ABUSE TRACKER

An independent ombudswoman hired by the Montreal Roman Catholic archdiocese said Wednesday she has received 75 formal complaints – including 46 related to abuse – dating back to 1950 until the present day.

The cumulative report published Wednesday by Marie Christine Kirouack, who was hired by the church this year, is composed of complaints against members of the church that were filed between May 5 and Nov. 30.

Thirty complaints involve allegations of sexual abuse from 1950 to the present day, and another 16 complaints are connected to alleged psychological, financial, physical or spiritual abuse.

Kirouack’s report says 10 complaints have been referred to outside investigators and nine others have been forwarded to religious communities.

She says she also received about 30 complaints that fell outside her purview, including COVID-19-related complaints and 13 complaints for abuse suffered by Indigenous Peoples.

Kirouack says in a statement that listening…

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Middle schooler Rarity Cournoyer stood at the heart of the Red Cloud Indian School campus and chanted a prayer song firmly and solemnly in the Lakota language — in a place where past generations of students were punished for speaking their mother tongue.

Her classmates stood around her at a prayer circle designed with archetypes of Native American spirituality, with a circular sidewalk representing a traditional medicine wheel.

Lakota language teacher Amery Brave Heart walked quietly with a small bundle of smoldering sage stems. Brave Heart — sporting a long braid on the very campus where his grandfather, Basil Brave Heart, said he had his long hair shorn and carelessly trampled on as a newly arrived pupil — offered the sage to each student as part of a brief smudging or purification ritual, in which they symbolically waved the scented smoke toward themselves.

Such scenes would have been hard to…

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The FBI is encouraging any possible victims of a former Southern Baptist preacher to come forward in the wake of his recent indictment on sexual abuse charges.

Roy Edward Williams is accused in federal court of sexually abusing five minors, offering them payment afterward and threatening them to keep them from reporting the abuse, Acting U.S. Attorney Clinton Johnson said.

A federal grand jury indicted Williams, 63, in November. The former minister is charged with coercion and enticement of a minor in Indian Country, aggravated sexual abuse of a minor in Indian Country, abusive sexual contact of a minor between 12 and 16 years old in Indian Country and possession of child pornography.

Williams was charged in federal court because he is a member of the Cherokee Nation. The victims ranged in age from 7 to 16 when the abuse occurred, the U.S. attorney alleged. Williams was a member and a preacher at Bunker Hill Baptist Church in Vinita. 

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An independent redress plan should have a holistic approach based in Maori and Pacific Islander culture to help survivors and their families

Bishops and religious order leaders welcomed an interim redress report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care and said they will look at how they can implement the recommendations. They already have begun working on a plan.

The report, “He Purapura Ora, he Mara Tipu; from Redress to Puretumu,” was introduced in Parliament Dec. 15 and makes recommendations on how survivors of abuse in state-run and faith-based institutional care should be heard and get compensated for the harm suffered. Volume 1 of what was submitted took churches and the New Zealand government to task for ignoring and stonewalling survivors claims.

“Despite harrowing accounts and often obvious signs of physical, emotional or psychological damage, many survivors found their efforts to obtain redress from state and faith-based…

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A planned meeting at the Vatican between survivors of Canada’s Indian residential schools and Pope Francis has been postponed indefinitely because of a worldwide rise in the Omicron variant of the COVID virus.

A joint statement announcing the delay was issued Tuesday by the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapirat Kanitami, the Métis National Council and the Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops.

“After careful assessment of the uncertainty and potential health risks surrounding international travel amid the recent spread of the Omicron variant, the Canadian Bishops, Assembly of First Nations, Métis National Council, and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami have jointly decided to reschedule a delegation to the Vatican in December 2021 to the earliest opportunity in 2022,” according to the statement.

The meeting had been set for Dec. 17-20 at Vatican City amid calls for a papal apology for the Catholic Church’s role in the abuse and death of thousands of…

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Canada’s Indigenous Services Minister announced on Monday that the government is provisioning C$40 billion (the equivalent of US$31.2 billion) to provide compensation and to commit the funds necessary to implement long-term reform so that future generations of First Nations children will never face the systemic tragedies of their ancestors.

Officials confirmed the government will start paying out once a protracted lawsuit is settled.

The lawsuit concerns the damage inflicted by Canada’s residential school system that separated Indigenous children from their families and sent them to boarding schools where they were malnourished, beaten and sexually abused. The schools operated mainly between the 1890s right up until the mid 20th century and were run by the government and by Churches. 

Canadians, and the world, were shocked in May at the discovery of the remains of 215 children at the site of a former Residential School in British Colombia. The bodies belonged to…

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The federal Liberal government is setting aside a whopping $40 billion to settle outstanding Indigenous child welfare lawsuits and to meet the long-term health, education and social welfare needs of First Nations children and families.

Several First Nations leaders and advocates reacted positively yet warily to Ottawa’s pledge, saying discussions to settle three massive lawsuits are still underway, with no final decisions made.

“Number one, nothing’s been signed, so there is no agreement,” said Cindy Blackstock, head of the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society, which launched one of the key lawsuits at the heart of the ongoing battle for reform.

Number two, Blackstock said in an interview, there’s no way to get to a final deal unless there is a “mechanism” to hold the governments to account for delivering the money and the reforms promised.

“Promises actually don’t end the discrimination for kids if they’re not implemented,” she…

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The Canadian government will set aside $40 billion — more than $30 billion in U.S. currency — to compensate Indigenous people who faced abuses as children in the country’s residential schools, officials announced Monday. The funds will also be used to reform the country’s troubled child welfare system.

The pledge comes amid ongoing negotiations between Canadian authorities and First Nations groups over how to make amends for the historical mistreatment of Indigenous children.

“We have been unequivocal throughout these historic negotiations: we will compensate those harmed by the federal government’s discriminatory funding practices and we will lay the foundation for an equitable and better future for First Nations children, their families and communities,” Minister of Indigenous Services Patty Hajdu and Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Marc Miller said in a joint statement.

From 1831 to 1998, the government separated some 150,000 Indigenous children from their families and sent them to residential schools…

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Pope Francis agreed Monday to meet with the commission that published a ground-breaking report into clergy sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church and, separately, expressed “sadness” over the sudden downfall of the archbishop of Paris, according to French bishops who met with him.

Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, president of the French Bishops Conference, told reporters that Francis had agreed “in principle” to meet with the independent commission members but that a date had to be found.

The head of the commission, Jean-Marc Sauvé, had said the members would be received by the pope. But the reported Dec. 9 date came and went without an audience.

The French report estimated that some 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, scout leaders or other Catholic-affiliated lay employees from 1950-2020.

The estimate is based on broader research by France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research into sexual abuse…

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After a private meeting with Pope Francis, the officers of the French bishops’ conference said the pope encouraged them to continue responding together to a recent independent report on sexual abuse in the church since the 1950s.

“The pope underlined the dignity of our attitude and our way of considering the report” of the 21-member Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, “and he encouraged us to continue to do so in a synodal way,” said Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims, president of the French bishops’ conference.

The archbishop and other officers of the bishops’ conference met with reporters Dec. 13 after their meeting with Pope Francis. They said Pope Francis has agreed to meet with members of the independent commission, although a date for the meeting has not been set.

Like the leaders of other large bishops’ conferences, the French prelates meet annually with the pope,…

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Even though the papacy isn’t a popularity contest, a pope’s influence in his home country is one way to measure how he’s doing. Alas, when it comes to Pope Francis’s Argentina, things are a bit more complicated: According to the local bishops, Argentines hear about the pope, but they don’t actually hear him.

According to a 2020 poll by the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), nine in ten Argentines affirm that their religiosity did not increase after the election of history’s first pope from the global south. Furthermore, 40 percent of Argentines are “completely indifferent” to the pope, and within this number, 32 percent of those who answered identify as Catholic. And 27 percent of the people think he’s too involved in politics instead of spiritual affairs.

Seeing these numbers, it comes as no surprise that the head of the Argentine bishops’ conference, Bishop Oscar Ojea of San Isidro,…

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Of all the silly and self-defeating habits the Vatican has fallen into over the years – and, let’s face it, it’s not a short list – censoring the words the pope speaks during his airborne press conferences is perhaps the most absurd.

After all, the pope speaks those words in front of about 70 journalists traveling with him aboard the papal plane, virtually each one of whom records them faithfully from start to finish and then painstakingly transcribes them, pondering each syllable for meaning.

Thus when the Vatican revises its official transcript a few days later, usually trying to make an error disappear, do they really think nobody will notice?

The most recent case in point involves the news conference Pope Francis conducted on his way back from a Dec. 2-6 trip to Cyprus and Greece, in which he addressed the case of the recently resigned Archbishop of Paris, Michel…

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A Vatican official apologized to a leading Catholic L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group for having yanked a reference to it on the Vatican website, drawing immediate praise Monday from the group as a “historic” move to repair the painful rift between the Catholic hierarchy and the gay community.

The Vatican’s General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops, which is organizing a two-year consultation of rank-and-file Catholics ahead of a 2023 meeting of bishops at the Vatican, restored the reference to New Ways Ministry on the website over the weekend.

The Synod had originally included a reference to a webinar video made by New Ways Ministry, a U.S.-based organization that advocates for greater acceptance of gays in the Catholic Church, in its “Resources” page directing people to sources of information about the Synod. The video urged L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics to participate in the consultation process, which aims to make the Catholic Church more welcoming,…

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 Three more Catholic priests in Bristol County, Massachusetts, were banned from the ministry after church leaders found allegations of child sex abuse to be credible.

One accuser spoke publicly after what he called a 10-year battle with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River.

Richard Eldridge said the sexual abuse started in the early 1970s when he was about 16 years old, following a Catholic retreat he attended while in high school where the nuns tried to block the staircase.

“They were trying to protect me — and he pushed his way through and brought me upstairs,” he said. “I don’t want any other kids to end up in this situation and go through what I went through.”

His alleged abuser, the Rev. Edward Byington, was assigned to various parishes in Bristol County, including: St. John, Attleboro; Sacred Heart, Taunton; St. Patrick, Fall River; St. Paul, Taunton;…

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One alleged survivor of child abuse by a Fall River priest is asking for financial compensation from the diocese after he said Catholic leaders ignored his claims for ten years.

On Monday, the Fall River Diocese announced that three priests have been added to the list of those “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors.

Fathers James Buckley, Edward Byington, and Richard Degagne have been suspended from all church activities. Two of the men were already retired.

Richard Eldridge said Byington abused him after a Catholic retreat when he was 16 years old.

He said that Byington made him confess his sins — despite not being a Catholic — and then brought him to a convent, where he said the nuns tried unsuccessfully to stop the priest from bringing the teenager upstairs

But according to Eldridge, his story wasn’t deemed “credible” by the diocese until years later, when another victim came forward anonymously.

As…

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Millions of children worldwide are at risk of abuse and exploitation in institutions, often to attract funding from donors, says Lumos charity

Immediate action must be taken to prevent trafficking and exploitation of children in orphanages, according to a report published on Monday.

International children’s charity Lumos says that an estimated 5.4 million children worldwide live in institutions that cannot meet their needs and neglect their rights and where they are exposed to multiple forms of exploitation and harm.

The report is the first to identify global patterns of institution-related trafficking, taking into account evidence from 84 organisations in 45 countries around the world. It highlights instances of sexual exploitation, as well as children being forced to work and coerced into performing for foreign donors to secure more funding. In some instances, children were left malnourished and held in cramped, unhygienic conditions to attract money from donors and volunteers. Lumos also…

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This is part 3 of The Christian Post’s article series on the crisis of leadership in American evangelicalism. Read part 1 here, read part 2 here and part 4 here. 

The last few years have seen multiple instances of well-known evangelical leaders entrenched in scandals and misconduct. Some have questioned if seminaries are doing enough to train future pastors to lead churches and disciple their congregations virtuously.

Darvin Wallis, a pastor and founder of Mission U Online, an online biblical education resource group, penned a provocative op-ed piece published by The Christian Post earlier this year about the problems facing American evangelical pastoral leadership.

“For about three decades now, the evangelical church has embraced corporate leadership paradigms. This has worked wonders for the bottom lines of attendance, giving and the number of reported conversions. Yet, it has also…

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Three Fall River priests formerly suspended due to child sex abuse allegations will not be returning to ministry after the diocese announced today that the accusations against them have been deemed “credible.”

The Diocese of Fall River stated on Monday that Father James Buckley, Father Edward Byington, and Father Richard Degagne have been added to the list of clergy who are “credibly accused” of sexual abuse.

According to the diocese, Degagne, the former pastor of Easton’s Immaculate Conception Parish, was suspended in 2019.

Buckley and Byington were suspended in 2020, although both were already retired and not assigned to a parish at the time.

All three priests have denied the allegations.

Late last month, one of Byington’s alleged victims, Richard Eldridge, came forward publicly with his story.

He said the abuse took place when he was a teenager in the 1970s, at a convent where the nuns tried to block the priest from taking him upstairs following a religious retreat.

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Allegations of sexual abuse of a minor made against three suspended priests, two of whom have Attleboro area ties, have been determined to be credible, and none will return to ministry, the Fall River Diocese announced Monday.

Edward J. Byington, Richard E. Degagne and James F. Buckley have been added to the list of “credibly accused” clergy on the diocese’s website, fallriverdiocese.org.

Byington once served at St. John’s the Evangelist in Attleboro and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Seekonk in addition to working with the Attleboro Area Girl Scouts of America, according to the diocese.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian in 2020 said he represented a client who was allegedly assaulted by Byington in a church rectory in Taunton after the client attended a religious retreat for teens in 1971.

Degagne was the pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Easton and previously served at St. John the Evangelist…

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I first met Donald Cozzens on the page. As a doctoral student interested in ministry, I picked up The Changing Face of the Priesthood as soon as a copy arrived at the library and read it that afternoon. At first, I didn’t know what to make of this beautiful book. Here was a seminary rector calling out clerical culture, a former vicar for clergy grieving the betrayal of children—not only by priest perpetrators, but by church structures devoid of accountability. Here was a committed celibate taking up the taboo of sexual orientation, a spiritual director describing an Oedipal conflict between priests and bishops.

Was this theology? Spirituality? Psychology? Was Father Cozzens “conservative” or “liberal,” a patient confessor or a prophetic voice? Yes, I decided, all of the above.

It wasn’t long before I met Don in person at an academic conference. We connected through mutual acquaintances and soon became friends. A few years…

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Four months after a South Carolina priest was placed on leave for allegedly manipulating a woman into a sexual relationship, the catholic diocese of Charleston says he has returned to worship.

They say Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone made the decision to reinstate father Wilbroad Mwape at St. Anthony’s of Padua. He returned on Dec. 10.

The diocese did not say anything additional about the pending lawsuit.

SNAP– the survivors network of those abused by priests- said it is “incredulous” that the priest is back in the pulpit, just six months after Pope Francis changed Catholic Church law to criminalize the sexual abuse of adults by priests.

“By putting Fr. Mwape back in a position of power at St. Anthony of Padua, the Diocese of Charleston is not only putting others at risk but also re-traumatizing the survivor who filed the lawsuit, as well as any other…

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The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) is denouncing the Diocese of Charleston after allowing a priest to resume preaching duties after being accused of sexual exploitation.

Officials say that Father Wilbroad Mwape began preaching again at a Greenville church four months after being placed on temporary leave following a sexual exploitation allegation by a parishioner.

The accusation led to a lawsuit filed on August 4th with complaints of the priest abusing his position beginning at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Orangeburg and his relocation to Greenville.

SNAP says “he may again abuse those seeking help and trusting in their spiritual ‘leader’.” Fr. Mwape was able to resume his position six months after Pope Francis altered Catholic Church law to criminalize the sexual abuse of adults.

SNAP offers support to survivors of sexual abuse by clergypeople and requests for those who may have been harmed by Fr. Mwape…

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A Belfast man who says he was sexually abused at a children’s home run by a religious order is set to receive £75,000 in damages.

The payout represents settlement of the 66-year-old’s civil action against De La Salle Provincialate.

No admission of liability was made in the resolution confirmed at the High Court in Belfast.

The man who took the case cannot be named for legal reasons.

He claimed that Christian Brothers molested him at Rubane House in Kircubbin, Co Down in the late 1960s.

Proceedings centred on the alleged physical, sexual and emotional abuse he suffered after moving into the facilities at the age of 11.

Rubane House was among the homes examined by the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry chaired by the late Sir Anthony Hart.

An estimated 200 of its 1,050 former residents have made allegations of serious sexual or physical abuse.

A trial into the man’s…

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“This is an extremely important step forward in the BSA’s efforts to equitably compensate survivors,” the Boy Scouts said in a statement.

One of the Boy Scouts of America’s primary insurers, Chubb Ltd unit Century Indemnity Company, said on Monday it will contribute $800 million to a deal proposed by the youth organization to settle sexual abuse claims.

The money would be used to settle around 82,500 claims from people who say they were sexually abused as children by troop leaders.

The move brings the total pot of money available to resolve claims to more than $2.7 billion.

Under the Boy Scouts’ proposal, those who filed claims in the organization’s ongoing bankruptcy proceeding will receive settlements according to the severity of their cases and when the alleged abuse occurred.

Century’s contribution comes after more than a year of back-and-forth between the insurer and…

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Attorneys in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy case have reached a tentative settlement under which one of the organization’s largest insurers would contribute $800 million into a fund for victims of child sexual abuse.

The agreement announced Monday calls for Century Indemnity Co. and affiliated companies to contribute $800 million into the fund in return for being released from further liability for abuse claims. The payment would bring the amount of money in the proposed trust to more than $2.6 billion, which would be the largest sexual abuse settlement in U.S. history.

The settlement comes as more than 82,000 sexual abuse claimants face a Dec. 28 deadline to vote on a previously announced Boy Scouts reorganization plan.

That plan called for the Boys Scouts and its roughly 250 local councils to contribute up to $820 million in cash and property into a fund for victims. They also would assign…

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Three Massachusetts Catholic priests, including one from an Easton church, are barred from returning to ministry after the diocese found them each to be “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of a minor.

According to the Diocese of Fall River, the Rev. Richard E. Degagne was suspended after allegations surfaced in 2019. He was then the pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Easton.

The Rev. Edward J. Byington and the Rev. James F. Buckley were already retired and were not assigned to a parish when allegations surfaced during 2020, diocese officials said.

The Rev. Buckley was ordained in 1959, the Rev. Byington was ordained in 1970 and the Rev. Degagne was ordained in 1982. As a result of Monday’s decision, all three are prohibited from participating in church duties.

“They are not permitted to exercise any public ministry including the celebration of public Mass or of other sacraments. They may not…

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The Diocese of Fall River announced today that separate allegations of sexual abuse of a minor made against three suspended priests have been determined to be credible and that none would return to ministry.

Given these determinations, the names of Father James F. Buckley, Father Edward J. Byington, and Father Richard E. Degagne have been added to the list of “Credibly Accused” clergy on the Fall River Diocesan website.

The Diocese of Fall River previously announced the suspensions of all three priests. Father Degagne, then pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Easton, was suspended in 2019. Father Buckley and Father Byington were suspended in 2020. These two priests were already retired at the time and not assigned to a parish. All three priests have denied the allegations.

Before making any determination in these cases, the Diocese followed its protocols including notifying civil authorities, conducting its own investigations, and…

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Scandals over clerical abuse of minors have left the institution poorer and less influential

From when the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse crisis erupted in 2002 until his death more than three years later, St. John Paul II never met with a victim of clerical sexual abuse.

In contrast, Pope Francis has met numerous times with abuse victims and their advocates since his election in 2013. He plans next year to meet with representatives of indigenous people from Canada who are protesting the historical abuse of children at church-run residential schools there.

Those meetings are a sign of how the Catholic hierarchy has transformed its response to abuse scandals, which have left the church poorer and less influential in the countries where they have emerged.

“The leadership of the church has come to recognize that the church has to take ownership and responsibility for what happened,” said Francesco Cesareo,…

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The agreement reached with U.S.A. Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee will compensate more than 500 girls and women abused in the sport

Hundreds of female gymnasts who were sexually abused by Lawrence G. Nassar, the former team doctor of the national gymnastics team, have agreed to a $380 million settlement with U.S.A. Gymnastics and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, ending the latest dark chapter in one of the biggest molestation cases in sports history.

The settlement, announced on Monday during U.S.A. Gymnastics’ bankruptcy proceedings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana, is among the largest ever for a sexual abuse case. The funds would compensate more than 500 gymnasts — including Olympic gold medalists like Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman — who were abused by Nassar or someone else in the sport.

“No amount of money will ever repair the…

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This commentary is by Maura Labelle, a resident of Colchester.

An open letter to Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, the Roman Catholic bishop of Vermont:

Why are you waiting for me and other clergy abuse victims to die?

As children at St. Joseph’s Orphanage, we were physically, mentally and sexually abused. In December 2020, you said the following during an interview on the WCAX program “You Can Quote Me”: “I absolutely believe that children were abused at the orphanage. No one is contesting that at all.” 

You know that there was abuse, yet you do everything you can to avoid helping the abused.

In 2019, you said the following on Vermont Public Radio: “We don’t have any money; there’s no more insurance; we have very limited unrestricted funds.” If the church doesn’t have funds, it’s because of its own actions to hide the money. 

You know very well that your predecessor,…

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A judge has told lawyers for the New Hampshire Catholic Church and a right-wing Catholic news outlet to come to an agreement about how much information the church will disclose about one of its high-ranking priests.

Issued last week, the judge’s order sets some limits on how much information the Diocese of Manchester will have to provide about its canon law expert, the Very Rev. Georges F. de Laire.

Earlier this year, de Laire sued Michigan-based St. Michael’s Media, editor Gary Michael Voris and a reporter claiming defamation in several articles about the church’s dispute with a religious sect in Richmond. As the diocese’s judicial vicar and vicar for canonical affairs, de Laire figured prominently in the church’s handling of the sect, the St. Benedict Center.

St. Michael’s Media has subpoenaed the Diocese of Manchester seeking information about de Laire’s dealings with St. Benedict Center, his oversight of annulment cases…

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A committee for victims of clergy sex abuse has fired another salvo in a bankruptcy battle with the Diocese of Camden.

The committee on Friday asked a judge to remove restrictions on more than $63 million in diocesan funds.

The request, if approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerrold Poslusny Jr. in Camden, would make the money available to claims by the diocese’s creditors, including the sex-abuse survivors.

The judge also is considering a separate claim, made by the committee last month, that the diocese concealed assets of more than $20 million during its ongoing bankruptcy action. The diocese has rejected the allegation.

“The committee wants transparency and to date has not received that,” Brent Weisenberg, an attorney for the committee, asserted Monday.

A diocesan spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The committee represents the interests of some 300 people claiming they were sexually abused by clergy members…

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The massive case brought against Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has proven favorable for victims where accountability is concerned. However, the breakdown of the financial compensation is a bit different.

According to USA Today, the 82,000 sexual abuse survivors will each receive less than $10,000 in compensation while the attorneys working the case have billed a staggering $1,725 an hour up to more than $200,000 for legal services and are projected to earn nearly $1 billion.

“The case is unprecedented for bankruptcy litigation related to sexual abuse in the number of survivors filing claims (82,000), the overall amount of proposed settlement funds ($1.8 billion) and now in the proportion going to fees for everyone from attorneys to financial advisers – even lobbyists tapped by the Scouts to ward off bankruptcy reforms,” USA Today writes.

BSA also offered estimations for the bills it will receive from its own…

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We believe in the separation of church and state because it requires religions to obey laws enacted by the state instead of allowing religions to hold everyone to their own religious laws.

This idea of separation is much disputed these days, as religions continue to gain more victories in the courts. The religious keep insisting they have a “right” to live by religion instead of the law. Whether it leads to theocracy or balkanization, the creeping fusion of church and state is disastrous for the public good.

Let’s be frank: religions need to obey the laws. No religion can provide a standard that governs everyone, religious and non-religious alike. Instead, the law is supposed to protect individuals from religion’s weaknesses and aggressions. The law provides a standard that protects everyone’s rights. We have worked to defend those civil rights and will continue to do so going forward. We believe that the…

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Trip to Rome by residential school survivors including First Nations leader Phil Fontaine delayed

While a long-awaited trip to visit Pope Francis at the Vatican was delayed due to concerns about the omicron variant, Phil Fontaine says he’s more determined than ever to make sure the apology he’s been fighting to hear for at least 31 years now will be made.

Fontaine is widely known as one one of the most prominent First Nations leaders in Canada as the former Assembly of First Nations national chief. 

While he has many other titles, it seems the one that drives him the most is that of residential school survivor.

This week, he and a delegation of other residential school survivors were supposed to leave for Rome to meet the Pope to ask, among other things, for an apology from the Catholic Church for its role in the harms caused during the residential school era to former students.

“I have a long history of…

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Clerics who sexually abuse minors can be canonically prosecuted even when they say they were not aware that a person with whom they had sexual contact was a minor, according to changes to canon law announced by the Vatican on Tuesday. 

The reform of the law, authorized by Pope Francis, follows cases in which clerics claimed they did not know the age of a minor with whom they had sexual contact, or believed them to be more than 18 years old.

The Holy See announced Dec. 7 reforms to Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela, the special law first issued by Pope St. John Paul II in 2001 and revised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. SST defines the Church’s graviora delicta, or major crimes against the faith and sacraments, for which the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has exclusive authority for prosecution and judgement. 

The Code of Canon Law recognizes as a…

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An ill-timed announcement and the pope’s baffling explanation of why he decided to remove the leader of one of Catholic Church’s most important dioceses

All he had to do was wait five days.

And then, after returning from what ended up being an extremely important December 2-6 visit to Cyprus and Greece, he could have easily made the official announcement.

Instead, Pope Francis shocked almost everyone when he decided to relieve Michel Aupetit from his duties as Archbishop of Paris on the very day the papal trip began.

It fell like a bombshell.

And because it dominated headlines throughout Europe and the world, it nearly torpedoed one of the pope’s main objectives for making the trip to the two Mediterranean countries — to prod leaders of the Old Continent into finally addressing their deplorable refusal (or inability) to forge a coherent and compassionate policy on immigration.

But worse than stepping…

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The revolting revelations just keep coming. This lawsuit brings to light another example of the Philly Archdiocese’s dangerous waiting game. Link to The Philadelphia Inquirer coverage here.

As of this publication date, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia currently lists Father Peter Foley as having full faculties on its’ clergy list. Philly priests depend upon the clergy list to ensure the good standing of priests who visit their parish to celebrate weddings or participate in other ministry.

In the article Ken Gavin, Archdiocese of Philadelphia Office of Communication, claims that Foley has not served in active ministry in “several years,” however his last listed assignment is 2002 – almost 20 years ago. Foley would have only been in his early 60’s at the time. Retirement from active ministry at that age was and still isn’t typical for a diocesan priest. It makes one wonder. And there’s no chance of…

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The Vatican financial scandal is about to enter its fourth year. Keeping all the names, dates, and details straight can be complicated.

You can read a brief history of the London property deal which kicked off the scandal here, and a who’s who of the people charged in the ongoing trial in Vatican City here.

That trial is set to resume next week. And even if you’ve been following it closely, the twists and turns are enough to confuse anyone.

So to help you get up to speed on what’s happened so far, here’s The Pillar’s Vatican Finance Scandal timeline, taking you back almost a decade, to when the whole thing was just a glint in some money manager’s eye: 

2014  New sheriff in town

Pope Francis appoints Australian Cardinal George Pell as the prefect of the Vatican’s new Secretariat for the Economy. Pell’s mandate is to bring transparency and accountability to curial finances,…

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A string of wealthy groups have not contributed a penny to the Scottish Government’s new £300million Redress Scotland scheme.

Charities linked to historic sex abuse have failed to cough up a penny for a new survivors’ fund – despite bringing in nearly half a billion pounds every year.

A Sunday Mail probe can reveal the string of wealthy groups who have not contributed to the Scottish Government’s new £300million Redress Scotland scheme.

Just one in five non-public organisations probed by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) have so far offered funds.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said he would pursue “responsible” child abuse organisations “with vigour”.

But concrete offers amount to just £13.8million.

The SCAI is investigating nine Catholic orders who ran 24 schools where abuse happened.

Six of them – The Christian Brothers, De La Salle Brothers, Sisters of Nazareth, defunct…

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Pope Francis raised the rarely discussed problem of nun abuse in the church during an address to members of the Vatican’s congregation for religious orders on Saturday, the Associated Press reports.

Why it matters: In the past, the Vatican has downplayed the abuses committed by mother superiors against nuns in the Catholic Church, the wire service notes.

Details: Francis said the book, “Veil of Silence: Abuse, Violence, Frustrations in Female Religious Life,” written by a reporter for the Holy See’s media, Salvatore Cernuzio, doesn’t detail “striking” cases of violence and abuse “but rather the everyday abuses that harm the strength of the vocation,” AP reports.

• The book, published last month in Italy, details 11 cases of current or former religious sisters who suffered abuse from their superiors. Some nuns were thrown out of the church, leaving them to question their faith, Cernuzio writes.
• Francis told members of the Vatican congregation Saturday…

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Pope Francis on Saturday drew attention to a problem that the Vatican has long sought to downplay: the abuses of power by mother superiors against nuns who, because of their vows of obedience, have little recourse but to obey.

During an audience with members of the Vatican’s congregation for religious orders, Francis cited a new investigative expose of the problem written by a reporter for the Holy See’s media, Salvatore Cernuzio.

Francis noted that the book, “Veil of Silence: Abuse, Violence, Frustrations in Female Religious Life,” doesn’t detail “striking” cases of violence and abuse “but rather the everyday abuses that harm the strength of the vocation.”

The book, published in Italy last month, contains 11 cases of current or former religious sisters who suffered abuses at the hands of their superiors. Most were psychological and spiritual abuses and often resulted in the women leaving or being thrown out of their…

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Seattle’s Catholic archdiocese has agreed to pay a Washington woman $725,000 as part of an early dispute resolution to her lawsuit alleging an unidentified employee sexually abused her at the Catholic school she attended more than 40 years ago.

The woman, identified by her initials, T.R., was an 8-year-old third grade student at the archdiocese’s private St. Louise Parish School in 1977 when an unidentified playground attendant started giving her candy and began sexually grooming her, the lawsuit said.

The employee, referred to only as “John Doe,” went on to repeatedly molest T.R. — abuse that was “foreseeable and preventable had Seattle Archdiocese acted on John Doe’s grooming behavior and removed him for his repeated sexual misconduct,” the suit contends.

“For years, she has tried to compartmentalize this, hoping it would go away,” Darrell Cochran, the woman’s attorney, told the Seattle Times. “But she realized no matter what she attained…

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A Savannah priest sexual abuse survivor will “not” be able to sue a South Carolina Catholic Diocese for the crimes he says happened to him 30 years ago in the Lowcountry.

Chris Templeton was abused by at least one priest in the Savannah diocese as a young man, the memory still harsh and vivid.

But he says this decision by a Lowcountry judge hurts almost as much.

District Judge David Norton granted a motion for summary judgment that dismisses Templeton’s claim and clears the Charleston Diocese of civil charges.

In 2018, former Catholic priest Wayland Brown admitted in court to abusing Templeton and Alan Ranta while they were students, and he was a priest at St James School in Savannah. Adding in court that he took the boys across the border to Hardeeville and raped them there as well.

Brown was charged and sentenced in 2018. He died in prison…

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Some abuse survivors believe the safety measures mandated by the settlement don’t go far enough

In June of 2018, the parents of 8-year-old Quinn, of St Louis, Mo., sent him on a four-night camping trip with his Cub Scout troop, believing he would be safe. (Quinn’s name has been changed in this article to protect his anonymity.)

He was not. Four months later, Quinn’s parents learned that his Cub Scout leader had been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a child at his home.

Wondering whether Quinn had suffered the same terrifying fate, his dad asked him if the leader had ever touched him inappropriately. “He said, ‘Yes,’” says Quinn’s dad, who, at the time, did everything he could to hold back his own tears as his son wept in his arms. “It was heartbreaking for all of us.”

Now, Quinn and more than 82,000 other former scouts who allege…

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Two students who attended a Kentucky Catholic high school were charged Monday in connection with the alleged sexual assault of another student that was recorded on video earlier this year.

One of the boys was charged with sodomy-first degree and strangulation-first degree, while the other was charged with complicity sodomy-first degree and attempted strangulation-first degree, Louisville Metro Police Department spokeswoman Alicia Smiley said.

Both teens were students of Louisville’s all-boys St. Xavier High School when a video of the alleged assault surfaced in May. The video showed two teens sexually assault another male off-campus, NBC affiliated WAVE reported.

St. Xavier officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

In May, after the video surfaced, a school statement said the students had been disciplined, but did not disclose how.

“Saint Xavier High School condemns the actions of these few students. We have the highest standards…

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As an author and lecturer, Father Donald B. Cozzens, a Cleveland diocesan priest and former seminary rector, shared candid insights on the priesthood, challenging the Catholic Church to confront clericalism and renew its structure.

Despite criticism privately and publicly from fellow clergy, Father Cozzens maintained that it was his love of the priesthood that prompted his outspokenness for positive change.

Father Cozzens, 82, died Dec. 9. No cause of death was announced. Funeral arrangements were pending Dec. 10.

It was Father Cozzens’ book, “The Changing Face of the Priesthood,” published in 2000, that set the course for much of his life after he stepped down as president-rector of St. Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in the Diocese of Cleveland a year later to focus on teaching and writing.

He spent more than 20 years tackling the issues he believed church officials needed to address including transparency in decision-making and welcoming women into a wide role…

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Seattle’s Catholic archdiocese has agreed to pay a Washington woman $725,000 as part of an early dispute resolution to her lawsuit alleging that an unidentified employee repeatedly sexually abused her at the Catholic school she attended in Bellevue more than four decades ago.

“Even though we filed the lawsuit, the archdiocese’s lawyers agreed to interview my client, and once they heard her and understood the nature of what happened, they didn’t have any doubt that this occurred,” said Darrell Cochran, the woman’s attorney. “They accepted it and moved forward to do the right thing.”

The woman, identified only by her initials, T.R., was an 8-year-old third grade student at the archdiocese’s private St. Louise Parish School in 1977 when an unidentified playground attendant started giving her candy, teaching her to kiss and otherwise began sexually grooming her, according to Cochran and the lawsuit, which was filed in April.

The employee,…

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Due to concerns over the rapid spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, a much-anticipated meeting between Pope Francis and about 30 Indigenous delegates is now being postponed.

Made up of Indigenous elders, residential school survivors, and youth, the group would have been headed to the Vatican later this month in hopes of securing an apology from the Pope for the Catholic Church’s involvement with Canada’s residential schools.

“Our shared commitment to walking together towards healing and reconciliation remains strong,” read a joint statement issued by the Canadian Bishops, Assembly of First Nations, Metis National Council, and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. Organizers note that the meeting is not being cancelled but postponed to “the earliest opportunity in 2022.”

Crystal Gail Fraser, a Gwichya Gwich’in assistant professor in history and native studies at the University of Alberta, said that while the news is unfortunate, it’s not surprising considering…

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Mahoney accused of sexual assault

More than 40 years after the alleged abuse took place, a priest has been removed from public ministry after his diocese determined the allegations may be true.

The independent Diocesan Review Board found a claim of alleged sexual abuse against a minor that was lodged against 86-year-old Peter Mahoney to be credible, the diocese announced Nov. 22. The alleged crimes took place between 1975 and 1978 while he was serving in Brooklyn.

The DRB’s determination does not mean the allegations are true and that Mahoney is guilty, only that the panel believes them to be credible.

“But that determination is enough to get the priest removed from service,” a spokesperson from the diocese told the Chronicle.

At the time of the DRB’s determination, Mahoney had been ministering to the Hispanic community at Saint Anne Catholic Church in Flushing and St. Nicholas of Tolentine in Jamaica,…

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A former priest of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh was arrested this week for allegedly filming a teen in a bathroom stall.

Paul Spisak, 77, was arrested Wednesday on charges of photographic sexual acts involving a child or minor, possession of child pornography and invasion of privacy.

A 13-year-old boy saw Mr. Spisak filming him through a crack in a bathroom stall at the Target store in East Liberty, according to a criminal complaint. The boy told his father that he noticed Mr. Spisak filming him with his phone from the cracks in the adjacent stall while the teen was using the bathroom.

The boy’s father reported the incident to a Target security officer, who confronted Mr. Spisak, but the former priest denied the allegations.

The security guard called police, and an officer arrived as Mr. Spisak was attempting to flee the scene, the complaint says, with the boy’s father…

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In 1992, Anthony William Caruana faced two separate trials after students of Chevalier College in the Southern Highlands complained to police of his sexual abuse in 1989.

The Catholic priest, who was also a boarding master, rugby coach and band master at the school, had initially been charged with 11 offences against seven boys, but only two charges made it to trial.

With prosecutors at that time legally unable to link the two charges or show evidence to the juries of Caruana’s tendency to sexually abuse the boys under his care, he was acquitted.

Nearly 30 years later, his victims – now totalling 12, many of whom carry psychological scars not only from the abuse, but from being disbelieved – have finally seen justice.

Following a seven-week trial in the NSW District Court, Caruana was convicted in July of 22 counts of indecent assault and four counts of sexual intercourse with…

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Police and a former student of child abuser Anthony William Peter Caruana have described the pedophile priest’s jailing for 15 years as a good day.

The former Chevalier College teacher, now 80, attacked students in a swimming pool, a band storage room, dormitories, his office and on rugby pitches while working at the NSW Southern Highlands school from 1982 to 1989.

He was jailed on Friday for 26 offences against 12 boys.

The victims were aged 12 to 14 and often boarded at the school.

“It’s been 39 years in the coming and it’s a good day for all the victims,” Detective Senior Constable Brad Streeting told AAP.

“Justice for them has finally come and hopefully this will add to the closure for them.”

The sentiment was shared by Brendan King, who described Caruana as “an arrogant prick right to the end” who’d “lied and lied in the witness box”…

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[Via National Catholic Reporter]

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, currently on sabbatical following criticism of his handling of clerical abuse cases in the Cologne Archdiocese, faces further pressure following the announcement that contracts he awarded to lawyers and communications consultants will be investigated under canon law.

The German Catholic news agency KNA reported that Bishop Rolf Steinhäuser, interim head of the archdiocese, said there were indications that neither the property council nor the cathedral chapter had been involved in the awarding of contracts, as would have been required under canon law. Woelki and Msgr. Markus Hofmann, archdiocesan vicar general, awarded the contracts, KNA reported.

After a meeting with the council and chapter, Steinhäuser immediately commissioned two independent canon lawyers to examine the matter and informed the Vatican, the archdiocese said Dec. 7.

Earlier this year, after revelations about the handling of abuse reports in the archdiocese, a Vatican investigation said Woelki…

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A meeting at the Vatican between Pope Francis and Canadian Indigenous people who were abused at church-run boarding schools has been postponed because of the new coronavirus variant.

National Chief RoseAnne Archibald of the Assembly of First Nations said Tuesday that the delegation had planned to travel to Rome next week and meet with the pope on Dec. 20, but the trip is being put off because of the omicron variant. Many of the First Nation delegates are elderly.

“Particularly for many elderly delegates as well as those who live in remote communities, the risk of infection and the fluid nature of the evolving global situation presents too great a threat at this time,” the Indigenous groups and Canadian Catholic bishops said in a joint statement.

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools as an effort…

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The Swiss bishops’ conference and the nation’s conference of religious orders have commissioned an independent study of sexual abuse cases within the Catholic Church in the country during the second half of the 20th century.

In a statement released Dec. 6, the bishops’ conference said two history professors from the University of Zurich — Monika Dommann and Marietta Maier — will assemble and lead a team of researchers who will begin their work by March 2022.

“Many people have suffered greatly as a result of sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in Switzerland,” the statement said. Undertaking “a scientific reexamination is first and foremost a duty to the victims, especially to learn lessons for the future.”

The announcement came after the October release of a report in France by an independent commission which estimated that more than 330,000 children had been abused by church personnel there since the 1950s.

In early November, the Portuguese bishops’ conference announced…

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Two months after the publication of the CIASE report on Sexual Abuse in the Church in France, Swiss bishops announce the establishment of an independent commission to investigate into historical cases of abuse committed in the Church in Switzerland.

Following the publication of the CIASE Report in France, the Catholic Church in Switzerland has decided conduct an independent investigation into sexual abuse committed by Church members in the country.

The Conferences of Swiss Bishops (CES) and of religious orders and other communities of consecrated life in Switzerland (KOVOS) together with Central Roman Catholic Conference of Switzerland (Rkz), which brings together 24 cantonal Catholic lay organizations, have entrusted the investigation to the University of Zurich. The study will look into historical cases of “sexual exploitation within the Roman Catholic Church in Switzerland from the second half of the twentieth century”, a press release reports.   The study will focus on…

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The leaders of the Catholic Church in Switzerland have commissioned a study into the Swiss church’s history of sexual exploitation since the mid-20th century.

The Swiss Bishops’ Conference and two other organisations announced on Monday that two University of Zurich history professors, Monika Dommann and Marietta Maier, would lead the study which is due to officially launch in March 2022.

“Countless people have endured deep suffering linked to sexual abuse in the context of the Roman Catholic Church,” the organisations said. “Work of scientific memory is owed first of all to the victims, but it will also provide lessons for the future.”

The one-year pilot project will give the researchers access to files and archives “where possible and authorized under canonical and state law”. 

A scientific committee appointed by the Swiss History Society will oversee the project to guarantee its independence.

In 2010, the Swiss Catholic Church finally…

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Pope Francis has urged caution in the “interpretation” of a damning report into child sexual abuse by French Catholic clergy, saying a “historical situation” must be viewed in context.

A landmark inquiry overseen by an independent commission confirmed in October extensive sexual abuse of minors by priests in France dating from the 1950s to 2020.

“When we do this kind of study, we must be attentive to the interpretation we make of it,” the 84-year-old pontiff told reporters on board his flight back from a trip to Greece.

“Abuse 100 years ago, 70 years ago, was brutality. But the way it was experienced is not the same as today,” he said.

“For example, in the case of abuse in the church, the attitude was to cover it up — an attitude that unfortunately still exists today in a large number of families.”

He added that the “historical situation” must be…

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Aboard papal flight, Francis also mentions plans for second meeting with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill

Less than a week after accepting the resignation of Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit following reports of an “ambiguous” relationship with a woman, Pope Francis on Dec. 6 defended the recently ousted prelate, saying “we cannot condemn.”

Aupetit, 70, offered his resignation to Francis last month after allegations surfaced that he had a relationship with a woman in 2012, prior to being made a bishop. 

The pope said he had not accepted the archbishop’s resignation “on the altar of truth, but on the altar of hypocrisy.”

The Paris archbishop has maintained that his relationship with the woman in question was not intimate. 

“If we do not know,” Francis told journalists, “we cannot condemn. Who knows? Ugly, eh?”

Although Francis’ defended the embattled prelate in flight, the Vatican previously announced on Dec….

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Pope Francis has given formal approval to a series of updates and modifications that have been made over the years to the norms regarding clerical sexual abuse and other crimes reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The newest version of the so-called “Norms on the delicts reserved to the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith” does not introduce any new crimes, but it does seek to improve the procedural norms regarding the penal process and to update those canons connected with the recently revised “Book VI: Penal Sanctions in the Church” that was to go into effect Dec. 8.

The document, published by the Vatican Dec. 7, changes and updates modifications St. John Paul II in 2001 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 made to the list of canonical delicts or crimes reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the procedures for handling such cases.

Since then, many new measures have…

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Warning: This story contains graphic details of alleged sexual assault

A law firm representing men who say they were sexually assaulted by at least five priests when they were children is requesting authorization for a class action lawsuit against the entire Diocese of Amos, in Quebec’s Abitibi region.

The application, being presented in the Superior Court of the District of Abitibi on Tuesday, targets the Diocese of Amos and the Bishop of Amos for alleged crimes from 1940 to the present day.

The men say they were between the ages of seven and 14 at the time of the alleged assaults.

The plaintiff representing the class action is a 65-year-old man who cannot be identified. He alleges that he was sexually assaulted on several occasions when he was between seven and 11 years old.

The motion, led by Montreal law firm Arsenault Dufresne Wee, alleges that Father Paul-Émile Bilodeau, a…

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A legal advocacy group in Timor-Leste has called on people in the Catholic-majority country to show respect for the alleged sex abuse victims of former priest Richard Daschbach.

In a public statement on Dec. 6, Jurídico Social Consultoria (JU,S) which represents the complainants, said it is important “to recognize that the victims and their families, and the society as a whole, have endured immense pain and suffering as a consequence of the acts that led to this case.”

JU,S  has urged members of the public to use restraint while publishing statements “aimed at demeaning, intimidating and harassing our sisters for solely choosing to use the available legal procedure to demand redress for their rights.”  

JU,S said that its efforts to pursue the case posed many challenges. “These included messages of hatred and of a xenophobic nature, incitements of violence on social media and within the local community against JU,S…

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Almost 20 years ago, clergy abuse survivor Phil Saviano told the first Voice of the Faithful conference: “I am not faithful.” He said the repeated assaults he suffered from Fr. David Holley had led to losing his faith before he even went through puberty.

Yet, on Dec. 3, Saviano was buried in a rural cemetery of the Diocese of Worcester, after a funeral Mass at St. Denis Catholic Church in Douglas, Massachusetts.

It was the very church where Saviano had been sexually assaulted repeatedly as a boy by Holley. A familiar photo shows Phil in front of St. Denis – the church and the statue – in the late 1990s, wearing a Recovering Catholic T-shirt. What are we to make of Phil Saviano’s provocative final gesture?

Phil’s funeral Mass (the video is available here) was nothing like the healing Masses and ceremonies of…

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Billionaire businessman Andrew Forrest is poised to snap up prime farmland surrounding Australia’s only monastic town of New Norcia, 130 kilometres north of Perth in WA.

Key points:

• The historic townsite north of Perth is not part of the sale
• It’s the first time the land is being sold in 175 years
• The property is touted as some of the best farming land in the state

In a deal subject to approval by the Catholic Church, Mr Forrest’s Tattarang company is set to buy the 7,975 hectares of farmland surrounding the historic townsite that was established by Benedictine monks as part of an Aboriginal mission in 1847.

It will be the first time the land, near the banks of the Moore River, has changed hands since then.

The remaining small community of monks at New Norcia made the “difficult decision” earlier this year to sell the land to pay for historical sexual abuse…

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The new Netflix documentary “Procession” follows six men who were sexually abused by Catholic priests from the Kansas City area. The film, made by University of Missouri Associate Professor Robert Greene, shows the survivors reclaiming power through drama therapy techniques.

The men attempt to heal from decades of pain by creating short films, some set at the very location the abuse happened. The scenes aren’t graphic, but symbolic of the power priests have.

All of the men agreed that child actor Terrick Trobough would play their younger selves. And the men themselves acted in the scenes as well.

“Just having actors come off the streets with no skin in the game wouldn’t help us raise this up to the level we’re trying to get [to],” one survivor Dan Laurine said.

The film takes viewers through the three-year process the men took to create the scenes, offering an intimate look at…

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On October 5, 2021, the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE), chaired by Jean-Marc Sauvé, published the report that the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) and by the Conference of Men and Women Religious of France (COREFF) had commissioned it to produce.

The following is an analysis by Fr. Arnaud Sélégny (SSPX).

The sentence fell like a cleaver: the president announced that 216,000 minors had been victims of assault by ecclesiastical staff or consecrated persons – priests, deacons, men or women religious – a figure which would rise to 330,000 if the lay staff attached to the Church were taken into consideration. These numbers obviously went off like a bomb. They were relayed and taken as final and firmly established.

The report also presents a series of explanatory causes, from which it draws a list of 45 recommendations to implement the suggestions, and the reforms it advocates.

…

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Everybody likes Pope Francis. Except, it seems, U.S. Catholic bishops. 

On the other hand, no one seems to like the bishops — they damaged their own credibility with their 2002 “Dallas Charter” on clerical sex abuse, which sanctioned only priests and deacons but left bishops alone. 

It was former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, known then, as now, for his own predatory acts, who suggested eliminating bishops from the document. 

Once again, today, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops seems bereft of common sense. 

Forget the worldwide Synod on Synodality, a listening exercise ordered by Francis, who wants to hear from Catholics and non-Catholics alike about how the church can move forward in the current century. Many American bishops are content to ignore it: Only half of the U.S. bishops have even named someone to run the synod project in their dioceses.

That is, half of the U.S. bishops are…

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Newly named Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller says he wants to get to the bottom of why Ottawa abandoned its appeal of a ruling releasing the Catholic Church from its settlement obligations to residential school survivors.

“I am as puzzled as everyone,” he told The Canadian Press in a recent, wide-ranging interview.“

“I don’t know what there is to do yet.”

The ruling, handed down by a Saskatchewan judge in July 2015, found a deal had been struck between the federal government and a corporation of Catholic entities. That deal released the church groups from their remaining obligations within the $79-million worth of payments and in-kind services owed to survivors under the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, approved in 2006.

That included, for example, a “best efforts” fundraising campaign to generate $25 million, for which court only heard the groups raised around $3 million since the agreement took effect in 2007.

Today, the…

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Canada’s Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister says the federal government will soon release some of the residential school records it’s been criticized for withholding to a national archives centre.

Marc Miller also says there’s no evidence the Liberal cabinet, including former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, was told of a 2015 decision to drop a court case that freed the Catholic Church from compensating survivors.

“Knowing what we know today — it doesn’t seem right,” he told The Canadian Press in a recent interview.

In October, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation said Ottawa had yet to provide key documents detailing the specific histories of each government-funded, church-run institution that made up the residential school system.

The statement came in response to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau telling Indigenous leaders in Kamloops, B.C., that the federal government had turned over all of the records in its possession, a claim the Winnipeg-based centre said wasn’t…

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When Robert Bender arrived at Brewster Hall in 1980, Conrad Mainwaring was the first person he met.

“He was the face of Syracuse University,” Bender said.

Mainwaring, who worked in a residence hall at the time, introduced himself while leading Bender and his mother up the stairs. When he learned that Bender was a gymnast, Mainwaring, a former Olympian who was studying and coaching at SU, became excited, Bender said.

In the following weeks, Mainwaring watched Bender practice at Archbold Gymnasium. He told stories about the Olympics. Eventually, Mainwaring sexually assaulted Bender.

But unlike the survivors who have sued SU for employing the man who abused them as children, Bender has no legal recourse. He is just six months older than some of the plaintiffs currently battling the university in court, but because Bender was 18 when Mainwaring began abusing him, he cannot sue.

Survivors, legislators and advocacy groups hope…

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It was one of the craziest stories of 2019, and now it’s one of the most infuriating stories of 2021.

I’m referring to the case of Angel Garcia, the former Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany deacon who last week was indicted on two felony counts related to the sexual abuse of children — acts that he allegedly committed when he should have been in state prison for sexually abusing his 6-year-old goddaughter years ago. 

It’s quite possible that the only reason Garcia was finally consigned to prison two years ago was because Cayla Harris, at the time a newly arrived Hearst Fellow at the Times Union, uncovered a monumental judicial-bureaucratic oversight while she was building a database of regional sexual offenders and their status. The project was part of her coverage of abuse cases launched under the state’s Child Victims Act law, which in August 2019 opened a one-year “lookback window”…

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The activist has died at age 69.

Phil Saviano never let go. From the time in the basement of St. Denis Church, when he was molested by a priest named David Holley, through the years of cover-ups and denials, through the belated—and ongoing—vindication of himself and thousands of other victims in the early 1990s, through a lifetime of deadly medical problems that began with an AIDS diagnosis in 1992 to the cancer that finally killed him over the weekend, Phil Saviano just would…not…let…go. He would not let go of the crimes coated with candle wax, their stench camouflaged by incense. He sunk his teeth into an institutional Roman Catholic Church that had turned into an international conspiracy to obstruct justice, and he hung on with the kind of strength of character that we little Catholic schoolchildren had been taught was the martyr’s true glory. The truth set him free, but…

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Since Gov. Murphy signed a 2019 law that suspended the statute of limitations for civil sex abuse lawsuits for two years, more than 1,200 cases were filed — two-thirds of them against clergy or a religious institution.

A window to justice opened, and the people who had spent years or decades harboring an unfathomable pain stepped through it.

But the deadline for those victims to file suit ended Tuesday, and examination of the available data makes this much clear: The suspension of the statute needs to be extended, and our lawmakers should consider waiving it entirely.

Victims of abuse need time to decide whether they can share their experience. That’s why the bill championed by Senator Joe Vitale was crucial, because the previous window for civil action in our state was preposterous: Victims had to bring civil suits before they turned 20 or within two years from the…

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A Cincinnati priest pleaded guilty Thursday to raping an altar boy in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a day before jury selection was set to begin in his trial.

The Rev. Geoff Drew showed no emotion in court as the victim, now a man in his 40s, as well as the man’s wife described the impact of Drew’s crimes.

“You killed me,” the man told Drew. “I’ve been through hell.”

The man’s wife said that for many years her husband believed he was to blame for what happened.

“That he had been too weak … or too kind or too trusting,” she said. “That he was unloved, and worst of all, that he was alone.”

As part of the plea agreement, Drew received a seven-year prison sentence, a sentence the victim had been consulted about, according to prosecutors.

Drew pleaded guilty to nine counts of rape for incidents that happened between 1988…

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Father Geoff Drew of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati was placed on administrative leave on July 23, 2019 as a result of a pattern of behaviors – such as boundary violations and texting a minor – in contradiction to the Decree on Child Protection. Subsequent to being placed on administrative leave, Father Drew was arrested and charged with nine counts of rape. These were new, previously unreported allegations dating back to the late 1980s, a decade before he entered the seminary to begin formation for the priesthood.

Information previously released about this matter can be found on the website of the archdiocese:

Fr. Geoff Drew Information

Given the guilty plea accepted today in court, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati will now seek the laicization of Father Geoff Drew with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Holy See.

“Father Geoff Drew will never again have a priestly assignment in…

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[See original article for links to videos]

A Cincinnati priest pleaded guilty Thursday to nine counts of raping a 10-year-old altar boy multiple times between 1988 and 1991 and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

That sentence, worked out in a plea deal with Hamilton County prosecutors on the eve of the start of his trial, is far less than he would have faced had he been convicted of all charges, up to 99 years.

Now, Father Geoff Drew, 59, will be released from prison in 2026. He received credit for time served at the county jail while awaiting trial, 27 months.

Drew is required to register as a Tier III sex offender for the rest of his life.

The priest wore a face covering in court, appeared to show no emotion and did not speak.

His attorney said on his behalf: “The defense expresses remorse over what happened.”

…

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A Catholic priest from Cincinnati pleaded guilty on Thursday to raping a 10-year-old altar decades ago, one day before the jury was to be selected for his trial.

The Rev. Geoff Drew, 59, was reportedly emotionless at his court appearance when he was directly addressed by his victim, now in his 40s.

“The truth is no amount of time will make up for the child that you murdered,” the victim told his abuser, according to Fox 19.

“Any chance of having intimacy, any chance to actually live, love, find joy, was stolen,” the victim said. “You made me unusable, undesirable, dirty and broken, but I trust in God that this is bigger than you. This is bigger than me. And this is in his authority to have vengeance. And one day you will have to stand in front of him.”

Drew was sentenced to seven years in…

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He played a pivotal role in helping The Boston Globe uncover the widespread scandal in the Catholic Church and was portrayed in the movie “Spotlight.”

Phil Saviano carried a terrible secret for much of his life — that in the early 1960s, when he was 11, he was sexually molested by his parish priest in Massachusetts.

Nearly 30 years later, suffering from AIDS and believing he would soon die, he decided to go public about the abuse and disclosed his experience to The Boston Globe. As it happened, Mr. Saviano lived, and he went on to play a pivotal role in bringing to light the widespread pedophile priest scandal coursing through the Roman Catholic Church.

He provided key information and guidance for a series of articles by The Globe’s Spotlight team, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003. And his role…

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Just two years after his ordination in 2017, the Rev. Robert McWilliams was charged with a cascade of sexual assault and child pornography charges. He was sentenced to life imprisonment a few weeks ago, on Nov. 9, in a federal criminal court in Cleveland.

The McWilliams case came as an unhappy shock to Catholics in the Diocese of Cleveland and all over the United States who might have hoped that years of procedural changes and an enhanced screening process for seminarians would have put an end to the ordination of priests like Father McWilliams. The most recent report card from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection, released the same day as Father McWilliams’s sentencing, offered some reason for optimism. Although 4,228 allegations of sexual abuse by clergy surfaced between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, only 22 came from individuals who are now minors; the…

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Guam’s Catholic Church has come up with a revised proposed payment of US$27.96 million to US$34.38 million to those who claimed they were raped or sexually molested by priests and other members of the clergy when they were minors, dating back to the 1950s.

That’s more than US$100,000 per clergy sex abuse survivor if the award is based on equal amounts, although the process is far from over.

Clergy sex abuse survivors and other claimants would need to vote to either accept or reject the plan from the Archdiocese of Agana.

The bankruptcy court’s confirmation of the plan is also needed. Once the plan is confirmed after a hearing, payments may begin about three months later.

The proposed compensation to abuse survivors is part of the Archdiocese of Agana’s First Amended Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Plan of reorganisation filed Thursday with the District Court of Guam.

The plan is meant to…

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Portugal is going forward with a commission to investigate possible cases of child sex abuse within the Catholic Church, as the lay head of the committee urged victims to come forward on Thursday.

The Independent Committee for the Study of Child Abuse in the Church has been set up by the Portuguese bishops’ conference and will be headed by a child psychiatrist, Pedro Strecht.

Alongside him will be a team of six professionals including psychiatrists, a former supreme court judge, and a social worker.

The team will begin working together from January next year, collecting testimonies from all of those who want to come forward and report the abuse they have suffered.

Strecht said he hopes victims will overcome their fear and reluctance and get in touch, even if the abuse happened decades ago. He promised anonymity for anyone who does.

“Encouraging victims to come forward requires a lot of…

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Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris, who had offered to step down to avoid “becoming a source of divisions,” after an article in the Le Point weekly claimed he mismanaged his archdiocese and had an affair with a woman while he was vicar general.

The pope also named retired Archbishop Georges Pontier to temporarily lead the archdiocese as the apostolic administrator; the 78-year-old archbishop had served as apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Avignon from January to July after deep divisions and financial difficulties lead to the early retirement of Archbishop Jean-Pierre Marie Cattenoz.

The Vatican made the announcement Dec. 2.

Archbishop Aupetit, 70, had told France’s Catholic La Croix daily Nov. 26 he had submitted his resignation to the pope and awaited his answer, adding that his behavior toward the unnamed woman “may have been ambiguous,” but had not extended to “an intimate…

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Well, the Holy Father turned that one around right quickly. “That” is the resignation of the Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, which the Press Office of the Holy See on Thursday told the world Pope Francis has accepted. Francis had Aupetit’s letter late last month, just after Le Point published something between an exposé and an unflattering profile of the Parisian churchman, detailing his strongman governance of the French capital archdiocese and alleging an affair with a woman some years before he became a bishop.

Archbishop Aupetit denied his relationship with the woman was sexual, but called it a “mistake” in a statement and said he offered his resignation “to preserve the diocese from the division that suspicion and loss of trust are continuing to provoke.”

Other churchmen credibly accused of much worse wrongdoing have seen their offers of resignation languish for months and even years.

From Donald Cardinal Wuerl – who fudged…

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When I filed my story on the problems of the diocese of Paris, A Crisis of Governance in the French Church, for this week’s Tablet, I had little sense that Pope Francis would accept Archbishop Michel Aupetit’s resignation before the week was done. The news slipped out in the Vatican’s daily bollettino yesterday, while the Pope was on his way to Cyprus

Michel Aupetit was not the right man for Paris. He glaringly lacked the human, political and cultural skills to run the most important diocese in France. He alienated many of his priests; some saw him as an old-fashioned GP (he was one before coming a priest) with a “doctor knows best” attitude. The Vatican knew all this; Libération reports that the Papal Nuncio to France, Mgr Celestino Miglior, had been trying discreetly to move Aupetit for some time – perhaps to exfiltrate him to a position in the Roman curia.

Aupetit’s resignation…

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Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Michel Aupetit from the position of Archbishop of Paris following reports that Aupetit had a consensual “intimate relationship” with a woman.

The move was announced in a statement from the Vatican Thursday after French magazine Le Point broke the news of the relationship on November 22.

Aupetit also released a statement after the Vatican announced its decision.

“I was, of course, greatly disturbed by the attacks I was subjected to,” reads the statement.

“I ask forgiveness of those whom I might have hurt and I assure you all of my deep friendship and my prayer, which will always be yours.

“The alleged relationship came to light due to a love email Aupetit sent to his secretary by mistake in 2012, when he was the Vicar-General of Paris, according to Le Point.

Despite admitting in the Le Point article that his…

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Pope Francis on Thursday accepted the resignation of the archbishop of Paris, who unexpectedly offered to step down last week after admitting to an “ambiguous” relationship with a woman in 2012.

Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit said in a statement Thursday that he offered to step down “to preserve the diocese from the division that suspicion and loss of trust are continuing to provoke.”

The Vatican said in a statement that the pope accepted Aupetit’s offer, and named Monsignor Georges Pontier to serve temporarily in his place pending the pontiff’s appointment of a permanent new archbishop.

The resignation comes amid great upheaval in the French Catholic Church. A report in October estimated some 3,000 French priests had committed sexual abuse over the past 70 years. And last year, the pope accepted the resignation of French Roman Catholic Cardinal Philippe Barbarin in connection with the coverup of sexual abuse of dozens of boys by a…

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Gone too soon

Philip James Saviano

June 23, 1952 – November 28, 2021

Philip James Saviano passed away on November 28, 2021. His funeral service will be live streamed from St. Denis Catholic Church (located in Douglas, Massachusetts) on Friday, December 3, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. EST.

[Note: This Catholic funeral Mass will be said by Fr. Ron Coyne; see his homily on clergy abuse. Eulogies will be given toward the end of the Mass.

Phil Saviano, clergy abuse victim who refused to stay silent, dies at 69, by Bryan Marquard, Boston Globe

Phil Saviano, advocate for survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, dies at 69, by Matt Schudel, Washington Post]

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A commission investigating allegations of historical child sexual abuse by members of the Portuguese Catholic church urged victims on Thursday to speak up and help them lift a veil of silence around the issue.

“We want (victims) to report, finally and without fear, what happened to them,” the head of the newly-created commission, psychiatrist Pedro Strecht, told a news conference during which he announced the team conducting the investigation.

Portugal’s Bishops Conference announced the creation of the body last month after a major investigation in France revealed that around 3,000 priests and religious officials sexually abused 200,000 children over the past 70 years. 

The Roman Catholic Church has been rocked by sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children, over the past 20 years.

“The Portuguese church is the first to want to shed light on this issue,” said Jose Ornelas, head of the Bishops’ Conference. “If I expect…

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