Timothy Obert to begin serving sentence on May 15
Timothy Obert, who was a Peace Corps
volunteer in Costa Rica from September 2001 to July 2003, has been sentenced to 51 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release for sexually assaulting a minor while working in another country. As part of a plea
deal, Obert admitted in February 2006 to one count of having `illicit
sexual contact` with a underage boy while he was in the country as a Peace
Corps volunteer working with PANI, the country's child welfare agency. At the time of the July 6, 2003
incident, Obert was 35 years old and the boy was 14, according to U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators, the Peace Corps
Office of the Inspector General and the Diplomatic Security Service of
the U.S. Department of State. The
indictment alleged Obert performed oral sex on the boy and provided him
with money, drugs and alcohol. He faced up to 15 years in prison, a
$250,000 fine and a requirement he register as a sex offender. Obert will begin serving the time May 15.
Peace Corps
Director Ron Tschetter called the sentencing `evidence of our zero
tolerance policy for misconduct during Peace Corps service."
Obert is the first Peace Corps volunteer prosecuted for sexually assaulting a minor while working in another country. The
two-year investigation began after another Peace Corps volunteer stayed
at Obert's apartment in July 2003 and saw the naked teenage boy exit
Obert's room in the early-morning hours and reported it to Peace Corps
officials. Obert was fired by the Peace Corps. A federal
grand jury indicted Obert under the Protect Act, a 2003 law that
tightens enforcement of crimes against children amid the growing
industry of child-sex tourism. Obert's prosecution was one of the first
that used a federal statute under the Patriot Act that expanded the
jurisdiction of the United States to include U.S. personnel on missions
in foreign countries. Read more.
Poor screening blamed for abuse crisis in Catholic Church
Inadequate screening of potential priests, not celibacy or homosexuality, is to blame for the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, according to a blue-ribbon panel formed by the nation's Catholic bishops. The findings of the 12-member National Review Board were released in 2004 along with the first-ever report on the scope of sexual abuse of minors in the church. "Dioceses and [religious] orders simply did not screen candidates for the priesthood properly," said Bob Bennett, the Washington attorney and board member who spearheaded the report. "As a result, many dysfunctional and psychosexually immature men were admitted into seminaries and ordained in the priesthood."
The board's 145-page report probed the "causes and contexts" of the scandal, which involved 4,392 accused priests, 10,667 victims and a cost of at least $657 million that was tallied in a companion report by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
The report found that 80 percent of the abuse was "homosexual in nature," but the board said an inability to remain chaste--not homosexuality--was a more direct cause of sexual abuse among clergy. "There is no doubt there are many outstanding priests of homosexual orientation who live chaste and celibate lives," Bennett said. "Whether they are capable of living the celibate life is the paramount consideration. Sexual orientation should not be a requirement, one way or the other. Priests can be homosexual, but they must be celibate."
Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee, who heads the bishops' committee on priestly life and ministry, said more "up-front screening" is needed because gay seminarians and priests face "added temptations" in trying to live a chaste and celibate life. "There are pressing questions, and perhaps more urgent scrutiny, that needs to be given to a candidate who has homosexual inclinations," said Dolan, a former rector of the flagship American seminary in Rome. Dolan cautioned, however, that it is "completely absurd" to automatically link gay priests with pedophilia. The majority of gay priests, he said, are "faithful, celibate, chaste men." Read more.
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