ABUSE TRACKER

New Yorkers who were sexually molested as children, then harmed again by restrictive laws that gave them precious little time to seek justice, are running out of time to file suit against their tormentors and the institutions that enabled the abuse. As champions of the landmark Child Victims Act, which lengthened statutes of limitations and created a one-year lookback window for filing civil suits that’s since been extended to cope with COVID’s closure of courts, we urge those victimized to seek justice before the deadline arrives three months from today.

The sexual abuse of a young person is unlike any other crime. When monster molesters take advantage of children, typically ones placed in their care, it sends the victim into years of shame, self-blame, post-traumatic stress and even suicidal thinking. It’s psychologically exhausting just to come to terms with the reality…

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DICKINSON COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) – A former priest from Michigan‘s Upper Peninsula pleaded guilty in a remaining sex abuse case against him Friday.

Gary Jacobs, 75, pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal sexual conduct in Dickinson County. Last month he pleaded guilty to four counts of criminal sexual conduct in Ontonagon County.

The plea deal spans both counties.

Jacobs will concurrently serve 8-15 years on each of the five counts. 

He must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, Jacobs will have lifetime electronic monitoring when released, his victims can speak at his sentencing if they want to, and he must undergo sex offender counseling.

“I am proud of the work done by our clergy abuse team to reach this plea agreement,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said. “None of this would be possible without the courageous victims who have been willing to share their stories in order to achieve…

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A former Upper Peninsula priest facing one of the harshest prison sentences so far in a clergy abuse investigation by the state Attorney General pleaded guilty Friday in a remaining case against him.

Gary Jacobs, 75, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in Dickinson County, the office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said.

Last month, Jacobs pleaded guilty to four counts of criminal sexual conduct in Ontonagon County.

He’s accused of sexually abusing teens in the U.P. in the 1980s while serving as a priest under the Catholic Diocese of Marquette. 

“I am proud of the work done by our clergy abuse team to reach this plea agreement,” Nessel said in a Friday statement. “None of this would be possible without the courageous victims who have been willing to share their stories in order to achieve justice.”

The plea agreement spans both counties and…

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Pope Francis on Saturday met a delegation from the Meter Association, which fights abuse of children, especially online.

Pope Francis on Saturday urged families, educational and public institutions to tackle with renewed determination the scourge of child abuse, paedophilia and child pornography, describing them as “psychological murder”.  “Continue your work without hesitation, paying particular attention to the educational aspect, in order to form a firm conscience in people and eradicate the culture of abuse and exploitation,” the Pope told some 50 members of the Meter Association.  The group founded in Sicily, Italy, in 1989 by Father Fortunato Di Noto, has been championing the rights of children especially against child pornography and paedophilia.  

The Good Samaritan

Thanking all those who support the Association in defending abused and mistreated children, the Pope, who has been an ardent campaigner against child abuse, especially against clerical child abuse in the Church, said Meter…

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GREENSBORO — A nonprofit that advocates for child abuse victims is speaking out on behalf of concerned families after a Greensboro woman was sentenced to prison on child pornography charges connected to the day care where she worked.

In late 2020, Alyson Brooke Saunders, 25, pleaded guilty to one count each of producing and distributing child pornography. Saunders, who worked at Fellowship Presbyterian Church’s Fellowship Day School at 2005 New Garden Road, was initially arrested in April 2019.

According to court documents, Saunders used five minors at the day care facility to create sexually explicit images and videos around January and February of 2019. Saunders sexually abused some of the children and sent the images and videos to a co-conspirator, knowing that he planned to post them online, according to the Department of Justice.

Saunders was sentenced last month to 50 years in prison, followed by 20 years of supervised…

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – “It’s kind of like a Christian Disneyland,” said Mia Shapiro, recalling what first impressed her about World Revival Church. “They are super Christians.”

Shapiro was one of more than a dozen former members who spoke to FOX4 Problem Solvers to sound an alarm about a church that they now believe is a cult.

“I want to speak out to not just help people that are there to get out, but to help people find healing and find out that you can have a better life,” Carrie Phelps said. “You don’t have to suffer like that anymore.”

For others, like Taylor Brown, just sounding a warning is not enough.

“I want them to be closed down,” she said. “I want them to be investigated. I want them to stop hurting people.”

World Revival Church, which has a congregation estimated at 400, operates out of a sprawling gated…

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The Archdiocese of Santa Fe intends to hire a land use planning consultant to help it shed dozens of properties as part of its bankruptcy case.

Consultants with James W. Siebert & Associates, a Santa Fe land planning firm, would be among numerous experts the archdiocese has hired — attorneys, real estate brokers and accountants — drawing accusations from critics of wasteful spending that ultimately will affect payouts to hundreds of victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy.

An attorney with the Roman Catholic institution said, however, the experts are needed and that bankruptcy court is the most efficient place for settlements between victims and dioceses.

Court records show the archdiocese has asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma for approval to hire the Siebert firm. The records say Siebert can help the archdiocese comply with subdivision statutes and regulations.

A court document said the Siebert company would…

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A priest-turned-activist was in Steubenville Thursday to lobby for Bishop Jeffrey Monforton to release “any and all” records in his possession about Kenneth Bonadies, a disgraced former priest who once taught at Catholic Central High School.

The Archdiocese of Hartford recently agreed to a settlement in the low six figures with a Connecticut man who’d accused Bonadies of sexually abusing him more than 100 times over a four-year period in the 1980s when he was teaching at a school in Manchester, Conn.

“We know he had a checkered career,” said Robert M. Hoatson, co-founder and president of the nonprofit Road to Recovery charity.

“He worked here (in Steubenville) until 1976, then all of a sudden he was ‘on leave.’ In the Catholic code, that means he was sent to a rehabilitation center.”

Hoatson said Bonadies, a Hartford native, was ordained in Steubenville in 1965 and served in the Diocese of Steubenville from 1967-1976….

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A priest ordained in the mid-1960s in Steubenville — once a teacher at Catholic Central High School — is the subject of a sexual abuse case settlement in the Archdiocese of Hartford, Conn.

A victim came forward alleging he was abused more than 100 times by Rev. Kenneth Bonadies.

And now a victim abuse advocacy group is asking Bishop Jeffrey Monforton of the Steubenville Diocese to release the any files associated with Bonadies from his years with the Diocese of Steubenville.

Both the victim’s attorney and the recovery group believe there to be local victims as well.

Robert Hoatson, president and co-founder of Road to Recovery and a survivor of clergy sexual abuse, was among those outside the Diocese of Steubenville demanding Monforton release “secret files” and all other files related to priesthood and assignments of Bonadies.

The victim’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian, is also the attorney who led the sexual…

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As the trial for alleged abuse inside a Vatican youth seminary continues, witnesses have given different views on the characters of the victim and the accused, and of the institution’s culture.

In a hearing May 12, the Vatican City State’s criminal court heard testimony from five witnesses, four of whom were students at the pre-seminary at the time the alleged abuse took place.

Located inside Vatican City State, the Pius X pre-seminary is a residence for about a dozen boys aged 12 to 18 who serve at papal Masses and other liturgies in St. Peter’s Basilica and are considering the priesthood.

The alleged victim, a 28-year-old identified only as L.G., has testified that beginning when he was 13 years old, while he was a student at the pre-seminary, he was sexually assaulted over a period of six years by a fellow student, the defendant Fr. Gabriele Martinelli.

Martinelli has defended his…

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The Jesuit priest who presided over an inaugural Mass for President Joe Biden has resigned his position as president of Santa Clara University in Northern California, college officials said, after an investigation found he engaged in inappropriate, alcohol-fueled conversations with graduate students.

The Rev. Kevin O’Brien, at the direction of Jesuit officials, has begun a therapeutic outpatient program to address personal issues, including alcohol and stress counseling. He had been president of Santa Clara University since July 2019 and was placed on leave in March.

The university announced O’Brien’s departure in a statement to the campus community on Wednesday that included messages from acting President Lisa Kloppenberg and board of trustees Chair John M. Sobrato. O’Brien had notified the board of his resignation Sunday and the trustees accepted it the next day.ADVERTISEMENT

The private Jesuit institution in the Silicon Valley, founded in 1851 as the first…

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Msgr. Mario Costa was one of dozens of priests recently named in a court document as the subject of abuse allegations, court documents say.

OLD BROOKVILLE, NY — A plaque to mark the contributions of a deceased Roman Catholic priest, who has been accused in a clergy abuse scandal, has been covered up outside of St. Paul the Apostle Church in Old Brookville, according to a report in Newsday.

The name of Msgr. Mario Costa was identified on a list of over 100 credibly accused clergy members who attorneys for the Diocese of Rockville recently included in legal papers as part of their bankruptcy court filing, the outlet reported. A parishioner told Newsday that the plaque was covered with white cardboard-like material that was held in place by blue contractor’s tape on Tuesday.

Diocese spokesman Sean Dolan told Newsday the diocese is “gathering information and assessing the…

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It’s been nearly four years since the Gazette-Mail published an op-ed I had penned, titled “Accused priests’ silence elicits doubt of innocence.” As a cradle Catholic, it was a difficult piece to write.

I read it again a few days ago, because I had read a report of yet another accusation of inappropriate behavior by a Catholic priest. I recognize that my word choice is intentional and more than a bit unclear. I am not a reporter. I am (or hope to be one day) an essayist. There’s a vast difference between the two.

An equal number of years ago, a priest commented that, at my core, I am Catholic. I can’t imagine any words (and I love the mix of those 26 letters of the alphabet with a deep passion) ever having the impact that those words had, nor can I imagine any words delivered in the future that…

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Brenda Hannon calls it a source of healing.

Gov. Phil Scott signed into law Wednesday a bill, S.99, that eliminates a three-year limit on filing civil lawsuits over childhood physical abuse. Two years ago, the Legislature eliminated the time limit on filing civil lawsuits over sexual abuse. 

“It feels like a pressure off of us, that we have done some good for future children and society,” said Hannon, 68, a member of the Voices of St. Joseph’s. “It makes us feel like we are being healed from all the trauma that we endured.”

Members of Voices of St. Joseph’s, a group for former residents of the orphanage, testified in recent weeks before the House and Senate Judiciary committees about the abuses they suffered at the now-shuttered St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington, operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Vermont.

Some spoke through tears as they recounted abuse from priests, nuns and…

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Vermont Gov. Phil Scott has signed into law a measure that lifts the statute of limitations in civil cases of childhood physical abuse.

Scott signed the bill on Wednesday.

The new law builds on legislation passed two years ago that ended the statute of limitations for civil cases of past childhood sexual abuse. The proposal was pushed by a group of people who say they suffered physical abuse while living at the St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington, which closed in 1974.

In an email, Ellen Kane, a spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, said they had “no comment at this time as we are not sure how this is all going to play out. However, we continue to pray for all victims of sexual and physical abuse.”

The legislation defines physical abuse as any act that when it was committed would have been considered aggravated assault.

The legislation…

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At the end of a Vatican-led investigation into alleged negligence in handling cases of child sexual abuse, Bishop Jan Tyrawa of Poland submitted his resignation to the Pope. Today, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of the 72-year-old prelate.

We applaud the Catholic Church for looking into the accusations against Bishop Tyrawa, which ultimately led to his resignation. However, we remain concerned about the lack of transparency on the findings of this investigation. In our view, the results of the inquiry are even more crucial than the fact that a probe was launched. Accountability, responsibility, and openness merge to expose the truth. Only by knowing what went wrong in the past can we protect today’s children.

Poland, like other countries around the world, has been plagued by the scandal of child sex abuse within the Church. We commend the brave survivors who came forward to authorities to shed…

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month.

The trauma of child sexual abuse can be devastating. Victims/survivors can have life-long problems including low self-esteem, relationship difficulties, trust issues, alcohol and/or drug abuse or addiction, suicidal thoughts or attempts. When the sexual abuse is by a member of the clergy, the impact to the victims/survivors can extend to their faith in God and trust in the church.

Since the clergy sexual abuse scandal of the 1990s, the church is committed to healing victims/survivors. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002 produced the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, a remarkable document approved by and enforced by all 196 dioceses in the country. The Diocese of Camden is committed to pay for counseling for any victim/survivor of sexual abuse by a priest or deacon.

Trauma comes in all forms. I’m not in any way equating my trauma to…

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Questions still swirl over the Rev. Kevin O’Brien did to resign

From the Rev. Kevin O’Brien’s leave two months ago to his stunning resignation this week as Santa Clara University president, school officials informed the campus community in formal letters that were somber and serious — and utterly lacking in explanation.

With little information except that O’Brien’s fall from grace involved “primarily conversations” with Jesuit grad students, confusion and conspiracy theories are coursing through the Catholic campus, leaving people to either sympathize with or vilify the 54-year-old Jesuit priest who was widely admired on campus.

“A lot of people think this guy’s career has been destroyed, and we don’t know why,” SCU Faculty Senate President Leslie Gray said Thursday. “Does it mean something political, something sexual? Nobody knows anything about what’s happened, and that’s frustrating.”

Late Thursday afternoon, responding to an inquiry from the Bay Area News Group, the Jesuit…

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Seventy-two-year-old Bishop Jan Tyrawa is found guilty of negligence and cover-up.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Polish Bishop Jan Tyrawa of Bydgoszcz, at the end of a Vatican investigation into allegations that he covered up clerical sexual abuse.

A Vatican-led probe concluded that the 72-year-old bishop failed to properly handle clerical abuse against minors, said a May 12 statement from the apostolic nunciature in Poland.

“Following formal reports, the Holy See — acting in accordance with the “motu proprio” Vos estis lux mundi — conducted proceedings concerning the reported negligence of the bishop,” the statement said.

The “motu proprio”, which the pope issued in 2019, established new procedures and norms to hold bishops and religious superiors accountable for abusive clergy continuing in pastoral ministry.

“After completing this procedure, taking into account also other difficulties in managing the diocese” the bishop resigned, said the statement of the nunciature.

Bishop…

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The abuse at St. Pius X Pre-Seminary was said to have occurred between 2007 and 2012

Four former students at the minor seminary located in the Vatican testified on May 12 at the ongoing trial of Father Gabriele Martinelli, who is accused of sexually abusing a younger student at the St. Pius X Pre-Seminary.

One of the former students asked the journalists present to refer to him only by his initials, M.B., because he soon will be ordained to the priesthood; Giuseppe Pignatone, president of the Vatican City State tribunal, supported the request.

The four former students each had been questioned by Vatican investigators in 2018, and portions of their statements to the investigators were read at the trial. The May 12 session was the ninth of the trial, which began in October.Subscribe to your daily free newsletter from UCA News

The abuse was said to have occurred between 2007…

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Pope Francis on Wednesday accepted the resignation of Polish Bishop Jan Tyrawa, who was investigated for negligence in handling cases of sexual abuse by priests in his diocese.

According to a statement by the apostolic nunciature in Poland May 12, the 72-year-old bishop submitted his letter of resignation to the pope at the end of a Vatican-led investigation into accusations that he had failed to properly handle cases of sexual abuse against minors by priests in his diocese.

“Following formal reports, the Holy See — acting in accordance with the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi — conducted proceedings concerning the reported negligence of the Bishop of Bydgoszcz Jan Tyrawa,” the statement said.

“After completing this procedure, taking into account also other difficulties in managing the diocese, the bishop of Bydgoszcz resigned from his ministry, accepted today by the Holy Father,” it concluded.

Tyrawa, bishop of the Diocese of Bydgoszcz, in northern Poland,…

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Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Jan Tyrawa of Bydgoszcz, the latest bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse by clergy.

The bishops’ conference said the Vatican had “conducted proceedings on reported negligence” in line with the pontiff’s May 2019 motu proprio, “Vos estis lux mundi,” and had also taken account of “other difficulties” facing Bishop Tyrawa.

Poland’s Catholic Wiez bimonthly said May 12 Bishop Tyrawa had reappointed Father Pawel Kania to Bydgoszcz’s Divine Providence Parish after the priest had been detained by police and suspended from another diocese for propositioning boys and storing child pornography on his computer.

It added that Father Kania had cared for altar boys and taught religious classes to children at his new parish in from 2006 to 2009, before being jailed in 2015 for seven years.

In February 2020, a court ordered the Bydgoszcz Diocese to pay $40,000 in damages to one…

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BOSTON – Massachusetts churches, including Catholic and Christian religious organizations, received upwards of $82 million in forgivable loans through the federal Paycheck Protection Program, according to Small Business Administration data released last month.

The Roman Catholic Dioceses of Worcester, Fall River and Springfield, along with the Archdiocese of Boston, collected over $20 million in PPP loans, distributed among different churches and administrative departments under their jurisdiction. Boston’s Archdiocese, led by Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley received the most within this group, with more than $8 million in PPP aid.

Ray Delisle, director of communications for the Diocese of Worcester, said the PPP loans were necessary to keep people employed in the diocese while continuing to provide services to the community during these hard times.

“The purpose of the program was to keep people’s jobs and if we couldn’t keep them employed, they’d be on unemployment, further pressuring the system for support,” Delisle…

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A long-serving Catholic clergyman who worked in Northern California has been accused in a new lawsuit of raping a child. We insist that every diocese where the cleric was assigned notify parishioners and the public of the allegations and beg anyone with information to come forward and make a report to law enforcement.

Fr. John McCracken was accused in a recently filed complaint of violently raping a young altar boy on multiple occasions between 1972-1974 when the priest was working at Queen of All Saints in Concord, which is part of the Diocese of Oakland. Over the course of his very long career Fr. McCracken had assignments not only in Oakland, but also in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the Diocese of Sacramento, and the Diocese of Santa Rosa.

The cleric also supported a summer ministry for children from west Oakland at Sunshine Camp in Mendocino County. We…

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SALEM — Before there were the groundbreaking stories and accolades, before Columbia and Tufts universities, there was Rachel Zoll’s hometown of Salem, where lifelong friends this week recalled a warm, kind, and fiercely intelligent young woman.

“A good life lost too soon,” said childhood friend and Salem High School classmate Ilene Simons on Wednesday, in reaction to Zoll’s death last week.

Zoll, the youngest child of former Salem Mayor and state District Court Chief Justice Samuel Zoll, was 55 when she succumbed to brain cancer last Friday.

The Associated Press, where Zoll had spent 17 years as a national correspondent covering religion, reported on her numerous professional achievements — accomplishments those who knew her growing up in Salem say were not surprising.

Simons (then Talkowsky) grew up with Zoll in North Salem before the Zolls moved to Chestnut Street. They would be at each other’s homes, or playing at McGlew…

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Senators gave preliminary approval on Wednesday to a bill that would clear the path for childhood victims of sexual abuse to sue their perpetrators or the youth-oriented organizations that supervised them, and reversed an earlier limitation on the payouts that public entities like school districts might have to provide survivors.

Senate Bill 88 would address the problem created when children who are sexually abused come forward and seek legal action years or decades after their abuse, only to find the statute of limitations has expired to pursue their claim. The proposal would create a new claim for survivors currently barred from filing lawsuits, such that they may sue their perpetrator or an institution without a deadline.

“This is one step toward survivors taking their life back, taking their personal power back,” said Sen. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, one of the sponsors. “This bill is about survivorhood and reclaiming…

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Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a Polish bishop following a Vatican investigation into alleged negligence in addressing cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests under the bishop’s authority.

The forced departure of Bishop Jan Tyrawa was the latest in a string of sanctions the pope has meted out since mid-2020 to Polish Catholic Church leaders over cases of cover-up of sexual abuse by other priests.

The Vatican Embassy in Poland said that on Wednesday Francis accepted Tyrawa’s resignation from the diocese of Bydgoszcz, in central Poland, and placed Bishop Wieslaw Smigiel from the neighboring Torun diocese temporarily in charge.

The Vatican communique said the investigation was launched in response to signs of negligence in addressing sex abuse of minors. It didn’t say what the findings were concerning these allegations.

It said Tyrawa handed in his resignation after the probe was concluded and also due to some other…

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If you relied on Newark Cardinal Joseph Tobin (Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark), here’s what you would know about one of New Jersey’s most prominent and prolific child molesting clerics:

Fr. Carmen Sita faced ‘multiple’ victims, was defrocked, worked at one parish in Jersey City and inexplicably also went by the name Fr. Jerry Howard.

That’s all that the information that Cardinal JosephTobin provides on his archdiocesan website.

But the Cardinal didn’t mention that Sita

–pleaded guilty to giving drugs to and abusing a New Jersey kid

–was accused of molesting at least four others there

–was sent to a New Mexico church facility for ‘treatment’

–while there, legally changed his name to Jerry Howard

–was sent, without warning, to a parish in the Jefferson City Missouri diocese

–molested several boys there, again, also giving them drugs

–was charged with abusing three kids

–was removed from his parish

–went…

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Blog by David Clohessy, former Executive Director of SNAP and longtime survivor advocate.

The most secretive and reckless US Catholic bishops are the men heading these dioceses:

• Fresno California
• Grand Island Nebraska
• Grand Rapids Michigan
• Honolulu Hawaii
• Kalamazoo Michigan
• Miami Florida
• Orlando Florida
• Palm Beach Florida
• Portland Maine
• Saint Thomas Virgin Islands
• San Francisco California
• Superior Wisconsin
• Venice Florida
• Worcester Massachusetts

How can we make such a sweeping characterization?

It’s simple. These bishops are refusing to do

• what common sense and common decency requires,
• what two of their colleagues did almost 20 years ago, and
• what the majority of their colleagues have finally done: name at least SOME of the priests, nuns, monks, brothers, seminarians and bishops who are proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesters.

How hard is this? For decades, victims and advocates have begged “Just post on your websites the names of these abusers so kids will be safer and so victims will be vindicated.”

And the heads of each of these dioceses…

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The Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco recently again made clear his view that political figures who support abortion rights — whose ranks include President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who represents his city — should be denied Communion.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordilone issued a 17-page pastoral letter on the topic on May 1st and reinforced the message in an hour-long interview on the 7th with the Catholic television network EWTN. “To those who are advocating for abortion, I would say, ‘This is killing. Please stop the killing. You’re in position to do something about it,.”

SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, paraphrases the Archbishop’s words back to him. “Clergy sexual abuse kills. You are in a position to do something about it. Please stop the killing.”

We are called the “Survivors Network” for a very simple reason. The truth that…

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The former church leader served as a priest throughout the Bay Area for over six decades. NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit looks into the call to action to track down other potential victims of Monsignor John T. McCracken

An East Bay priest who died in 2012 – six years after retiring as the longest serving priest within the Diocese of Oakland – is accused in a new lawsuit of raping a young boy on multiple occasions between 1972 and 1974.

The accusation comes as part of a wave of new lawsuits hitting Catholic dioceses across the state, made possible by a recent law opening a three-year window for new civil cases based on older allegations previously barred by the statute of limitations. Attorneys involved in those cases say more than 700 new accusers have come forward with allegations against Northern California dioceses alone since last year, and they expect more…

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The Louisiana House on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill that would give victims of child molestation who are not yet 28 years old significantly more to time to pursue civil court damages.

House Bill 492, whose lead sponsor was Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, now heads to the state Senate for a committee hearing and then — if approved there — for consideration by the full chamber. If eventually ratified in its current form, the bill would give child sex abuse survivors until their 53rd birthday to file lawsuits regarding their abuse.

Current law gives victims only until their 28th birthday to initiate litigation.

The proposed legislation, as written, would not change things in the civil courts for victims of child molestation who have already reached their 28th birthday, though they have until they turn 48 to press criminal charges.

That’s because, to avoid opposition from the insurance lobby, Hughes said…

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[VIDEO: The Catholic Church says it’s shamed and saddened by abuse in the church. The church has opened its evidence at the Inquiry into abuse in care on how it’s handled complaints. (Video first published March 2021).]

The Catholic Church has confirmed it is investigating claims children from a Wellington boys’ home were prostituted out to Church officials.

It is also calling on anyone with personal information on the matter to come forward and speak to them.

The allegations were made at a Royal Commission of Inquiry hearing on Tuesday by Keith Wiffin, a former ward of the state who lived at Epuni Boys’ Home in Lower Hutt in the 1970s.

A victim of sexual abuse at the home when he was 11 Wiffin, now 61, said he never personally experienced the practice himself, but had learnt the Church was investigating the claims.

He said he had also been told…

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The Diocese of Peoria is continuing to promote the cause for beatification of Ven. Fulton Sheen, almost 18 months after his planned beatification Mass was abruptly canceled. 

“We continue to promote the cause for both his beatification and canonization,” said Bishop Louis Tylka at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, Illinois, on May 8. Tylka was celebrating a Mass commemorating Sheen’s birthday. 

The bishop added that “so much more so” is the diocese promoting Sheen’s cause to further “the preaching and sharing of the Gospel.”

Bishop Tylka is coadjutor bishop of the Peoria diocese, and will become the diocese’s ninth bishop once current Bishop Daniel Jenky, CSC, retires in March 2022 when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 75.

Born in El Paso, Illinois on May 8, 1895, Peter John Sheen was ordained a priest of the Peoria diocese on Sept. 20, 1919. He…

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A Catholic priest charged with committing sex offences against boys dating back more than 40 years had his plea hearing at Leeds Crown Court adjourned for a second time.

Father Patrick Smythe is accused of four counts of indecent assault against four different boys under the age of 16 between 1978 and 1983.

The 77-year-old, a priest with the Diocese of Leeds, was due to enter pleas to the charges when he appeared before the court today (May 10).

The case was adjourned for a further two months following an application by the prosecution.

A hearing was previously adjourned in February this year.

A provisional trial date has already been fixed for February 28, 2022.

The first offence is alleged to have taken place in Leeds between May 1978 and May 1981.

The second offence is alleged to have taken place in Leeds between May 1979 and May 1981.

A third…

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The parish plan will then be implemented over the next three years.

The Diocese of Buffalo is preparing to draft a plan for regrouping parishes, with a finalized plan due in September. 

Bishop Michael Fisher told participants at a May 8 virtual meeting that the plan will include the creation of “families” of three to six parishes that work closely with each other to provide for the spiritual, sacramental and educational needs of parishioners, The Buffalo News reported.

The parish plan will then be implemented over the next three years. 

The Zoom meeting with Bishop Fisher was organized by the Movement to Restore Trust, a local group of lay Catholics founded in 2018 amid allegations of abuse cover-up by Bishop Richard Malone, Fisher’s predecessor. 

Bishop Malone resigned  in December 2019, and Bishop Edward Scharfenberger of Albany served as the diocese’s interim apostolic administrator until Bishop Fisher’s installation in January 2021.

“There are…

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A survivor of abuse in state care has alleged children were taken from a Wellington boys’ home and prostituted out to Catholic Church officials.

Keith Wiffin made the claims at a hearing for the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care on Tuesday and alleged the Church is currently investigating the allegations.

Wiffin claimed boys were taken from Epuni boys’ home in Lower Hutt in a van by a housemaster, Alan Moncrief-Wright, to a Church site, where clergymen would walk around the van looking at the boys, selecting the ones they wanted to sexually abuse.

The Catholic Church has been approached for comment regarding the allegations.

A previous ward of the state himself, Wiffin, now aged 61, lived at Epuni from age 11 and suffered sexual abuse at the hands of at Moncrief-Wright. Wiffin has previously given evidence to the Commission on two occasions.

Moncrief-Wright was later convicted and jailed…

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The news that her former priest was removed from the priesthood for credible allegations of sexually abusing a minor brought back horrible memories for a worshipper at St. Patrick-St. Anthony Catholic Parish in Grand Haven.

She was molested at the same church decades ago by a different priest.

Father William Langlois, now 75, was recently ousted from the priesthood for what the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids called credible allegations of molesting a child — news that shocked parishioners at the church where he was pastor for years.

“I right then got in a state of depression, bringing back all these memories from when I was abused,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified.

She was 14 or 15 in 1960, she said, when Father John Sullivan repeatedly molested her at St. Patrick’s. Sullivan, now deceased, had a long history of sexual offenses as a priest before coming…

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Despite public pressure, some orders still resist telling the full truth about sexual abuse allegations, as the Sun-Times’ Robert Herguth has reported.

A clerical sex abuse scandal has rocked the Catholic Church for decades now, and to our way of thinking, full disclosure is the only way for the church to put the scandal completely to rest.

Every independent religious order must follow the lead of the rest of the Church and come clean about abusive priests in their ranks.

A number of those independent orders — among them the Jesuits and Carmelites — have made the only correct moral and ethical choice. They now publicly disclose the names of clergy who have been credibly accused of abusing minors. But other independent orders have stubbornly resisted full disclosure of the details regarding abusive clergy, as the Sun-Times’ Robert Herguth has reported in a recent investigative series.

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They’re looking for justice and their day in court. but victims of child sex abuse say legislation to grant them that opportunity is stalled in the state legislature; KDKA’s Andy Sheehan reports.

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Perhaps no one was as startled this week when a 46-year-old woman was placed under house arrest for aggravated theft from a small church in the far southern Italian province of Reggio Calabria as the woman herself.

Her name hasn’t been released by Italy’s military police, who made the arrest, but they did provide details on the case. The woman works as a cleaner, and the church was among her clients. She apparently told police the pastor paid her almost nothing for several hours of intense work every week, so, some time ago, she’d adopted the habit of simply lifting cash out of the poor box when she opened it to dust.

In effect, she said, the money was part of her compensation, even if she’d never technically been given permission to take it, and she insisted she hadn’t done anything wrong. (By the way, she was nabbed by military…

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Pampanga Archbishop Florentino Lavarias has appealed to the public to respect the privacy of a Catholic priest and the married couple involved in an affair scandal shared on social media by the couple’s son.

“As I invite everybody to respond with introspective concern and earnest prayers, may I also kindly implore all of us to please respect the privacy, identity, and right of the parties concerned,” Lavarias said in a circular released to the clergy, religious and laity on Thursday (May 6).

His appeal came after a five-minute video of the confrontation between a man and the priest he accused of having an affair with his wife went viral on social media courtesy of the couple’s son with some channels naming the priest, the man and his wife.

In the video taken by one of the sons, the man accused the priest of having sex with his wife when the…

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Father Kevin O’Brien, who said Mass for the Biden family on inauguration day, has been “accused of … something.”

It might seem as if we can’t get enough of men in the public eye behaving badly.

Most recently, there were the bizarre accusations made against (naturally) Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, which so far have included everything from sex trafficking to something called “bro culture.”

As is only fitting these days, Gaetz’s, uh, passionate denials were nearly as bizarre as the accusations against him. It certainly doesn’t help that Gaetz looks like a cartoon caricature of Colin Jost and Maria Shriver’s baby.

Then there were the accusations made against New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Scott Stringer. This after fellow candidate Andrew Yang was accused of acting improperly in a video that included a man using offensive language.

A statement released by several lawmakers also referenced “bro culture,” and added…

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The Diocese of Lafayette says they have determined that allegations made against former priest Michael Guidry are credible.

The allegations they say are the ones made by Oliver Peyton.

The Diocese of Lafayette released a statement on May 7, 2021, denouncing Guidry’s actions and formally apologizing to Peyton and his family.

In 2019, Guidry was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to molesting a teenage boy, who was the son of a deacon he served with at St. Peter’s Church in Morrow.

Scott Peyton, Oliver’s father tells KATC that the apology was issued on Friday because the lawsuit against the Diocese and Guidry was settled and the dismissal was signed this week.

According to court records, the lawsuit was dismissed by a St. Landry Parish judge on April 30. Records show that all claims had been resolved and each party will have to bear their own costs.

…

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At a time when many are eager to see more implementation of Pope Francis’s recent norms for bishops’ accountability, the Canadian bishops have rolled out a new online reporting system where complaints, either of sexual abuse or coverup, against the Church’s shepherds can be made.

On May 6, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops launched a new bilingual service in English and in French for reporting “situations of sexual abuse either committed or covered-up by a bishop.”

According to a statement issued by the bishops Thursday, the new online service “furthers their commitment to responsibility, accountability and transparency in matters of clergy sexual abuse and their commitment to facilitate healing and justice for victims-survivors.”

Called the “Canadian Reporting System for Sexual Abuse or Cover-up by a Catholic Bishop,” the new system is being touted as a direct response to Pope Francis’s 2019 motu proprio, or legal edict, Vos estis lux mundi, drafted…

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Two years ago this month, Pope Francis issued a sweeping new church law on bishop accountability, establishing a global system for investigation allegations against bishops of abuse or its cover-up.

Known as Vos Estis Lux Mundi (“You Are the Light of the World”), the norms encourage — but do not mandate — the involvement of lay experts in the process of investigating allegations against bishops. When it was signed into law, Vos Estis was adopted for a three-year period “ad experimentum.“

To date, there are at least six known authorized Vos Estis investigations into U.S. bishops by the Vatican. Since taking effect, several other bishops have also come under investigation, although the Vatican has used different processes for handling their cases.

Chieko Noguchi, a spokeswoman for the U.S. bishops’ conference, told NCR that “Since the [Vos Estis] model derives its authority from the Holy See, the Conference does…

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 “I have zero tolerance for any abusive behavior criminal act by any of the clergy, and certainly towards a minor and towards an adult,”

Bishop of Buffalo Michael William Fisher announced, in conjunction with the Movement to Restore Trust, how the diocese will be looking to help move the clergy forward following years of sexual abuse cases. Those cases lead to the declaration of bankruptcy last February.

“There are issues that we need to confront in the days and weeks ahead and that is something that I cannot do alone,” Bishop Fisher said.

The Bishop says those issues will be confronted through new initiatives. The diocese will group parishes together in “families” looking to increase participation and changing the way Catholic education is done. This “Road to Renewal” will look to strengthen parish life, Catholic education and other ministries in the diocese with a short-term goal of identifying their immediate…

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A newly launched review of clergy sexual abuse across Wisconsin has reignited a push for accountability long sought by survivors but also highlights the challenges of investigating what happened to children decades ago. 

The investigation will be led by the state Department of Justice and focus on allegations against Catholic clergy and other faith leaders. Prosecutors will rely on documents from Wisconsin’s religious orders and five dioceses, along with reports from victims or others who have information. 

The probe comes amid a renewed reckoning over clergy abuse in Wisconsin after the suicide last year of a man who accused three priests from St. Norbert Abbey in De Pere of sexually abusing him as a teenager in the 1980s. Nate Lindstrom received $420,000 in secret payments from the Catholic order over 10 years until the abbey stopped sending checks in 2019, a Green Bay Press-Gazette investigation found.

Here’s what you need to…

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The incidents of sexual abuse that occurred from 1999-2006 happened while Langlois was serving as pastor of St. Patrick – St. Anthony Parish in Grand Haven.

A retired Catholic priest who served a lakeshore parish has been dismissed by Pope Francis from the clerical state due to sexual abuse. 

Retired priest Fr. William Langlois’ dismissal includes a dispensation from all obligations of the clerical state, including celibacy. 

According to the Diocese of Grand Rapids, Langlois may no longer minister as a priest, celebrate the sacraments, wear clerical dress, or present himself as a priest. 

In September 2014, Langlois was on leave for six months. A spokesman for the Diocese of Grand Rapids said Langlois was taking leave from his duties at St. Patrick-St. Anthony Parish for having an inappropriate, but not illegal, relationship with a woman. The spokesman said the leave is an opportunity to heal. 

Back in Sept. 2014,…

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A Costa Rican court on Friday ordered a priest facing sexual abuse charges held in custody for six months while awaiting trial.

Mauricio Víquez was extradited back from Mexico after he fled Costa Rica, where the statute of limitations was running out on abuse charges facing him.

Viquez allegedly abused two teenagers in 2003. At the time in Costa Rica, such charges generally couldn’t be pursued 10 years after a complainant’s 18th birthday.

The case led Costa Rica to lengthen the statute of limitations on sex crimes from 10 to 25 years.

Viquez was expelled from the priesthood by the Roman Catholic Church. There are other abuse accusations against him.

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She was young, trusting and vulnerable, and a cleric at a Concord church took advantage of her faith in him to sexually abuse her more than 40 years ago, a former parishioner alleges.

The plaintiff was molested by Jonathan Del Turco, an assistant pastor at Christian Pentecostal Church, in 1977 when she was around 9 years old, alleges a lawsuit against the church.

The cleric “used his position of authority and trust over plaintiff to sexually abuse and harass” the young girl, a civil complaint alleges.

He abused her in his “church-owned residence, car, and in various locations within and/or on the premises of the church,” alleges the complaint.

The church was negligent “in not knowing that abuser posed a threat of sexual abuse to children,” the complaint contends.

The plaintiff suffered “severe and permanent emotional distress” due to the alleged abuse, which has…

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Messages show the former prosecutor helping well-connected New Yorkers navigate her old sex crimes unit.

In 2015, when Harvey Weinstein had his first close shave with law enforcement, his legal team enlisted Linda Fairstein, the former New York City sex crimes prosecutor, to vouch for them with her old colleagues. 

It looks like they weren’t alone.

Emails released to HuffPost this week through a public records request show that Fairstein, who quit as head of the sex crimes unit in 2002, and her successor, Martha Bashford, maintained a close friendship that opened the door for Fairstein to weigh in on ongoing cases. Fairstein denies her involvement was ultimately meaningful. 

The emails, released by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, are heavily redacted. But they offer a rare glimpse of how well-connected New Yorkers try to minimize their exposure to the law, and the role adopted by Fairstein, one of New…

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According to a group of women advocating for survivors of sexual abuse, an expose in Huffington Post published this week underscores the urgent need for passage of the Adult Survivors Act (A.648 Rosenthal/S.66 Hoylman).

Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, Evelyn Wang, the wife of mayoral hopeful Andrew Yang and Marissa Hoechstetter are among the group of women who are fighting for their day in court. They appear in a public service announcement for the Adult Survivors Act produced by Safe Horizon, which you watch here.

The Adult Survivors Act is similar to the Child Victims Act; it would provide a one-year lookback window for survivors who were abused when they were 18 years old or over. If passed, adult survivors would have one year in which to file a civil claim, no matter how long ago the abuse happened, even if the statute of limitations has expired.

The Huffington Post report centers around former New York…

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Bishop Michael Fisher said he and others are looking at how other dioceses have released additional information on clergy who were removed from ministry.

The new bishop for the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo says he wants to be as transparent as possible when considering the release of new documents related to clergy abuse.

During a Saturday Zoom meeting organized by the Movement to Restore Trust, a local group focused on restoring faith in the church, Bishop Michael Fisher had this to say:

“We will provide more extensive details that relate to priests who have been removed from ministry due to credible or substantial allegations, but we also need to do this with respect for those inherent privacy situations that are governed by the law,” Bishop Fisher said.

Fisher said he and others are looking at how other dioceses have released additional information on clergy who were removed from ministry. No…

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Marcel G. Gagnon
January 8, 1939 – April 30, 2021

SNAP pays tribute to Marcel G. Gagnon, one of the earliest supporters of our mission. We offer our condolences to Marcel’s family and friends.

Marcel G. Gagnon, of Old Orchard Beach, died suddenly on April 30, 2021 in Portland, Maine.  He was born in Biddeford on January 8, 1939 to Adolphe (François-Xavier) and Delvina (Canuel) Gagnon.  He attended École Saint-Joseph, and Saint-Louis High School, where he played drums in the marching band.  After his graduation in 1958, he joined the U.S. Army, and received training in what would become his vocation, culinary arts. He served at Fort Devens, MA, Fort Bragg, NC, and in Keflavik, Iceland.  Following the Army, he worked for several years at the Colonly Hotel, for 25 years for Reilley’s bakery, and then for another 20 years for Maine Medical Centre coordinating Bakery Services.

Marcel’s sense of duty…

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This month marks three years since the world crashed in on me.

Not the whole world. But the cornerstone of my world that is the church. 

Many of us felt the temblors in 2016 as we watched many in our evangelical world excuse and even embrace an abusive man as president in the name of political power. In hindsight, I see now that acceptance of abuse had been going on for a long time in the contemporary church, which may be why so many couldn’t understand why tolerance of this abuser was such a big deal to some of us.

But 2016 opened my eyes, as it did for others. As I started to see, I started to listen.

In April of 2017, I posted a question to abuse survivors on my Facebook wall. The responses created such an unexpected avalanche that it turned into an article at Christianity Today titled…

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Here are some of the places that clergy sexual abuse on Long Island happened:

In a church vehicle in West Babylon.

In parks, like Wildwood State Park, Blydenburgh Park, Cedar Point County Park, Smith Point Park, and Southaven Park.

In personal vehicles: Fr. Collins’ boat, Fr. Charland’s airplane, Fr. Chasse’s camper van, and cars owned by Fr. Farley, Fr. Fitzgerald, Fr. Fitzpatrick, Fr. Giuntini, Fr. Hand, Fr. Hein, Fr. Logan and others.

In church facilities: the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, the St. Ignatius Retreat House in Manhasset, St. Francis Retreat House in Garrison, New York, rectories and an unspecified convent.

And it happened in an incredibly wide range of other places: the Hamptons, on school trips, the Nassau County Jail, a movie theater, in Calverton Cemetery, an unspecified beach, the Racquetball and Health Club in Westbury, the New York Men’s Club in Kerala, a men’s bath house,…

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Rachel Zoll, ace religion writer at The Associated Press for 17 years, passed away on April 7, 2021. Below is a small sample of her extensive reporting on the Catholic clergy abuse crisis.

Los Angeles Archdiocese Reports on Seven Decades of Abuse Claims, by Rachel Zoll, Associated Press (February 17, 2004)

Evaluation of American Seminaries Gets Under Way, by Rachel Zoll, Associated Press (September 29, 2005)

Gay Priests Conflicted As Church Leaders Set to Discuss Restrictions, by Rachel Zoll, Associated Press (November 13, 2005)

Experts: Abusers Think They’re Innocent, by Rachel Zoll, Associated Press (October 20, 2006)

Questions Linger about L.A. Cardinal, by Rachel Zoll, Associated Press (July 21, 2007)

Pope Benedict XVI Working to Clean up Priesthood, by Rachel Zoll, Associated Press (April 19, 2008)

Catholic Bishops Warned in ’50s on Abusive Priests, by Rachel Zoll, Associated Press (March 30, 2009)

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A retired West Michigan priest has been removed from the priesthood, the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids says, after the church received allegations of sexual abuse that were deemed credible.

Pope Francis affirmed the dismissal of William Langlois. He served for years as pastor of St. Patrick-St. Anthony Parish in Grand Haven before retiring in 2016.

The allegations of abuse were reported to the diocese in 2018, it said in a Friday release. The abuse happened for seven years, from 1999 to 2006, the diocese said, starting when the victim was a minor and continuing into adulthood.

The diocese reported it to local authorities, who investigated the allegations with the Michigan Attorney General’s Office. While that investigation was underway, Langlois was barred from public ministry even though he was already retired.

After the allegations were deemed credible, Grand Rapids Bishop David Walkowiak sent the investigation to the Congregation for the…

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Victims, advocates question why police aren’t considered the first point of contact

Victims and advocates say a new system for reporting sexual abuse and cover-ups by Catholic bishops appears to be a case of “optics over substance” and may not go far enough to protect those at risk of being abused.

This week, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) announced the unveiling of a national and bilingual service for reporting situations of sexual abuse either committed or covered up by a bishop.

“This service furthers their commitment to responsibility, accountability and transparency in matters of clergy sexual abuse and their commitment to facilitate healing and justice for victims-survivors,” the national assembly said in a statement.

The system was created in response to a letter from the Pope calling for one easily accessible system for allegations solely against Bishops. Allegations against priests are still handled at the local diocese level.

With the…

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Dominican Father Ricardo Fajardo stepped away from his duties as pastor of the parish “Holy Spirit” (Holy Spirit) in the Bronx (NYC) while investigating a lawsuit alleging that he abused a minor several decades ago, amid protests Recent reports against him for showing “pro-Haitian” sentiments.

The complaint was filed under the Child Victims Act alleging the sexual abuse of a minor by Father Fajardo. The alleged conduct would have occurred in the 1990s and the accusation has been shared with district attorneys in Manhattan and the Bronx.

In an April 28 letter to parishioners, Auxiliary Bishop Edmund J. Whalen, vicar for the clergy, said: “While you will no doubt find this news disturbing, as it did me, I know you would rather hear it directly from me than media ”, quoted the Catholic New York portal.

Bishop Whalen said that Father Fajardo has denied the accusation, “and of course, you are considered innocent until your…

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The lawyer for a man who received a payment from the Archdiocese of Hartford after he accused a priest of abusing him at East Catholic High School and St. Bartholomew Church in the 1980s said he expects more victims may now come forward.

The lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, said Wednesday that the Archdiocese agreed to pay his client in the low six figures to settle a claim. Garabedian said his client wished to keep the exact amount unknown.

The man accused the Rev. Kenneth Bonadies of sexually abusing him at East Catholic High School and St. Bartholomew Church in the 1980s, and the Archdiocese of Hartford found the accusations credible, the lawyer said.

Garabedian announced the settlement Wednesday at a news conference outside of the Archdiocese’s headquarters on Farmington Avenue in Hartford.

Based on Bonadies’ assignment history and the number of times his client was abused, Garabedian said he believes there…

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Four victims sexually abused by former priest Jaime Guzmán Astaburuaga will be compensated 15 million pesos (about $21,000) each.

The agreement signed in the presence of a notary April 27 came following a lawsuit for compensation for damages filed Aug. 10, 2020, by four former students of St. Ignatius School, located in the El Bosque area of metro Santiago, against the Society of Jesus and the St. Ignatius Foundation.

The plaintiffs had requested 120 million pesos ($171,000) for each victim. However, the Chilean newspaper La Tercera reported the victims apparently withdrew that demand in a letter.

The victims, Sebastian Milos Montes, 44, a businessman; Daniel Palacios Muñoz, 44, a sociologist; Allan Pineda García-Reyes, 45, a commercial engineer; and Juan Pablo Barros Castelblanco, 45, a journalist, detailed in the lawsuit the sexual harassment they suffered from Guzmán Astaburuaga, who was a priest and teacher from 1986 to 1992, when the victims were in…

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The Roman Catholice Archdiocese of Montreal has established an ombudsman and a revamped process to handle complaints about abuse or inappropriate behaviour. The move comes after an investigation into how church officials dealt with the case of a priest convicted of sexually assaulting two minors. In 2019, former priest Brian Boucher was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison.

The church hired Justice Pepita Capriolo to look into the matter and she concluded that the church was bent on protecting the Boucher’s reputation rather than dealing with the issue of sexual abuse. Among her recommendations, she said the archdiocese should hire an ombudsman.

External firm would investigate

Lawyer Marie Christine Kirouack was chosen by the church and is said to have extensive expertise in crisis intervention. She is mandated to handle complaints regarding all forms of abuse “be it sexual, physical, psychological, spiritual or financial, committed by any priest,…

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[Includes video of Attorney Mitchell Garabedian’s remarks.]

A priest ordained in the mid-1960s in Steubenville, who was a teacher at Catholic Central High School for a time, is the subject of a sexual abuse case settlement in the Archdiocese of Hartford, Conn.

According to the victim’s attorney, the Rev. Kenneth Bonadies was sent for treatment in the mid-1970s from Steubenville before he became a teacher in Connecticut.

“If he was in a treatment center for four years, why didn’t the leaders, the Archbishop of Hartford, inquire as to what those treatment records said?” he said. Or at least ask the Bishop of Steubenville, why are you sending him here? Why is he coming here, what’s going on with this guy?”

The Diocese of Steubenville does not list Bonadies among priests credibly accused of abuse. Officials are looking into his service in the diocese, but noted the local church was not…

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The Montreal archdiocese has named an independent ombudswoman to handle complaints regarding abuse and other inappropriate behaviour connected to the Catholic Church.

Montreal lawyer Marie Christine Kirouack will fill the new role, which was created following the release of a report last November about how church officials mishandled the case of a convicted pedophile priest.

“My role is to ensure that no form of abuse or inappropriate behaviour will be tolerated in the Catholic Church of Montreal,” Kirouack told a virtual news conference on Wednesday. Her mandate officially began Monday and has no set term. She will file a public report detailing her activities.

The role of independent ombudswoman was a key recommendation in last November’s report by former Superior Court justice Pepita G. Capriolo, who was hired by the archdiocese to investigate how it handled the case of ex-priest Brian Boucher, sentenced to eight years in prison in 2019…

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Former altar boy who says he was sexually assaulted by former Diocese of St. Augustine priest decided to tell his story to advocate for law

In 1976, 14-year-old Patrick Colville went on an overnight trip with a young priest to the fair in Tampa. That night at the hotel, he said, he was raped.

“I was screaming stop,” Colville said. “I hid in the shower, for the rest of the night.”

For roughly 40 years, Colville said, he told no one what happened. The priest, Fr. John Dux, stayed in his family’s life — even performing the marriage ceremony at his brother’s wedding several years later.

In 2019, when Colville was ready to share what happened to him, the statute of limitations had expired on his case. His attorneys sent a letter to the Diocese of St. Augustine, detailing the allegation. After eight months, the diocese determined the allegation was…

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Monsignor John Paddack, a former top administrator at two Catholic high schools on Staten Island, has been named in a pair of new sex-abuse lawsuits filed this week, bringing the number of accusers up to at least a dozen.

In an interview with the Advance/SILive.com, attorneys from Jeff Anderson & Associates slammed Cardinal Dolan, the archbishop of New York, for his handling of sex-abuse allegations against Monsignor Paddack, who previously served as principal of Monsignor Farrell High School in Oakwood and as a dean at St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School in Huguenot.

Monsignor Paddack is named in two lawsuits filed on Tuesday against the Archdiocese of New York and other defendants under the New York Child Victims Act.

Monsignor Paddack is not listed as a defendant in either lawsuit and these two latest filings are not connected with the prelate’s service on Staten Island, but he…

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A five-minute video showing a furious man confronting a Catholic priest for coveting his wife began circulating in Pampanga since Monday (May 3).

In the video, the man whacked a family portrait in front of the priest during the confrontation in the social hall of the church where the priest serves.

The video has been shared on Facebook’s Private Message.

The priest was heard saying “I’m sorry.” The man shouted back: “You ruined our family.” He accused the priest of taking advantage of his wife.

The man recited with sarcasm one of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.”

The man’s son warned the priest that he would face investigation, hinting that a case for adultery was coming.

The man said his Catholic faith was not shaken but likened the priest twice to a “snake.”

Several persons milled around the priest in an apparent move to protect…

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A Gretna City Councilman testified before a legislative committee that a priest abused him decades ago. Now, he and other survivors of child sexual abuse are asking state lawmakers to pass a bill that would give victims more time to come forward with a claim against their abuser in civil court.

“I am a victim of clergy abuse as well,” said Gretna council member Jackie Berthelot Monday as he spoke before Louisiana lawmakers. He says it started in the 1960′s when he was a 4th grade altar boy at St. Joseph’s School in Gretna.

“Little did I know I was being reeled in by a pedophile who, I think when a lot of this comes to light, will be seen as one of the worst pedophiles maybe this country has ever seen,” said Berthelot.

Other sexual abuse survivors also testified before the House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure in…

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A former Virginia priest has been charged with sexually assaulting a minor four decades ago.

Paul David Ryan, a former Catholic priest who was assigned to a parish and school in Virginia Beach, has been indicted by a grand jury on two felony counts of carnal knowledge by force of a minor under the age of 18, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced Tuesday.

Herring said in a news release that the alleged assaults took place between 1979 and 1980 while Ryan was assigned to Star of the Sea Parish and the affiliated Star of the Sea School.

Ryan is accused in the indictments of taking the victim on a ski trip to Massanutten Resort in Rockingham County “under the pretense of a church-sanctioned outing.” The indictments allege that during the trip, Ryan sexually assaulted the victim twice.

Ryan was identified through an ongoing investigation into clergy sex abuse in…

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Pope Francis ruled on Friday that bishops and cardinals who work in the Vatican will be judged by the same lay tribunal that hears other criminal cases and no longer by an elite panel of prelates.

Francis issued a decree abrogating a provision in the Vatican’s civil criminal code whereby bishops and cardinals were judged only by the Court of Cassation, a top body made up of cardinals and other high-ranking clergy.

In recent years, there have been several cases where lay people caught up in criminal investigations were judged and sentenced by the ordinary tribunal, which is made up of non-clerics, while cardinals involved in the same cases were not judged at all or received special treatment.

In the preface to the decree, Francis said civil law within the Vatican, which is a sovereign city-state, should be “without privileges that go back in time and are no longer consonant”…

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The Archdiocese of Hartford paid another six-figure settlement this spring to a Connecticut man who credibly accused former priest Kenneth P. Bonadies of sexually abusing him in the 1980s while he was a high school student in Manchester, attorney Mitchell Garabedian announced Wednesday morning.

The now 53-year-old man, whom Garabedian did not identify publicly, was sexually abused “relentlessly” starting when he was 14 years old in 1981 until 1985, while he was a student and Bonadies a teacher at East Catholic High School in Manchester, Garabedian said.

The man reported his claims to the church earlier this year and agreed to an out-of-court settlement after mediation in the “low six figures,” though the man declined to say the exact total of the settlement.

“I feel a tremendous amount of satisfaction that it’s been exposed and it’s known about,” the man said by phone Wednesday morning. “I think it’s important that…

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[Includes clips of an audio interview with the survivor.]

New allegations of sexual abuse of a minor by a clergy member and former teacher at East Catholic High School in Manchester have been made against the Archdiocese of Hartford.

The allegations date back to the 1980s, and they come just two years after the Archdiocese paid out more than $50 million in sexual abuse settlement claims.

Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney for the victim, announced the allegations during a news conference Wednesday morning. He said his client – who is not identified – was allegedly sexually abused more than 100 times over a four-year period by the Rev. Kenneth Bonadies.

“Father Bonadies was a teacher (at East Catholic High School), he was the theater director, he was a Latin teacher, he was a director for the choir,” Garabedian said. “Father Bodanies sexually abused my client in an office in Manchester, Connecticut,…

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A former priest who served at a Virginia Beach Catholic Church decades ago has been indicted by a grand jury investigating clergy abuse in Virginia.

Fr. Paul David Ryan is charged with two felony counts of forced carnal knowledge with a minor, according to a news release issued Tuesday by Attorney General Mark Herring’s office. He’s currently in custody in Australia and awaiting extradition to Virginia, the release said.

The assault is alleged to have occurred sometime between 1979 and 1980 during a church-sanctioned ski trip at Massanutten Resort in Rockingham County. Ryan was an assistant priest at Star of the Sea Catholic Church and parish school at the Oceanfront at the time.

Ryan is accused of assaulting the minor twice at a house at the resort where the two were staying. The release did not say if the alleged victim was male or female, or what the youth’s age…

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A former Catholic priest and serial child molester from Australia has been indicted in Virginia on charges of sexually assaulting a teenage boy twice at a Virginia ski resort in 1979. Two people went public with their claims of abuse by the priest in 2007, but no charges were filed until Attorney General Mark Herring’s office took the information to a grand jury last month.

Paul David Ryan, 72, recently served his second jail sentence in Australia for sexual assaults he committed against young boys in Victoria, cases that emerged after victims contacted a national Catholic sex abuse commission, media reports said. Ryan was one of seven Catholic priests or brothers from one diocese in Victoria who were moved from parish to parish for decades as complaints came in about their conduct, the commission found.

Complaints about Ryan began even before he was ordained, Australian court records show, and Ryan’s…

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The Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, one of the largest dioceses in the commonwealth, gained national attention by filing for bankruptcy last year.

The 15-county diocese became the first – and to date only – Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania to file for bankruptcy. The filing followed the 2018 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury report, which found that church leaders had for decades covered up heinous child sex crimes at the hands of hundreds of priests.

Bankruptcy cases are famously long, and one year into the case, the respective parties are nowhere near a resolution.

In the meantime, victims of child sex abuse – particularly those abused as children by Catholic priests – have endured setbacks in their efforts to reform laws that barred them from justice. Now, their efforts to force dioceses to pay for their misdeeds are about to play out against…

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Some sexual assault survivors and advocates are still working to hold Catholic institutions accountable following an independent investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against composer David Haas by St. Catherine’s University in St. Paul, Minnesota. They are pointing to a failure to interview Haas and the then-president of the university, as well as a lack of accountability for a former university employee whom they allege was aware of allegations against Haas.

Although St. Catherine’s investigation found that the university never received any “official” complaints about Haas, it also revealed that a witness that investigators deemed credible brought concerns about Haas to a university employee, who allowed Haas — and a priest who had been stripped of his priestly duties for sex abuse allegations — to continue to participate in the Music Ministry Alive (MMA) summer camps for high schoolers at the university.

St. Catherine’s University is the first of any major…

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The first international conference on sexual abuse of young deaf Catholics will take place May 7 and May 21 during webinars organized by the Deaf Catholic Youth Initiative for the Americas.

Father Joe Mulcrone, director of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of the Deaf, and one of the founders of Deaf Catholic Youth Initiative for the Americas, said this is the first time an event like this is happening.

Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean survivor of clerical sex abuse who was appointed to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in May, and Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna, adjunct secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, will both participate in the event. The sessions will be offered in American and Mexican Sign Language and in English and Spanish.

People with disabilities are sexually assaulted at nearly three times the rate of people without disabilities, according…

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[Includes video excerpts from Berthelot’s testimony.]

A Gretna City Councilman reveals he was sexually abused by a priest within the Archdiocese of New Orleans decades ago.

Councilman Jackie Berthelot testified Monday during a house committee hearing in Baton Rouge.

Legislators are considering a bill which would give child molestation victims more time to file a lawsuit. Berthelot only decided to come forward after receiving counseling and gaining courage.

“It took me 50 years to admit to anyone what happened to me,” said 66-year-old Berthelot.

The councilman said he was abused by Monsignor Lawrence Hecker. Berthelot was a fourth grader at St. Joseph School in Gretna and served as an altar boy at St. Joseph Church.

“Little did I know that I was being reeled in by a pedophile when all of this comes to light will be seen as one of the worst pedophiles maybe this country has ever seen,”…

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A Gretna City Council member revealed that he was sexually preyed on in grade school by one of the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ most notorious clergy abusers when he appeared before Louisiana lawmakers Monday and made an impassioned plea that they give child molestation victims significantly more time to pursue damages.

The disclosure from Jackie Berthelot, 66, came during hours of testimony by abuse victims at a meeting of the House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure. When testimony concluded, members advanced to the full House a bill that would give child sex abuse survivors until their 53rd birthday to file lawsuits regarding their abuse. Current law gives victims 25 years fewer — until their 28th birthday — to initiate litigation.

The bill is being sponsored by Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans. If ratified by the House, it would move to the Senate for consideration.

While the bill doesn’t exclusively…

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German prosecutors have broken up an online platform for sharing images and videos showing the sexual abuse of children, mostly boys, that had an international following of more than 400,000 members, they said on Monday.

The site, named “Boystown,” had been around since at least June 2019 and included forums where members from around the globe exchanged images and videos showing children, including toddlers, being sexually abused. In addition to the forums, the site had chat rooms where members could connect with one another in various languages.

German federal prosecutors described it as “one of the largest child pornography sites operating on the dark net” in a statement they released on Monday announcing the arrest in mid-April of three German men who managed the site and a fourth who had posted thousands of images to it.

“This investigative success has a clear message: Those who prey on the weakest are…

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COVID-19 restrictions proved an unexpected blessing to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ annual novena for healing from abuse, as the online prayer services drew far more participants than in-person liturgies of past years.

One service alone had 850 live views, far exceeding past in-person services, said Heather Banis, the clinical psychologist who serves as victim assistance ministry coordinator. The possibility to pray virtually, it seems, allowed people who are hesitant to spotlight themselves by attendance to participate anonymously. They could also choose to identify themselves and write comments.

“The livestream gives you all the grace and space you need,” Banis said.

“United Together in Prayer – Novena for Child Abuse Prevention and Healing” was livestreamed April 22-30 from eight parishes and St. John Seminary. Every auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese took part, as did all its seminarians.

It included prayers for all victims of child abuse, but the focus…

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The Diocese of Rockvillle Centre has released a list of 101 diocesan clergy it believes to be credibly accused of sex abuse of minors. The list is not meant to be complete, and most allegations date back decades.

The list comes amid lawsuits from alleged clergy sex abuse victims and other compensation efforts in the New York diocese, which is one of the largest in the U.S.

“The list is not exhaustive,” said the introduction to the April 22 list. “The fact that this list may not include the name of the accused clergy who sexually abused you does not mean that you should not file a Sexual Abuse Proof of Claim Form.”

The names of 101 accused clergy are listed on the document, published at the website of Epiq Corporate Restructuring, LLC. The list names priests and deacons that the diocese’s review board determined to have a “credible” allegation…

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[Includes a ten-minute audio report with a brief clip of Cardinal Law speaking on the abuse crisis early in the report.]

The first time America heard All Things Considered from National Public Radio was 50 years ago — May 3, 1971.

The program started airing on WBUR about a decade later. And that marked the start of the station’s resolute commitment to local news that listeners hear today.

The decades have brought big changes and major news at warp speed — from technological advances, to the attacks of 9/11, to war. Events and new laws in Massachusetts — including the priest sex abuse scandal, same-sex marriage and health care reform — have led to sweeping changes nationally.

In 2013, Boston was hit by domestic terrorism. Bombs went off at the marathon finish line. WBUR’s All Things Considered covered every angle of the tragedy, from the loss and devastation to the trial and sentencing of bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

…

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Pope Francis has selected a new leader for Delaware’s Catholics. On July 13, William Koenig will replace Bishop Francis Malooly, who led the Diocese of Wilmington serving all of Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore since 2008.

Koenig, 64, most recently worked as Vicar for Clergy for the Diocese of Rockville Centre in Long Island, New York. Prior to that, he worked as Rector at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre.

When he’s officially installed this July, Bishop-elect Koenig will be the spiritual leader of more than 246,000 Catholics in Delaware and along Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He’ll also be leader of the nation’s most prominent Catholic, President Joe Biden, who frequently attends services at St. Joseph’s on the Brandywine when he travels back to Delaware on weekends.

“I have never met President Biden, I certainly pray for him every day,” Koenig said as he was introduced at the Cathedral of St….

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Cotter pleaded guilty to an additional three counts of assaulting a seven-year-old girl who attended his church between 1972 and 1975

A woman has spoken of how her life was ruined by a disgraced Preston priest who told her she would get ‘a good breakfast’ after he sexually assaulted her.

Edmond Cotter was the priest at St Anthony’s Church in Fulwood in the 1970s and 1980s when he took advantage of youngsters who attended for Mass and Holy Communion.

Cotter embedded ‘himself into the families of his victims’ and abused them over more than a decade.

Cotter, now 74, was jailed for more than five years in 2007 after sexually assaulting 10 girls and one boy between 1972 and 1984. The children were aged between eight and 11 at the time.

At Preston Crown Court today (April 30) Cotter pleaded guilty to an additional three counts of assaulting a seven-year-old…

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[Via Legacy]

Nationally renowned attorney, who represented the Archdiocese of Chicago for 50 years dies at 78.

James A. Serritella, J.D., an attorney who served as chief counsel and legal advisor to the Archdiocese of Chicago for nearly 50 years, died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital Friday, April 23, at the age of 78 from complications of heart disease.

Serritella was a named partner at the law firm of Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella where he served as chair of the Religious and Not-For-Profit Group. His nearly half century legal practice focused on legal needs of tax exempt religious and not-for-profit organizations. He advised four Cardinals, beginning with Cardinal John Cody in the 1970s and continuing through the administrations of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Cardinal Francis George and, currently, Cardinal Blase Cupich.

Over his extensive career, Jim saw the Archdiocese of Chicago through countless critical events including the clergy sex abuse crisis,…

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