In a statement Sunday, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said Father Mel Thompson has been removed from his priestly duties and has withdrawn from active ministry.

Thompson has served at St. Thomas More church in Centennial for about nine years

The removal comes after an April 7 complaint against Thompson for “past sexual misconduct with a minor that reportedly occurred in the early 1970s,” Chaput said.

A spokeswoman for the archdiocese, Jeanette DeMelo, said Sunday the abuse complaint came from a grown male.

The church would not be more specific about when the alleged misconduct occurred, and a timeline provided by the church does not say where Thompson served from 1970 to 1973. After that, Thompson was assigned to Good Shepherd Parish in Denver, formerly named St. John the Evangelist.

The church has reported the alleged abuse to local law enforcement, Chaput said. Denver police spokesman Matt Murray said the officer in charge of leading such investigations has not been notified about this particular case. However, Murray said that doesn’t mean the case could be in the department’s system waiting to be investigated on Monday.

The announcement comes as sex abuse allegations have swept across Europe and the U.S. in recent weeks. The pope himself has come under fire for the handling of cases that date to his tenure as archbishop of Munich and as a Vatican cardinal in charge of the office dealing with abuse cases.

Last week Pope Benedict XVI said he is willing to meet with more victims of clerical sexual abuse.

Benedict has already met with abuse victims during trips to the United States and Australia and with Canadians at the Vatican.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said many victims are looking not for financial compensation but for moral help.

He said proper selection and training of prospective priests will be crucial in preventing further abuse, and he insisted that the church keep carrying out canon trials “with decisiveness and truthfulness” and cooperate with civil authorities.

“Anyone who was paying attention had to know, at least 20 years ago, that there’s a right way to manage this and a wrong way,” said Sister Nuala Kenny, professor emeritus of bioethics at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

In 1990, Kenny was a member of the Winter Commission set up by the Catholic church to investigate the sexual abuse of boys by members of the Christian Brothers religious order at the notorious Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s, Nfld., in the 1970s and 1980s.

Two years later, she became a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Child Sexual Abuse, set up by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Its report, From Pain to Hope, was issued after the church and the Ontario government agreed to a $40 million compensation package for 1,600 men abused as children at two Catholic training schools near Ottawa and Toronto. Provincial police laid more than 200 assault and sex-related charges, which ended in 15 convictions.

Allegations of child abuse, the reports insisted, must be treated as potential crimes, rather than internal church matters, and reported to civil authorities. The primary obligation, they stressed, is protection of the child.

Yet in subsequent scandals that erupted in Boston and Ireland, priests accused of sex abuse were simply moved to other parishes, while church authorities turned a blind eye to allegations, if not flatly tried to cover them up.

Last month, it was revealed that the head of the Irish Catholic church, Cardinal Sean Brady, was present during meetings in 1975 when children signed vows of silence about complaints against a pedophile priest. Brady has so far resisted calls to resign.

The latest scandal is swirling around the pontiff himself. A psychiatrist who treated a priest accused of sexually abusing boys in the early 1980s says a German archdiocese, headed at the time by the future pope, neglected repeated warnings that the priest should not be allowed to work with children.

The priest was convicted of sexual abuse in Bavaria in 1986.

Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, as the Pope was then known, approved a decision to send the priest for therapy in 1980. But the psychiatrist told The New York Times he doesn’t know if Ratzinger knew of repeated warnings about the man.

Kenny says Canada’s Catholic churches have extensively improved the reporting and handling of sex abuse cases, and the screening and education of student priests.

But she says Canada’s bishops have failed to deal with the underlying issues in abuse scandals – the power of priests over parishioners, their lack of accountability to bishops or parishioners, and the church’s attitude toward sexuality in general, and the celibacy of priests in particular.

“In general, the approach that I see is not in the tradition of brave action for justice that I’ve come to respect the Canadian bishops for. I think it’s: `Head down, if it didn’t happen here, if it’s not happening now, if we took care of that, let’s move on.’ We’re not taking the opportunity for this larger conversation,” Kenny said.

Too many priests are isolated from their parishioners, she says, lacking in the kind of a support that can keep them out of trouble

Rob Johnstone said he has battled alcoholism for 40 years and can’t find a treatment program that doesn’t rely on religion or spirituality as part of the recovery process.

“I should not be forced to participate in someone else’s religious beliefs. I shouldn’t have to add to mine,” said Johnstone, who added he has been an alcoholic for 40 years.

“We get involved in mood-altering substances and mind-altering substances,” Johnstone said. “That means the person is very vulnerable when they come in and that person should not be subjected to someone else’s religion.”

He’s hoping his human rights complaint pushes the province to create a treatment program that’s free of spiritual or religious elements. The commission wouldn’t comment on the status of his complaint.

“Spirituality … is part and parcel of everyone’s life. For some people, their spirituality is more important than others, but it’s a dimension of all of our lives as human beings,” Goossen said.

“When they’re in … programming, we do want them to go look for a grain of something that will be helpful for them and disregard the rest,” Goossen added.

Other people who work with addicts agree.
“If you talk to the concept of spirituality, most social recovery models have a level of spirituality,” Hoeft said. “Really, spirituality is getting in touch with who you are.”

“Some degree of a spiritual component is common as these types of programs are believed to be more effective,” the spokeswoman said.

“It is important to recognize that spirituality is not the same as religion. People in recovery tend to benefit from self-reflection, examining their lives, where they’ve come from, who they are and where they’re going.”

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who handed over more than 60,000 previously secret church files to the three-year investigation, said he felt deep shame and sorrow for how previous archbishops presided over endemic child abuse — yet claimed afterward not to understand the gravity of their sins.

Martin said his four predecessors in Ireland’s capital, including retired Cardinal Desmond Connell, must have understood that priests’ molestation and rape of boys and girls “was a crime in both civil and canon law. For some reason or another they felt they could deal with all this in little worlds of their own.

“They were wrong, and children were left to suffer.”
That report in May sought to document the scale of abuse as well as the reasons why church and state authorities didn’t stop it, whereas Thursday’s 720-page report focused on why church leaders in the Dublin Archdiocese — home to a quarter of Ireland’s 4 million Catholics — did not tell police about a single abuse complaint against a priest until 1995.

By then, the investigators found, successive archbishops and their senior deputies — among them qualified lawyers — already had compiled confidential files on more than 100 parish priests who had sexually abused children since 1940. Those files had remained locked in the Dublin archbishop’s private vault.

The investigators also dug up a paper trail documenting the church’s long-secret insurance policy, taken out in 1987, to cover potential lawsuits and compensation demands. Dublin church leaders publicly denied the existence of the problem for a decade afterward — but since the mid-1990s have paid out more than euro10 million ($15 million) in settlements and legal bills.
It was not until 1995 that then-Archbishop Connell allowed police to see church files on 17 clerical abuse cases. At that time, Connell actually held records of complaints against at least 29 priests, the report found. Connell later pursued a lawsuit against the investigators in an abandoned bid to keep them from seeing more than 5,500 files documenting the church’s knowledge of abusive priests.

The report said all four archbishops sought “the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities.”

The investigators lauded a handful of priests and mostly low-ranking police who pursued complaints and prosecutions, almost always unsuccessfully, from the 1960s to the 1980s.
The government also apologized for the state’s failure to pursue Dublin priests accused of child abuse until recent years.

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, who received the Dublin Archdiocese report in July but delayed its publication for legal vetting, vowed that the state would never again treat the Catholic Church with deference.

“A priest’s collar will protect no criminal,” he said.

But pressure groups representing more than 15,000 documented victims of abuse by Irish Catholic officials said the government was not doing enough to end the danger of Catholic child abuse — in part because the law still stops short of requiring bishops to report abuse complaints to police.
And she forecast that, because abused children often do not seek justice until they reach adulthood, children today were still being abused by priests. “It’s very likely in 10 or 15 years’ time that the children who are being abused today will bring forward allegations,” she said.

“As Irish people we like to think we live in a civilized society,” she said, “but we need to hang our heads in shame.”

Claiming the IRS “clearly forbids churches from participating in political campaigns in any form.” Maine Marriage Equality provides complaint forms and contact information for the IRS at its Web site. The group also lists churches and organizations that campaigned for Question One along with major financial contributors.

“It’s no secret that the Catholic Diocese led the ‘YES on 1′ effort in Maine, among many other churches encouraging their congregations to vote ‘YES,’ handing out signature forms and collection plates during service, and constantly asking for ‘sacrificial contributions’ from churchgoers,” the group claims

“Pastors and churches have a right to speak about biblical truths from the pulpit without fear of punishment,” Stanley said. “They can encourage their congregations to take a stand for marriage and can directly support legislative issues like Question 1 without running afoul of IRS rules.”

ADF is offering free legal assistance to any church the IRS targets.

“Groups that want to redefine marriage are intentionally threatening the tax-exempt status of churches through fear, intimidation and disinformation to silence their voice,” Stanley said. “ADF will stand with these churches to defend their right to free speech and religious expression against these baseless scare tactics.”

Bishop Richard Malone read a letter Saturday to parishioners at St. Francis Xavier Church in Winthrop that said the incidents involving the Rev. Joseph R. McGowan took place between 1936 and 1949 while McGowan served as pastor at the church.

Malone said he is directing the removal of any memorials or tributes to McGowan on church property. Church officials say the Winthrop council of the Knights of Columbus is removing McGowan’s name from its charter at the bishop’s request.

McGowan died in 1962 at the age of 72. He served at churches in Augusta, Portland and Winthrop before retiring in 1957.

But his efforts have been criticised by victim support groups, who accused the church of stage managing the meeting, choosing people who would not speak out.

The Pope held a private mass in a chapel at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney and then spoke privately with four representatives of abuse victims – two men and two women – for around an hour “as an expression of his ongoing pastoral concern for those who have been abused by members of the church”, the Vatican said in a statement.

“He listened to their stories and offered them consolation,” the statement said. “Assuring them of his spiritual closeness, he promised to continue to pray for them, their families and all victims.

“Through this paternal gesture, the holy father wished to demonstrate again his deep concern for all victims of sexual abuse.”

It is believed to be the first time the Pope has specifically apologised for sexual abuse by clergy and stated clearly that abusers should be brought to justice.

The pastor disagreed. He said having sex with him was OK, and “This is what love is.”
Those allegations are contained in new documents reviewed by The World-Herald in the case of a Lincoln pastor accused of sexually assaulting the girl in Omaha and Council Bluffs.

Attorneys for the girl, now 17, say she will need psychological treatment and will suffer from the abuse for the rest of her life. She and her father are suing Efrain Umaña Sr. for damages for emotional pain and distress, according to a lawsuit filed in Pottawattamie County District Court.

He also faces criminal charges in Douglas and Pottawattamie Counties.

She alleges in the civil suit that Umaña, who is now 54, raped her at least three times: once at her home in Omaha, once at the church in Council Bluffs and once in Umaña’s car. She said she was in fourth or fifth grade at the time of the assaults.

Umaña’s attorney, Andrew Wilson, said Umaña denies the girl’s allegations.
The girl and her family regularly attended the church in Council Bluffs where Umaña formerly preached, Templo Monte Horeb. It is near 30th Street and 5th Avenue.

Umaña had influence and authority over her and used that power to sexually abuse her, attorneys John McHale and Robert Knowles said in the lawsuit.

The girl and her father also named the church as a defendant in the same lawsuit, alleging that the church was negligent in failing to check Umaña’s background. They also say the church failed to supervise Umaña
Umaña worked as a Lincoln Public Schools bus driver from 1992 to 1997. In 1993, three students reported that they felt uncomfortable around Umaña, according to memos obtained by The World-Herald.

The students reported that he hugged them, said things like, “Hi, Babe” and told them how pretty they were. He also kissed one and grabbed at their coats, according to the documents. One girl reported that she told him the bus was cold and he said, “Yes, but you and me are hot.”

In 1994, three elementary school students reported that Umaña grabbed them in inappropriate places. Umaña denied the allegations to school officials. In 1997, Umaña was terminated
According to a letter the church sent to Umaña, his dismissal resulted in part from a report by a 17-year-old parishioner that she’d had a physical relationship with him. She later sued and said the case was settled out of court for $18,000.

A 14-year-old girl also reported that he made advances.

He was dismissed from another Lincoln church, at 1305 N. 52nd Ave.

The church was an affiliate of the International General Assembly of the Church of God, of Cleveland, Tenn. A Church of God trial found him guilty of ecclesiastical charges of unbecoming ministerial conduct.

Jim Corcoran, owner of Ste. Anne’s Inn and Spa, in Grafton, has made the application against 12 members of St. Michael’s Church, Cobourg, and the Catholic Diocese of Peterborough.

Mr. Corcoran’s application to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario states he was removed from serving at the altar during mass at the church because a group of parishioners wrote a letter to Bishop Nicola DeAngelis claiming he is an openly homosexual man married to another man, and they threatened to cause a scandal if the bishop did not remove him from serving.
Mr. Corcoran served as an acolyte (altar server) from Dec. 7, 2008, to April 19, 2009, at St. Michael’s Church, under Father Allan Hood. In April, the bishop instructed Father Hood to tell Mr. Corcoran and his partner they were no longer welcome on the altar.

“I don’t think sexual orientation should have any bearing on this… most Canadians are well past that,” Mr. Corcoran said in an interview on Wednesday.
“All he (the bishop) did was follow the church’s rules. Now we’re being sued under the Human Rights Tribunal and they should have no jurisdiction here.”

Mr. Ward said any other issues with Father Hood “muddy the waters.”

In the application under remedy, Mr. Corcoran is asking the 12 parishioners to donate $20,000 each to a charity of Mr. Corcoran’s choice, and that the diocese pay his legal costs associated with the application, up to a maximum of $25,000, for a total of $265,000. He also hopes the 12 will be “held accountable for their un-Christian actions, in front of their peers in a public forum, by the bishop or the bishop’s superior,” the application states.

Mr. Corcoran would also like the bishop to preach a sermon at St. Michael’s “on the consequences of practicing discrimination and the slanderous spreading of rumours, hate and innuendo.” And he would like to be reinstated as a server at the church, with apologies to himself, friends and family.
Mr. Corcoran, who said he lives a chaste lifestyle with his same-sex partner, who is not named in the document and wishes to remain anonymous, said his situation has been the subject of many right-wing blogs, many of which attack his lifestyle.

Muslim leaders in Michigan and across the country say members of mosques are frequently asked to provide information about activities in their communities.

“We seek to ensure that our country is secure from all threats regardless of the source, but we take exception to community members being asked to spy on law-abiding Americans exercising the constitutional rights of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly,” said Victor Ghalib Begg, chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan, a group that represents mosques and other Michigan Muslim organizations.
The department intends to evaluate the request when it is received, he said.

Muslims and civil rights advocates say the FBI has been heavy handed amid a recent flock of approaches to local Muslims to recruit them as informants.

“Law enforcement’s time and resources should be spent on keeping us safe, not spying on people based on their religious and political beliefs,”