Priest

In a first of its kind ruling, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has handed down a decision that four people who allege sexual abuse by a former associate pastor of St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church in La Cañada will be allowed to seek punitive damages against the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Judge Haley J. Fomholz ruled May 23 that punitive damages can be sought against the Archdiocese for failing to protect the four from the accused predator. The case concerns Father Lynn Caffoe, 61, who has been accused of molesting children from 1975 to 1991.

Parishioners filled the pews of Healy Hall at Holy Redeemer Church to pay tribute to the Rev. George Brincat, who was honored for his 50 years of service in the priesthood, on Sunday. Brincat received a standing ovation after he delivered a speech about strength, hope and the future of youth and the church. Brincat was ordained as a priest at the age of 23 in his native country of Malta in 1957. In 1962, he came to the United States, where he began his ministry with the archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Father James Furman, assisting priest at St. Mark?s Episcopal Church, started a new series titled, ?A Bevy of Bishops: the Ever-Changing Episcopate? in January. His new Sunday morning series traces how the work of the bishop has adapted over the centuries. ?The work changes, and the expectations change simply because society is constantly changing,? he said. ?The work of a bishop today is quite different from 20 centuries ago.? The series highlights 13th century bishop St. Thomas of Hereford.

Alex Coolman GLENDALE -- Coming closer to God doesn't necessarily require become miserable in the process, Father Glenn Sequeira thinks. The priest of Holy Family Catholic Church has been speaking to his congregation about Lent, the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter. It's a time of reflection, during which Christians are supposed to live in a more sober and contemplative fashion than they might during the rest of the year. Fasting and other forms of penance are traditional activities during Lent.

Charles Unger Can a priest who claims he is being punished for turning in a fellow priest who was having sex with an altar boy sue his local Catholic diocese for defamation? The state appellate court in San Francisco says yes. Here you have two competing interests. There is a state law that requires members of the clergy to report incidents of child abuse. On the other side, you have the rights of church officials to discipline their priests without court review.

If it?s true that summer brings both hot weather and light, teen-oriented movies, the converse is also correct that with winter comes colder climate but it also rewards us with more serious, adult fare in theaters. And for those who welcome these changes, ?Doubt? will be just the type of well-made drama that rewards those seeking substance over action. The chill of the setting is immediate from the opening as we see New York in December 1964 all dark and somber. The popular Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman)

Father Jim Bevacqua, a task-oriented priest who is known for his drive to get things done, has landed at Holy Family Catholic Church. Bevacqua started at Holy Family on July 1 after a one-year stint as an associate pastor at St. Philip the Apostle church in Pasadena. Before that, he worked as an associated pastor at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in San Pedro for four years. He will replace Father Joseph Shea who left Glendale at the end of June for a new assignment at a church in Simi Valley.

The "Book of Daniel" on NBC last Friday has raised a few fundamentalist eyebrows. Some stations have even pulled it from their schedule. The uproar began before it was actually aired. The story is about an Episcopal priest, the church, his very dysfunctional family and an embezzlement. Oh, yes, there is one other thing, the priest has periodical visits from Jesus Christ. Let me first say I am a Christian and an Episcopalian. I enjoyed the first episode. Father Daniel Webster, played by Aidian Quinn, has a very disturbed family.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has quietly added two dozen priests and brothers to its list of clergy accused of child molestation. Though the church deems the allegations against the men credible, the archdiocese has declined to release information about the complaints, including the number of accusers, the dates of the alleged abuse and the parishes where the men worked. The names were disclosed in a two-page report posted on the archdiocese's website last month alongside 12,000 pages of internal records related to its handling of abuse claims.

The following list is based on 122 priests' personnel files that were released from the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese. The clergymen were named in a 2007 settlement in which the archdiocese agreed to pay $660 million to settle hundreds of sex abuse and molestation claims. The documents include personnel files of alleged abusers, documents detailing sex abuse allegations, their parish assignments, internal memos and psychological evaluations. Included in the files were 29 priests who had connections to parishes in Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena and the foothill region.

Editor's Note: Numerous instances of plagiarism have been discovered in Dan Kimber's “Education Matters” column, which ran in the News- Press from September 2003 to September 2011. In those columns where plagiarism has been found, a For the Record specifying the details will be appended to the piece. Before contemplating what this new year holds in store, I'd like to take a look back at a few items in this column that merit, in my mind, a second look, or that perhaps at the time suggested a follow-up, starting with a certain encounter I had with a local police officer.

Father James Furman, assisting priest at St. Mark?s Episcopal Church, started a new series titled, ?A Bevy of Bishops: the Ever-Changing Episcopate? in January. His new Sunday morning series traces how the work of the bishop has adapted over the centuries. ?The work changes, and the expectations change simply because society is constantly changing,? he said. ?The work of a bishop today is quite different from 20 centuries ago.? The series highlights 13th century bishop St. Thomas of Hereford.

If it?s true that summer brings both hot weather and light, teen-oriented movies, the converse is also correct that with winter comes colder climate but it also rewards us with more serious, adult fare in theaters. And for those who welcome these changes, ?Doubt? will be just the type of well-made drama that rewards those seeking substance over action. The chill of the setting is immediate from the opening as we see New York in December 1964 all dark and somber. The popular Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman)

A Roman Catholic priest in South Carolina recently told parishioners that they should not take Holy Communion if they voted for Sen. Barack Obama because of the president-elect’s stance on abortion. Doing so, according to the Rev. Jay Scott Newman, “constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil.” The church’s senior officer in the state promptly reprimanded him, saying the church should give the same treatment to all members regardless of their partisan beliefs.

Father Jim Bevacqua, a task-oriented priest who is known for his drive to get things done, has landed at Holy Family Catholic Church. Bevacqua started at Holy Family on July 1 after a one-year stint as an associate pastor at St. Philip the Apostle church in Pasadena. Before that, he worked as an associated pastor at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in San Pedro for four years. He will replace Father Joseph Shea who left Glendale at the end of June for a new assignment at a church in Simi Valley.

Soul of Christ, sanctify me Body of Christ, save me Blood of Christ, inebriate me Water from Christ?s side, wash me Passion of Christ, strengthen me O good Jesus, hear me Within Thy wounds hide me Suffer me not to be separated from Thee From the malicious enemy defend me In the hour of my death call me And bid me come unto Thee...

LA CRESCENTA ? Faced with a diminishing number of ordained Roman Catholic priests, two local Catholic churches are learning to share one leader. In two separate services Sunday, Father Ed Dover was officially installed as priest of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Montrose and St. James Catholic Church in La Crescenta, where Dover had served as church administrator for a year, officials from both churches said. The dual installation makes St. James and Holy Redeemer the third set of parishes among 288 in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles that have had to turn to a rare practice called ?