial findings and recommendations to the Vatican in late October, leaving the matter in the hands of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops.

Vos estis lux mundi allows the Vatican “to provide for a supplementary investigation” after initial steps are taken, if Vatican officials deem it necessary.

Judge Timothy O’Malley, Director of the Archdiocesan Office of Ministerial Standards and Safe Environment, will serve as Hebda’s delegate for the second investigation, presumably overseeing day-to-day responsibilities.

The move announced Tuesday comes as a surprise to observers, though because Hoeppner is the first bishop to face a Vos estis investigation, there is no precedent from which to set expectations.

Tuesday’s announcement comes after several months in which local Catholics have called for Hoeppner’s ouster, and accused him of mistreating a popular priest removed from ministry under vague terms.

Priests in the diocese told CNA in recent weeks that they expected Hoeppner to be removed from office, and that given the bishop’s record, the credibility of the Vos estis procedures could be called into question if he is eventually permitted to remain in office.

At the same time, several U.S. bishops told CNA that they are watching the investigation against Hoeppner carefully, to see whether he is afforded the opportunity to defend himself during the investigation.

The Crookston diocese also announced Tuesday a Vatican decision “that for the duration of the investigation, the faculty to deal with cases of sexual abuse against clerics of the Diocese of Crookston has been transferred from Bishop Hoeppner to Archbishop Hebda.”

Sources in the diocese tell CNA that Hebda has already begun overseeing at least one case of a priest in the Crookston diocese accused of unspecified misconduct.

Hoeppner, alongside other bishops from Minnesota and neighboring states, met with Pope Francis Jan. 13 for nearly two hours, during the bishops’ ad limina visit to Rome, which is required by canon law to take place every five years.

A timeline for the next phase of the investigation has not been released.

[…]

Washington D.C., Jul 22, 2019 / 04:25 pm (CNA).- The leader of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus is asking President Trump to refuse any attempts to undermine or strip pro-life measures from future spending bills.

“As you work with Congress on a deal t… […]

Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick arrives outside Massachusetts’ Dedham District Courthouse for his arraignment on Sept. 3, 2021. / Andrew Bukuras/CNA

Boston, Mass., Feb 27, 2023 / 16:57 pm (CNA).

Former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 92, filed a motion in a Massachusetts court claiming he is “legally incompetent” to stand trial for sex abuse charges, citing “significant, worsening, and irreversible dementia.”

McCarrick is charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over the age of 14 relating to allegations that he sexually abused the teenager who was a family friend at a wedding ceremony in the 1970s at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. 

McCarrick, laicized by Pope Francis in 2019, held one of the highest offices in the Catholic Church and has been accused of serially abusing his priestly authority by sexually abusing minors and seminarians.

The state of Massachusetts told CNA that it wants an opportunity to examine McCarrick’s competency to stand trial.

McCarrick’s motion to dismiss the charges comes about a month after his legal team said a neurological exam of him was being conducted by Dr. David Schretlen, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

That exam remains unavailable to the public, as Schretlen’s final report includes “extensive confidential information” about McCarrick’s health and personal life, and would be “harmful” to McCarrick if it were available to the public, one of McCarrick’s lawyers, Daniel Marx, said in a separate court document.

However, there are certain details from the report that were available in McCarrick’s motion to dismiss the case, such as his consistently low performance scores on cognitive tests.

The document says that McCarrick performed “below expectation” on nearly two-thirds of the cognitive tests administered to him. Quoting the report, the document says that he performed “worse than 92% of reasonably healthy men of similar background and estimated premorbid on 38% of the cognitive measures.”

The report on McCarrick says that his “reported inability to retrieve memories of the alleged incident and potential witnesses” and “any exculpatory factors related to it” are consistent with his performance on the exams and testimony from those who know him well, according to the document.

Schretlen’s report concluded that McCarrick has a “severe cognitive disorder” and “everyday functional disability” that classifies as dementia and is most likely due to Alzeimer’s disease, the document says.

McCarrick is not legally competent to stand trial, the document says. It adds that his dementia is also “irreversible” and “likely to progress over time” with no expectation of improvement. 

The document says that although McCarrick “remains intelligent and articulate,” he is unable to stand trial because his dementia prevents him from “meaningfully consulting with counsel and effectively participating in his own defense.”

It would be a violation of McCarrick’s 14th Amendment right in the Constitution and Article XII of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights if he were to stand trial with his dementia, his lawyers maintain in the court document.

David Traub, director of communications for the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, told CNA in an email Monday that “the Commonwealth will hire its own expert to assess competency.”

Traub said that an update court hearing in Dedham District Court on the state’s examination of McCarrick is set for April 20.

McCarrick’s lawyer Barry Coburn declined comment. Marx, his other lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment.

McCarrick hasn’t been seen publicly since his arraignment in Dedham on Sept. 3, 2021, when he pleaded not guilty to all three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over the age of 14. 

He appeared in frail condition that day, arriving at the courthouse wearing a mask and hunched over a walker. He made no comment either inside or outside the courthouse, where a demonstrator yelled, “Shame on you!” as McCarrick slowly walked past reporters and photographers alongside one of his attorneys.

The document says that McCarrick continues to maintain his innocence on all charges. 

[…]