Clergy Abuse

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange is seeking to permanently seal testimony that Bishop Tod Brown gave this week as part of a civil lawsuit accusing a former assistant basketball coach at Mater Dei High School of sexually abusing a 16-year-old student.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange agreed Friday to pay nearly $7 million to settle four molestation lawsuits, including one against a former Mater Dei High School coach scheduled to go to trial next week. At $1.7 million, the average payout to the alleged victims -- all women -- is significantly higher than the average $1.1 million paid to scores of plaintiffs in an earlier settlement by the Orange diocese and $1.3 million paid to Los Angeles plaintiffs.

A Roman Catholic priest who worked as a chaplain at a women's federal prison pleaded guilty in Fort Worth to sexual abuse for having sex with two inmates. Vincent Inametti, 48, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine for two counts of sexual abuse of a ward. He remains free on bond. Authorities received a complaint this year that he was having sex with an inmate at Federal Medical Center Carswell.

The Vatican removed from the priesthood two men who faced credible complaints of sexual abuse of children, the Cleveland Catholic Diocese said. Gary Berthiaume and J. Brendan McNulty had asked to be removed, the diocese said.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony told a recent gathering of priests that he was assaulted last summer by a man enraged about the Roman Catholic Church's clergy abuse scandal, according to several sources familiar with the discussion. Mahony, 71, told priests attending the Los Angeles Archdiocese's annual pastoral meeting in October that he had been knocked down and badly bruised in July, near the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown L.A.

Rita Milla's story rocked the Archdiocese of Los Angeles when she first told it 23 years ago. Seven Roman Catholic priests, she said, had sexually abused her when she was a teenager, with one eventually fathering her child. The devout young woman who had once hoped to become a nun instead gave birth in secret in the Philippines. On Tuesday, her decades-long legal battle came to an emotional end.

A former Navy chaplain plans to plead guilty to allegations that include forcible sodomy and failing to tell a sex partner he was HIV-positive, his lawyer said Wednesday. Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Matthew Lee was to enter the plea today at his court-martial at Marine Corps Base Quantico in northern Virginia, said his attorney, David Sheldon. Lee, 42, plans to plead guilty to forcible sodomy, aggravated assault and other charges, Sheldon said.

Los Angeles Sheriff's Det. Mario Loffredo spent six months looking for a boy who didn't exist -- and found him. As one of the detectives investigating former Roman Catholic priest and pedophile Michael Stephen Baker, Loffredo was told to find a potential molestation victim named in an internal church document.

During the last few years we have heard many heart-rending stories from those who have been abused by Catholic priests, religious brothers and sisters and lay employees of the church. Their stories have been difficult for them to tell, and for their families and the entire Catholic community to hear.

After several years of fitful negotiations, the Los Angeles Archdiocese and attorneys for about 45 alleged victims of sexual abuse are moving toward settlements that would pay out an average of at least $1 million per claim and resolve many cases that have occurred during the tenure of Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, according to lawyers familiar with the discussions.