ABUSE TRACKER

A globally renowned expert in canon law told U.S bishops Wednesday that local bishops are responsible for canonically prosecuting sexual abuse of vulnerable adults committed by clerics in their dioceses. 

The remark could require a major shift in diocesan administration, changing how diocesan bishops treat acts of clerical sexual misconduct which have until now been considered moral failures, but not canonical delicts.

“Sexual misconduct with vulnerable adults, for whom the law recognises equal protection under Vos estis lux mundi, is not reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,” Archbishop Charles Scicluna, a senior official at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine, said in a Nov. 17 video presentation given to U.S. bishops gathered for their fall assembly in Baltimore. 

“This means, however, that the local bishop has to take care of these cases.”

The archbishop’s presentation would seem to end a debate among canonists on the implementation of…

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As the Catholic Church in Italy still reels from several fresh scandals involving clergy, the country’s bishops on Thursday will be hold the first-ever Day of Prayer and Awareness for victims and survivors of sexual abuse.

“We cannot forget the suffering experienced by minors and vulnerable people due to the abuses of power, conscience, and sexuality committed by a considerable number of clerics and consecrated persons,” said Bishop Lorenzo Ghizzoni of Ravenna-Cervia in the introduction for one of the formal prayers prepared for Thursday.

President of the Italian church’s National Service for the Protection of Minors, Ghizzoni said the members of the Church are continually challenged “to take on the pain of our brothers wounded in flesh and spirit: for too long the cry of victims has been a cry that the Church has not been able to sufficiently hear.”

Set to coincide with the Nov. 18 European Day for…

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At the end of the first public day of the fall general assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, it’s hard not to feel that one has attended the church’s version of the Iowa caucuses. All the heavy hitters of both parties are gathered in one place at one time, and journalists are not far behind.

However, to get a more complete picture of the Church in the United States, it’s healthy to leave the Waterfront Marriott Hotel where they are meeting and just walk around the corner: In a span of a few yards one can find a rally organized by Church Militant, that had originally scheduled former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon as keynote speaker, and a woman dressed in purple and wearing a Santa Claus hat tired of having religion “mansplained” to her.

Here, then, is a sampling of the sights and sounds of the…

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The October 5, 2021, revelations show that senior operatives of the Legion of Christ Order set up a trio of trusts in New Zealand to hide the group’s money. At the time “victims of sexual abuse of its priests were seeking financial compensation from the Order through lawsuits,” noted theworldnews.net.

“The Pandora Papers is an investigation into the shadowy offshore financial system that reveals the workings of a secret economy that benefits the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of everyone else. The ‘papers’ are the more than 11.9 million confidential records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that form the backbone of the investigation,” their icij.org website reported.

“Two of the Legion’s trusts would eventually hold $300 million in assets and moved money around the world …The trusts used a shell company to invest heavily in U.S. rental properties, including in apartment complexes where tenants were evicted during the coronavirus eviction moratorium,” the…

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The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Cologne, Germany held a service of penance Thursday for cases of sexual abuse by clergy, saying the ritual was not an absolution for the perpetrators but a “confession of guilt.”

The German Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse reports has caused a massive crisis in Cologne, where the archbishop, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, has taken a “spiritual timeout” on the advice of Pope Francis.

The archdiocese’s interim administrator, Auxiliary Bishop Rolf Steinhaeuser, led Thursday’s service.

“A large number of crimes of sexualized violence against wards have been committed by priests and other church employees of our diocese,” Steinhaeuser said during the service held at Cologne Cathedral.

The auxiliary bishop said that as the current head of the archdiocese, he is the “head of the perpetrator organization of the Archdiocese of Cologne,” German news agency dpa reported.

“This service does not end with forgiveness,” Steinhaeuser said….

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The Portuguese bishops’ conference announced the creation of a national commission to support local dioceses in their investigations into current and historic cases of sexual abuse.

The new commission, which was announced Nov. 11 at the end of the bishops’ four-day plenary assembly in Fatima, was established after a discussion devoted to “the protection of vulnerable minors and adults in the ecclesial sphere and in society as a whole,” the conference said.

“Recognizing the work of the diocesan commissions, made up especially of laypeople qualified in various areas such as law, psychiatry and psychology, the assembly decided to create a national commission to strengthen and expand the handling of cases and the respective follow-up at the civil and canonical level,” the bishops said.

The creation of the new commission comes after an independent report on sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church released last month estimated that as…

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On day one of the Bishops’ General Assembly, these were some topics of discussion or interest:

Synod on synodality should not avoid problems, archbishop says in homily

More than 200 bishops and archbishops and six cardinals concelebrated the opening Mass for the fall assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the first in-person gathering for the prelates since November 2019. The pandemic moved their past three full meetings to videoconferencing. Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, the USCCB’s president, was the principal celebrant.

The bishops, masked and adequately spaced, along with some laypeople, filled the pews of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the evening Mass Nov. 15. Among the concelebrants were Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, Pope Francis’ representative, who was scheduled to address the bishops at their morning session Nov….

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“We need to hold each other up,” says one Kansas City man who was assaulted by his priest. Others tell their stories in a new Netflix documentary shot in Kansas City.

Brian Heydon was sexually assaulted as a kid.

Now a licensed counselor in Kansas City, Heydon grew up in a Catholic family. In the 1960s and ’70s, he said, the religion was a place for child predators to thrive.

“The dynamic is you are indoctrinated into a faith that you don’t question,” said Heydon. “The priest, we call him father, and he’s the gateway to our salvation. He’s so powerful. You don’t question him, no matter what.”

Heydon and his family moved to St. John Francis Regis Parish in southeast Kansas City, where, he said, the priest began to groom him. Heydon described a moment where the priest showed up to his religion class and told him he’d earned…

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Judy Dabler built a career helping reconcile conflict within ministries including RZIM and Mars Hill. But a new investigation says she abused her authority to protect those with power.

A leading Christian conciliator who was involved in handling abuse allegations and training at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), Mars Hill Church, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), and dozens of other churches and ministries over the past 15 years, has been found unfit for counseling, coaching, or conciliation.

Judy Dabler founded two popular organizations for Christians needing a third party to help navigate conflict and broken relationships: Live at Peace Ministries (LAPM) and Creative Conciliation. She also taught more than 10,000 people how to do conciliation, which she described in presentations as the only biblical option for dealing with conflict.

In her conciliation work, though, Dabler consistently favored the person paying the bills, siding with the leader or big-name institution. Again…

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A Rhode Island District Court judge on Monday entered “no plea” on behalf of Father James Jackson, FSSP, a Providence-based priest who is facing state and federal child pornography charges.

Jackson, who until recently was pastor at a parish in suburban Denver, is facing state charges consisting of possession of child pornography, transfer of child pornography, and child erotica prohibited.

Judge James Caruolo, a state judge sitting in Providence, entered “no plea” during Jackson’s arraignment Nov. 15. Speaking on background, a general operations assistant at the court told CNA that “no plea” in Jackson’s case is a formality.

Jackson, wearing lay clothes consisting of a collared shirt, jacket, and Khaki pants, did not speak during the proceeding, except for a handful of times when he affirmed the judge’s yes or no questions. Since his arrest, Jackson has not spoken publicly on his case. 

After the arraignment, Jackson’s lawyer, John Calcagni…

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The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has responded to allegations against a Catholic Diocese of Youngstown priest currently on administrative leave after allegations of “inappropriate physical contact with a minor.”

The statement sent by SNAP founder, Judy Jones, issued a news release claiming that the Diocese should have contacted law enforcement directly regarding the incident , incorrectly implying that the matter was not also reported to an outside public agency. 

The Diocese reported the matter to the Mahoning County Children Services agency, in addition to its own victim assistance coordinator. 

“Secular investigations are the way to deal with clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, which has been going on unabated for decades. More importantly, such reports are more likely to reach the public, which helps survivors heal and empowers victims, many of whom are still sitting in silence, to come forward,” the statement said.

It is accurate…

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The Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S. urged the country’s Catholic bishops on Nov. 16 to try to tamp down divisions among themselves and to embrace Pope Francis’ vision for a listening church, open to change.

In an energetic half-hour address opening the first general session of the bishops’ four-day assembly, Archbishop Christophe Pierre told the prelates gathered here that the church needs “attentive listening more than ever if she is to overcome the polarization facing this country.”

Although Pierre did not specifically mention the bishops’ plans to release a controversial document on Communion, he appeared to touch on the intense disagreements among the prelates in recent months about the text.

The archbishop called on the bishops to prioritize unity and put aside their preconceived ideas in order to be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

In an apparent nod to original plans for the Communion text to single…

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On the first of two days of public sessions during the U.S. bishops’ fall general assembly, a group of sex abuse survivors in a Nov. 16 news conference called on the prelates meeting in Baltimore to focus less on who can take Communion and instead do more to end sex abuse and other abuses by clergy.

The survivors also demanded the bishops condemn a group that was holding a nearby protest claiming homosexuality is linked to pedophilia.

“We wanted to come here today on behalf of survivors, a group of survivors of sexual abuse who are committed to fighting for justice and to also highlight what’s not being talked about when they’re focused on the Eucharist,” said Sarah Pearson, a sex abuse survivor from Wisconsin who joined other members of the organization Ending Clergy Abuse in addressing bishops.

“They’ve shown us in focusing on this culture war, about the Eucharist,…

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• The private Darlington School in Rome, Georgia settled a lawsuit with 20 former students after they claimed they were sexually assaulted by their teacher
• English teacher and ‘dorm parent’ Roger Stifflemire had supervised a group of male students between the ages of 13 and 17 when he worked at the academy
• The former students filed the lawsuit in 2017 after revealing the sexual abuse 
• A few had reported the abuse to the school but said that action had been taken
• Stifflemire, who worked at the school between 1974 to 1994, is now retired and has since denied the claims made against him
• The alleged victims will now receive compensation from the school decades later and are working to stop sexual abuse in their settlement 

An elite $54k-a year private boarding school in Georgia has settled a lawsuit with 20 students who claimed they were sexually assaulted by their English teacher decades ago.

Roger Stifflemire,…

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Inside — and outside — the first public session of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ fall gathering revealed increasingly politicized tensions between American clerics, the Vatican and lay Catholics.

The first public session of U.S. Catholic bishops’ fall gathering included calls for unity, but rhetoric inside and outside the conference hotel hinted at an increasingly atomized spectrum of Catholic thought that overlaps heavily with political debates and manifests in tensions between American clerics, the Vatican and lay Catholics.

Evidence of disagreement between members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Holy See was made clear on Tuesday (Nov. 16), in the opening address from Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio who serves as the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S.

Although he appealed to “unity desired by Christ,” he also spoke directly to an ongoing disagreement between USCCB leaders and the Vatican.

“There is the temptation to treat the Eucharist as…

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More than 200 bishops and archbishops and six cardinals concelebrated the opening Mass for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops fall assembly, as the prelates gathered in person for the first time since November 2019. 

The pandemic moved their last three full meetings to videoconferencing.

Archbishop José H. Gomez, conference president and archbishop of Los Angeles, was the principal celebrant. The bishops, masked and adequately spaced, along with some lay people, filled the pews of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the Mass Nov. 15.

Among the concelebrants were Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, Pope Francis’ representative, who was scheduled to address the bishops at their morning session Nov. 16.

One of the most contentious items on the bishops’ agenda for the meeting was to be discussion and action on a…

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Pope Francis’ top envoy to the United States cautioned the country’s bishops on Tuesday that the church needs to listen before it teaches as they deliberated at their fall meeting on a sensitive document about Holy Communion that emerged amid debates over Catholic politicians’ support for abortion.

“It is sometimes said that there is a lot of confusion about doctrine in the church today,” Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the papal ambassador, told the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “However, the argument continues that what is needed is clear teaching. That is true, but the Holy Father says a church that teaches must be firstly a church that listens.”

His remarks in the first public session of the gathering in Maryland came as bishops were readying to hold a vote on the document, which has been months in the making and has been surrounded by debate over the taking of communion by…

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Pope Francis’ top envoy to the United States cautioned the country’s bishops on Tuesday that the church needs to listen before it teaches as they deliberated at their fall meeting on a sensitive document about Holy Communion that emerged amid debates over Catholic politicians’ support for abortion.

“It is sometimes said that there is a lot of confusion about doctrine in the church today,” Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the papal ambassador, told the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “However, the argument continues that what is needed is clear teaching. That is true, but the Holy Father says a church that teaches must be firstly a church that listens.”

His remarks in the first public session of the gathering in Maryland came as bishops were readying to hold a vote on the document, which has been months in the making and has been surrounded by debate over the taking of communion by…

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Today the meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops gets underway in Baltimore. Unlike previous years, they will not start their four-day assembly with an open session, but with executive session, behind closed doors. No doubt this reflects a desire to iron out their differences over the proposed document about the Eucharist before bringing the text to the floor for a vote.

NCR and Fordham’s Center on Religion and Culture co-hosted a discussion of the proposed document last Thursday and I was surprised to hear Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, say he was “afraid” the document was likely to pass. I would have thought most of the non-culture war bishops like Stowe would vote for the theologically impoverished, but essentially anodyne, document if only to get the issue off the table.

The genesis of the proposed document was an effort to deny Communion…

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To protect the sacrament of reconciliation as a “channel of grace” for victims of sexual abuse, the Catholic Church must do a better job instructing priests on what to do if a victim recounts his or her abuse in the confessional and in the unlikely case that an abuser confesses, said Jesuit Father Hans Zollner.

“If the church did more to help confessors be empathetic listeners as well as skilled interpreters of the church’s moral teaching, it would make it clearer that the sacrament of reconciliation can be an instrument in the fight against abuse,” Father Zollner wrote Nov. 11 in The Tablet, the London-based Catholic journal.

“If the church is not able to better explain why it does not protect abusers or other serious criminals from justice—and why the seal can help safeguard children and vulnerable adults—state legislators may come to target the inviolability of the seal of confession,”…

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Those who come forward with accusations of sexual assault often are asked what took them so long to come forward.Whether there is a fear of not being believed or not wanting people knowing something so personal about them, experts say sexual assaults go underreported.

Executive Director of Safe Center Long Island Keith Scott says there was a study done in 2014 that shows 66% of sexual abuse victims never come forward.He says many choose not to come forward for feelings that it would be useless.”It’s cliche but enough is enough,” Scott says. “How many times are we going to have people come forward, share their story, have their story out for the whole world to see and then nothing happens.”Liz Osowiecki says members of a men’s basketball teams raped her in 2014 and she had no intention of coming forward with what happened to her, and she understands why many…

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A Vatican judge’s partial turnaround at a hearing earlier this month is a significant plot twist in the finance trial that kicked off this summer.

The prosecution has 10 defendants, with many different charges against them, most linked to the management of funds in the Vatican Secretariat of State, particularly to the purchase of a luxury property in London.

At the trial’s third hearing on Oct. 6, the president of the Vatican Tribunal, judge Giuseppe Pignatone, ruled in favor of requests by the defense to have prosecutors re-do the investigation into some of the charges and defendants.

This was Pignatone’s way of trying to resolve some situations in the trial that risked rendering it invalid. For example, the defense lawyers had pointed out that not all of the indictments had been filed — a necessary prerequisite for lawyers to prepare the defense. And in particular, they…

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As the nation’s Catholic bishops begin their annual fall assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 15, much attention will focus on the debate over a document that was originally meant to address pro-choice Catholic politicians like President Joe Biden.

But during the four-day event the bishops will also vote to elect a new treasurer for their national conference, as well as five new chairmen of their standing committees. The bishops selected will have a year to learn their new duties before beginning three-year terms in November 2022. They likely will exercise leadership and influence in the conference for years to come.

The slate of prelates nominated includes a few well-known figures, but also several lower-profile prelates whose ideologies run the gamut from conservative to liberal.

Jesuit Fr. Tom Reese, a journalist who has covered bishops’ meetings for decades, told NCR the outcome of these committee elections can be political,…

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To protect the sacrament of reconciliation as a “channel of grace” for victims of sexual abuse, the Catholic Church must do a better job instructing priests on what to do if a victim recounts his or her abuse in the confessional and in the unlikely case that an abuser confesses, said Jesuit Father Hans Zollner.

“If the church did more to help confessors be empathetic listeners as well as skilled interpreters of the church’s moral teaching, it would make it clearer that the sacrament of reconciliation can be an instrument in the fight against abuse,” Father Zollner wrote Nov. 11 in The Tablet, the London-based Catholic journal.

“If the church is not able to better explain why it does not protect abusers or other serious criminals from justice — and why the seal can help safeguard children and vulnerable adults — state legislators may come to target the inviolability of…

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The church can play a major role in eliminating sex trafficking worldwide, but only after it confronts and heals the scourge of sexual sin consuming it from within, said Elizabeth Melendez Fisher Good, an educator, author and advocate on issues of sexual abuse and trafficking.

If that transparency and accountability can be attained, it would transform congregations into sanctuaries for children and adults suffering from the effects of abuse and also prevent abuse from occurring in churches, said Fisher Good, founder and CEO of The Foundation United, a collaborative organization that provides educational and training programs for schools, law enforcement, churches and other organizations worldwide and also offers safe havens and rehabilitation for those who have escaped sex trafficking situations.

“If we can awaken the church to speak up about its own secrets, then we can eradicate sex trafficking,” she said. “We have to see the sexual sin in our own…

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Group calls on bishops to take responsibility

Former Donald Trump strategist Steve Bannon is one of the guest speakers at a prayer rally happening Tuesday while the U.S. Catholic Bishops conference is happening at the Marriott Waterfront in Baltimore.

The rally against the bishops will take place from a distance, right across the waterway at the MECU Pavilion.

St. Michael’s Media, the organizers behind the conservative catholic website Church Militant, want the bishops to take responsibility for the years of sexual abuse cover-ups and repent.

Church Militant will gather at the MECU Pavilion for a meeting called “Bishops: Enough is Enough.”

While at the Marriott, the U.S. bishops will hold their first meeting in two years since the pandemic canceled last year’s event.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops started Monday and runs through Thursday.

Baltimore is the center of the first and oldest U.S. diocese as the conference brings…

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A CATHOLIC children’s home where one Irvine pupil claimed abuse was ‘just part of life’ has been slated at a national inquiry.

Chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry Lady Smith published her findings last week on residential care by the Marist Brothers at St Columba’s College, Largs, and St Joseph’s College, Dumfries between 1950 and 1981 concluding that children were sexually abused at both boarding schools.

The Irvine victim told the inquiry how he was repeatedly sexually abused, beaten and shown pornography and horror movies from age eight.

Lady Smith said: “I heard about many aspects of St Columba’s that were shocking and distressing.

“Marist Brothers in positions of trust at both boarding schools violated their monastic vows and breached the trust of children and their families.

“Both schools had flawed systems that allowed abusers driven by sexual motives to have easy access to children in their care.

“At…

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The man is a former pupil of St Joseph’s College and was targeted by sexual predators when the school was run by the Marist Brothers between 1950 and 1981.

A man who was repeatedly raped as a child at a Dumfries school is considering legal action against the male religious order whose members carried out the abuse.

The 62-year-old is one of the former St Joseph’s College pupils who was targeted by sexual predators when the school was run by the Marist Brothers between 1950 and 1981.

Andrew, who still lives in the region, said: “My case is in the hands of solicitors in Glasgow.

“I’m considering a civil case because I want someone held responsible for what happened to me, and I don’t want any Catholic order entrusted with the care of children ever again.”

Andrew spoke out after an inquiry found that “systematic failures” made it easy for Marist Brothers to…

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In the haunting new documentary Procession, six men relive their sexual abuse by Catholic clergy

Everything in the bedroom is white, including a white crucifix on a white wall. A holy man sits on the corner of a bed, trousers off, legs open. “You need to confess everything,” he says, gripping a young boy’s arm to pull him closer. “The Catholic church has been very good to you, to your mother, to your brother and sister.

“You don’t want that to all go away, do you? So tell me, what else have you done wrong? What about when you think of girls? What do you do when you think of girls? If you can’t tell me, then you can show me. Show me what you do when you have impure thoughts.”

The disturbing scene, with its sinister music, is interrupted by a roar of “Cut!” It comes from Ed Gavagan,…

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A Catholic Diocese of Youngstown priest has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation of allegations involving a minor.

The Rev. Marian Babjak serves as pastor of Christ Our Savior Catholic Church in Struthers. He previously served at St. Paul Catholic Parish in North Canton.

Babjak was parochial vicar and associate pastor at St. Paul starting in 2017, where he served until 2020 when he was appointed to Christ Our Savior parish in Struthers.

A native of Slovakia, Babjak grew up in communist Czechoslovakia.

The case has been referred to Mahoning County Children’s Services.

Youngstown diocese releases statement

Over the weekend, Bishop David Bonnar issued a statement that was read to the parish in Struthers. The statement said the diocese received an allegation on Nov. 10 of “inappropriate physical contact with a minor.” Babjak was immediately placed on leave.

“During this leave, Fr. Babjak remains a priest of the…

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At age 87, Monsignor Ronald P. Sciera might not have much time left to clear his name of the child sexual abuse allegation lodged against him in an August lawsuit.

But the priest of 60 years said his reputation is not his main concern.

“I have to answer to God,” he said. “I have a hope that justice will be served, and the truth will come to light.”

An unnamed plaintiff alleges Sciera molested him nearly five decades ago at St. Aloysius Gonzaga parish in Cheektowaga.

Sciera denies sexually abusing anyone. He says the claim is false, and he has no idea who brought it.

If the lawsuit were to proceed in State Supreme Court, the plaintiff would have to explain in detail what Sciera allegedly did. Sciera would get the chance to respond. Ultimately, if the case went far enough, a jury would decide who was telling the truth.

…

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11-15-21.
“Catholic groups equating homosexuality with pedophilia,” they say “are demonizing gay
survivors of clergy abuse.”

On Tuesday, November 16th at 11:00am, survivors of clergy sexual abuse and advocates will hold a press conference outside of the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront (700 Aliceanna Street) urging the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Pope Francis to condemn the use of the abuse crisis by Church Militant and Steve Bannon to promote an anti-gay political agenda, a central tenet of Tuesday’s protest rally outside the USCCB’s general meeting.

For the past decade, Church Militant has capitalized off the rape and sexual abuse of children, using their suffering as an opportunity to court donors and gain followers. At the behest of their wealthy donors, like financier Marc Brammer, they have built a propaganda network to mobilize support for their agenda of re-criminalizing homosexuality by fear-mongering about the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups….

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Two lawsuits filed this month alleging sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, one of whom was based in Milton, were settled on Friday for undisclosed sums.

Lawyer Mitchell Garabedian said the lawsuits each settled in the “high five figures.”

One of the lawsuits was filed against the Boston archdiocese and the Missionary Society of St. Columban in Milton, which hosted Irish priest Brian Gallagher, who died in 2014. The lawsuit also named the Rev. John K. Connell, who died in 2007.

The second lawsuit named Hingham and Braintree priest Patrick J. Tague, who died in 2013.

The man who accused Gallagher and Connell said in an interview that it brought a little closure. The Patriot Ledger does not name victims of sexual abuse unless they ask to be named.

“There are a lot of people who didn’t say anything,” he said. “To me, that’s like, there’s a lot of people who lived their…

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Protests are common at gatherings of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which often touch on national politics or attract heavy media scrutiny, such as during the height of the Catholic sex abuse crisis.

But this year’s annual fall USCCB gathering in Baltimore, convened Nov. 15-18, is set to host at least two unusually visible demonstrations that showcase the increasingly broad spectrum of American Catholic thought.

Particularly fraught is a planned “prayer rally” by Church Militant, a controversial conservative Catholic media outlet known for espousing incendiary rhetoric that is sometimes condemned by critics as inflammatory, racist and homophobic. The event, which organizers say is designed to express a range of grievances with U.S. bishops, is slated to occur on Tuesday in a pavilion that sits alongside the Baltimore Waterfront Marriott — the hotel hosting the USCCB.

Church Militant, which is based in Detroit but has been rebuked by leaders of…

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A Providence priest accused of having child pornography is scheduled for a hearing Monday morning.

Father James Jackson faces both state and federal charges in the case. The arraignment hearing scheduled for Monday is for the state charges.

Jackson had been a priest at St. Mary’s on Broadway in Providence. The Diocese of Providence released a statement saying Jackson is no longer allowed in the ministry and the office of pastor.

Colonel James Manni of Rhode Island State Police said the Internet Crimes Against Children unit, or ICAC, had been investigating the transfer of child porn over the internet. Manni said ICAC traced the internet connection to 538 Broadway in Providence, which is the address of St. Mary’s Church on Broadway. ICAC task force members then served a search warrant at the church and rectory. They arrested Jackson in October.

According to a news release from RISP, Father Jackson was…

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Editor’s note: Jason Berry is the American investigative journalist who pioneered reporting on the child sex abuse crisis among priests in the Catholic Church. He later served as a PennLive/Patriot-News source for commentary as the scandal rocked Pennsylvania’s dioceses. In a special assignment, Berry was asked to reflect on the decade since sex offender Jerry Sandusky’s arrest for preying on young boys.

In March 1988, I was interviewing victims of pedophile priests when the phone rang. The caller referred to an article I’d written for National Catholic Reporter on a Louisiana priest who sexually abused dozens of boys.

“That happened to me,” stammered the young woman. She said she lived in a Catholic Worker house in Chicago. Although a victim, she continued to follow the witness of Catholic activist Dorothy Day. Most victims I’d met felt abandoned by God.

Barbara Blaine told me how, as a…

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On Wednesday, November 10, 2021, the Diocese of Youngstown received an allegation against Father Marian Babjak of inappropriate physical contact with a minor.  In accordance with the Diocesan Safe Environment Policy for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults, Father Babjak was immediately placed on Administrative Leave by the Most Rev. David J. Bonnar, Bishop of Youngstown, and the allegation was reported to Mahoning County Children Services.

During this leave, Fr. Babjak remains a priest of the Diocese of Youngstown with restricted faculties which prohibit him from celebrating the sacraments publicly, wearing clerical attire, or presenting himself as a priest in good standing.

The placement on Administrative Leave does not presume guilt as the purpose of this leave is to conduct a thorough and objective investigation. The Diocese of Youngstown is following its safe environment policy and the policies developed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: Fr. Babjak’s…

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The Diocese of Youngstown has placed a reverend on administrative leave after they were made aware of an allegation regarding inappropriate physical contact with a minor on Wednesday. 

Father Marian Babjak was put on leave after the accusation was made. The diocese reported the case for investigation to the Mahoning County Children Services. The decision to put Babjak on leave falls in line with rules from the Diocesan Safe Environment Policy for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults.

Babjak remains a priest of the Diocese of Youngstown during this leave, with restricted faculties which prohibit him from celebrating the sacraments publicly, wearing clerical attire, or presenting himself as a priest in good standing. Babjak has served at Christ Our Savior Parish in Struthers since 2020.

“The placement on Administrative Leave does not presume guilt as the purpose of this leave is to conduct a thorough and objective investigation,” the diocese…

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Pope Francis praised the ‘mission’ of journalism

Pope Francis has thanked journalists for helping uncover the clerical sexual abuse scandals that the Roman Catholic Church initially tried to cover up.

The pope praised what he called the “mission” of journalism and said it was vital for reporters to get out of their newsrooms and discover what was happening in the outside world to counter misinformation often found online.

“(I) thank you for what you tell us about what is wrong in the Church, for helping us not to sweep it under the carpet, and for the voice you have given to the abuse victims,” the pope said.

Francis was speaking at a ceremony to honour two veteran correspondents — Philip Pullella of Reuters and Valentina Alazraki of Mexico’s Noticieros Televisa — for their long careers spent covering the Vatican.

The sexual abuse scandals hit the headlines in 2002, when U.S. daily The Boston…

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“Let us continue to pray for all those who are hurt in any way by the church,” Bishop David Bonnar is quoted in a Sunday news release.

The Catholic Diocese of Youngstown on Wednesday placed a Struthers priest on administrative leave, after he was accused of having “inappropriate physical contact” with a minor.

The Rev. Marian Babjak, pastor of Christ Our Savior Parish in Struthers, will remain a diocesan priest, but will be prohibited from publicly celebrating sacraments, wearing clerical attire or “presenting himself as a priest in good standing,” reads a Sunday news release from the diocese. The release does not provide details about the allegation, which has been forwarded to Mahoning County Children Services.

Babjak was listed in church bulletins as pastor of the Struthers parish as early as August 2020, according to the parish’s website.about:blank

“The placement on administrative leave does not presume guilt as…

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Shame, anguish and anger at child sexual abuse in the Church should lead to a devoted commitment to eradicate abuse everywhere. This active stance has to be the primary focus of society and of the Church and every individual member. Jesus of Nazareth said the child is the most important of all. If we continue to fail children, we fail Christ. The established institutional Church and many members — lay people and priests — have spectacularly failed to care, protect, help, support and compensate innocent vulnerable children for heinous crimes against them. Many of the bishops, priests and lay people have over the years, denied, covered up, transferred abusive priests, lied and forced child victims to shut up.

The most recent, shocking exposes and revelations of clerical child abuse in France led to a pilgrimage to Lourdes by no less than clergy to confess incompetence to protect children. What they…

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The Book of Timothy: The Devil, My Brother, and Me

By Joan Nockels Wilson. Boreal Books/Red Hen Press, 2021. 320 pages. $18.95.

Sexual abuse of children by clergy is once more in the news. Last month, a new report estimated that some 330,000 French children were abused by Catholic clergy and other authority church figures dating back to 1950. This first accounting by France of a global scandal found that at least 3,000 French priests abused children and that that abuse was covered up in a “systematic manner.” Once again, we are all reminded of the extent of abuse and, once again, the church apologizes.

“The Book of Timothy” opens with a 2002 phone call from the author’s brother in Chicago, where the two had grown up, to Wilson in Anchorage. The story of clergy abuse in Boston had just hit the news, and…

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Pope Francis thanked journalists Saturday for their coverage of the clerical sexual abuse scandal that’s plagued the Catholic Church.

The pope commended reporters for giving a voice to abuse victims, and praised the “mission” of journalism at a ceremony honoring two veteran Vatican correspondents.

“[I] thank you for what you tell us about what is wrong in the Church, for helping us not to sweep it under the carpet, and for the voice you have given to the abuse victims,” he said.

The ceremony was held to honor Reuters’ journalist Philip Pullella and Valentina Alazraki of Noticieros Televisa in Mexico.

The pope came under fire in the midst of the scandals for not responding fast enough to the allegations. Pope Francis also initially sided with the clergy over abuse victims.

The abuse scandal first came to light in 2002, after coverage led by the Boston Globe featured several articles about…

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Stopping short of calling it an investigation, a spokesperson for Attorney General Maura Healey said her office has requested “more information” from both the Danvers schools and Police Department in light of allegations of sexual and physical abuse, racism and other unacceptable behavior among varsity hockey players.

Healey, through her spokesperson, described the accusations as disturbing and extremely troubling.

“Racism, homophobia, and bigotry of any kind have no place in our locker rooms, rinks and playing fields. If you think sports are about bullying and hazing, you’re losing, and our kids are paying the price,” Healey wrote in social media posts this week. The posts were not specific to the Danvers situation.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented thousands of Catholic Church sexual abuse victims, on Thursday called on Healey or federal authorities to investigate what he described as an “institutional coverup.”

A former varsity hockey player who declined…

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A grand jury has returned an 11-count indictment against former priest James Silva alleging he sexually assaulted a boy younger than 14 between 1989 and 1990 while an administrator in the Office of Ministerial Formation within the Diocese of Providence. 

Silva, now 81, faces two counts of first-degree child molestation and nine counts of second-degree child molestation. 

Silva was included in a list of credibly accused priests released by the diocese in 2019. 

For decades, starting in the 1960s, diocese officials transferred him around to a dozen different parishes around the state. Victims of clergy abuse and their lawyers have pointed to his career as an example of how diocese dereliction allowed a known pedophile to move from parish to parish preying on children. 

In the spring of 1980, for instance, one lawsuit says, then Bishop Louis Gelineau transferred Silva from St. Joseph’s in Burrillville after he allegedly molested several boys. Gelineau sent Silva to St. Lucy’s parish, in Middletown, without any warning of the previous allegations…

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A defrocked priest pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of making false statements to FBI agents investigating clergy abuse.

Former Philadelphia priest Robert Brennan, 83, changed his plea to guilty Wednesday in federal court, according to court documents. The charges stem from a federal investigation undertaken after Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro released an explosive 2018 grand jury report on abuse in the state’s Roman Catholic dioceses that detailed decades of abuse by more than 300 priests against nearly 1,000 victims across the state.

Then-U.S. Attorney William McSwain sent subpoenas to dioceses across the state asking the bishops to turn over files and submit to testimony in front of a grand jury if asked.

The Associated Press reported on that two-year probe that quietly ended as McSwain left office before President Joe Biden was sworn in. Court records showed FBI agents had interviewed at least six priests to determine whether federal…

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Rev. Timothy Keppel ended up living next to two Chicago-area schools, records show. His Resurrectionist order didn’t tell either about the accusations he faced. The order also has had other credibly accused clerics living in Chicago.

The Rev. Timothy Keppel was overseeing two parishes near San Bernardino, Calif., when a man told the diocese there that, while in his teens, he’d been repeatedly sexually abused by the priest.

The abuse happened decades earlier, he said. And Keppel was never charged with a crime.

But the Resurrectionist religious order of Catholic priests, brothers and deacons that Keppel belongs to determined the accusations were credible.

So it barred him for life from public ministry. And it later included him in its online posting of members found to have been credibly accused of child sex offenses.

Yet Keppel — who was moved to the order’s Chicago region, its…

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More than 40 years after a 15-year-old boy was reportedly sexually abused by the Rev. John Capparelli, the alleged victim filed a lawsuit in Essex County Superior Court against the Archdiocese of Newark and the church where the disgraced, defrocked priest — who was murdered in 2019 — once served.

The plaintiff in the case, not identified by name, spoke of being raised in a devout Catholic family and participating in youth and church activities at Holy Trinity Church in Westfield, before ultimately becoming a victim to what was described only as “unpermitted sexual contact.”

It is just one of hundreds of civil lawsuits that have been filed in New Jersey since the state opened a two-year window that greatly extended the amount of time victims of sexual abuse had to sue.

And now, that window is closing. At the end of the month,…

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Portugal’s Roman Catholic Church said on Thursday it would create an independent commission to investigate historical child sexual abuse allegedly committed by members of the clergy following pressure from prominent congregants to lift a veil of silence around the issue.

Portugal’s Bishops’ Conference said in a statement that it decided to create the commission to improve the way cases are handled and to “carry out a study to clarify the history of this serious issue.”

The announcement comes after a major report by an independent commission in France revealed last month that around 3,000 priests and religious officials sexually abused more than 200,000 children over the past 70 years. read more

It was the latest blow for the Roman Catholic Church, which has been rocked by sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children, over the past 20 years.

In Portugal, more than 200…

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A portrait of a senior Catholic cleric accused of child sexual abuse still hangs on the wall at St Patrick’s College Silverstream – despite a survivors’ support group being told it had been removed.

Now the church says there are no plans to remove the picture from the Wellington Catholic boys’ college’s auditorium wall.

The late Reverend Father Patrick Minto, a teacher in the 1950s and then rector in the early 1970s, was named as an alleged abuser last November at the Royal Commission into state and religious abuse.

Tina Cleary read the testimony of her late father, Patrick, to the commission, in which he named Minto and another deceased former rector, Fred Durning, as abusing him as a pupil at the school in the 1950s.

The commission denied a request from the Catholic Church’s lawyers to suppress Minto’s name from the public record.

Tina Cleary said her father’s dying…

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Today, La Figaro reported that Pope Francis, addressing a group of more than 500 poor people from across Europe in the Basilica of St  Mary of the Angels in Assisi, took the opportunity to thank Cardinal Barbarin, saying the the cardinal had lived:

With dignity the experience of abandonment … I would like to thank Cardinal Barbarin for his presence. He is among the poor. He too lived with dignity the experience of poverty, abandonment, mistrust. And he defended himself with silence and prayer. Thank you, Cardinal Barbarin, for your testimony which builds the Church

According to this report, after he won his appeal, Barbarin said:

I will remain the one who did not denounce heinous acts. Yet justice has just said that it was not for me to do it.

On learning of the Pope praise of Barbarin on the World Day…

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With a pilgrim’s staff and mantle, Pope Francis entered Assisi’s Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels with 500 economically or socially disadvantaged people and the volunteers who walk alongside them.

The pope’s pilgrimage to Assisi Nov. 12 was dedicated totally to the poor in preparation for the celebration Nov. 14 of the World Day of the Poor.

A France-based charity, Fratello, brought 200 poor pilgrims from France, Poland, Croatia, Switzerland and Spain. The Jesuit Refugee Service’s Centro Astalli brought refugees from Congo, Angola and Nigeria. The Community of Sant’Egidio brought the residents of a shelter for the homeless located just outside St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. And Italian diocesan Caritas volunteers brought hundreds of the people they work with each day.

Six of them shared their stories with Pope Francis — stories of crime and prison or of drugs and alcohol, stories of being forced to flee their…

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One month after it was known that around 3,000 Roman Catholic priests had sexually abused thousands of children since 1950, the French Catholic Episcopal Conference (CEF) announced it will pay financial compensations to the victims.

Pressure grew since the Report of the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (CIASE) was published four weeks ago. According to this investigation in France, around 10,000 children were abused by priests, and around 114,000 other children were victims of lay members in the context of Catholic educational centres or catechism groups.

“Much evil has been done. This needs to be assumed to liberate all those who have suffered”, said the chair of the French Episcopal Conference, Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort.

The Roman Catholic Church in France, he admitted, has been “a place where violent acts and sexual aggressions were committed on minors in atrocious proportions”. He added: “We have allowed the development of…

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The U.S. Catholic Church has made some improvement in its response to its sex abuse scandal but still has a long way to go, according to analysts who have pored over the an annual audit released this week.

Dawn Eden Goldstein, a Catholic theologian and sex abuse survivor based in Washington, D.C., said it was significant that the 18th annual report from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection shows Catholic dioceses paid out nearly $312 million in abuse-related costs in 2021, with most of the money going to victims and their attorneys.

“The enormity of the payments shows that, even though today fewer child abuse cases in the U.S. Catholic Church are reported than in the past, there remain many thousands of victims who are living with the wounds of abuse,” Ms. Goldstein told The Washington Times on Friday.

“As a Catholic author who…

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PN election candidate Emma Portelli Bonnici has filed a police report over the verbal online hate speech directed at her, including comments made by a priest, which were sparked by comments on abortion she never made.

The priest, Fr Andrew Borg, went as far as to described her as “Hitler, a satanist, a murderer, a butcher and a criminal”, before removing the comment and shutting down his Facebook page, following the intervention of the Curia.

Others called her “satan’s spawn” and that she should go get herself “sterilised”.

Portelli Bonnici confirmed that she has filed a police report through her lawyers, Franco Debono and Marion Camilleri. “It’s even more serious coming from a priest – a man who people look up to in society. So much so that even the Curia has asked him to remove what he wrote. This is not about the Church, this is about an individual. It’s…

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[Via America Magazine]

More than 4,200 allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy and others were reported during the year ending June 30, 2020, a slight decline from the previous auditing period, according to a report on diocesan and eparchial compliance with the U.S. bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

Released late Nov. 9, the 18th annual report from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection stated that 3,924 child sexual abuse survivors filed 4,228 allegations.

In the 2019 report, covering the 2018-2019 audit period, 4,220 adults filed 4,434 allegations.

The charter was adopted in 2002 by the U.S. bishops following widespread reports of clergy abuse and has been revised several times since to adapt to changing situations surrounding the question of clergy sexual abuse of minors.

Conducted by StoneBridge Business Partners of Rochester, New York, the new report covers the year from…

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A Lebanese priest has been convicted of rape and sexual abuse of minors and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Mansour Labaki was found guilty on two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault against three girls committed between 1990 and 1998 in France, where he lived for a number of years.

The Maronite Catholic priest was tried in absentia at the criminal court in Calvados, in the Normandy region of France, and convicted on Monday. His name will be added to the sex offenders list. 

The prosecuting judge, Pascal Chaux, spoke of the lengthy investigation made harder by Labaki’s refusal to answer the investigating judge, as well as his use of intimidation campaigns against victims and their families.

“The investigation was long, very long. Mr Labaki did not respond at all to the investigating judge’s requests, claiming that he had health problems that we could not verify,”…

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As allegations of abuse at the hands of Catholic priests continue to emerge, Wisconsin hasn’t been immune to the scandal. 

In 2019, one former priest was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In 2020, a reckoning came for the Norbertines in De Pere after a suicide and hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to a man once preyed on by priests at the abbey.

In early 2021, Josh Kaul, the Wisconsin attorney general, announced an investigation into claims of clergy abuse and systemic cover-up over decades. 

Advocates and survivors hope the investigation will bring closure to an issue they say has carried on too long without legal intervention. Dioceses in the state disagree with the investigation, calling it “bigotry” to look into one religious denomination but not others and say investigations should focus on reports regarding current, living priests. 

Here is the background on the Department of Justice investigation and where it…

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The Boston lawyer known for representing sex abuse victims Thursday urged the state Attorney General’s Office to investigate accusations of racist and sexual abuse by last year’s Danvers High School varsity hockey team.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said news media and other reports make it clear an “institutional coverup” has left the public in the dark about what took place and whether laws were broken.

A former member of the team, who declined to be named, told authorities and news reporters that the team engaged in racist and sexual misconduct in the locker room over the course of the 2019-2020 season.

School officials and the Danvers Police Department conducted investigations months ago. They declined to release unredacted copies of the detailed findings and conclusions last spring, contending privacy laws prevented full disclosure.

Police and the district attorney’s office said the unnamed player whistleblower declined to file a criminal complaint and thus…

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Former Philadelphia priest Robert Brennan on Wednesday admitted he lied to FBI agents during a 2019 investigation into sexual abuse by clergy, bringing a long-awaited measure of justice to relatives of a now-deceased Northeast Philadelphia man who said he’d been abused by Brennan in grade school two decades ago.

The admission, at a federal court hearing, capped a long attempt by relatives of Sean McIlmail to hold Brennan accountable for his alleged sexual abuse of children. Two Philadelphia grand juries found that the now-defrocked priest had raped or assaulted as many as 20 young people, but most of the crimes were too old to prosecute by the time the allegations came to light. And rape charges filed in McIlmail’s case collapsed in 2013 when he died of a drug overdose.

In court Wednesday, Brennan, 83, admitted he lied to FBI agents two years ago when he told them during an…

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An Horry County man accused a former priest at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Myrtle Beach of sexually abusing him in the early 1990s while he served as an altar boy.

The man, anonymously known in a lawsuit filed on Nov. 3 as “John Doe,” said he volunteered at the church under Father Robert Kelly, who was a priest at the church from 1990-1994 and later died in 2004.

The suit claims the Diocese of Charleston, which operates the church, and its bishop were “complicit in facilitating a hunting field for young boys by pedophile priests which caused horrific damage to countless children, including the plaintiff.”

John Doe is asking for an unspecified amount of damages from the Diocese of Charleston.

In a statement, the church said, “We have received a copy of the lawsuit and are currently reviewing it. We will respond to the pleading in due time.”

John…

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A former employee of a now-closed Buffalo Catholic seminary was sentenced Tuesday to a year in prison for stalking a journalist who reported on alleged sexual abuse there.

Paul Lubienecki, 63, had pleaded guilty to stalking in U.S. District Court in August, WKBW-TV reported.

He was an adjunct professor at Christ the King Seminary when he left threatening voice messages for a former WKBW-TV reporter, Charlie Specht, between August 2019 and February 2020. Specht had broken stories about allegations of sexual abuse at the seminary and a lack of action by former Bishop Richard Malone in response. Malone resigned in December 2019.

After the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo announced it was closing the seminary in February 2020, Lubienecki left a voice message on Specht’s phone saying, “I’m gonna find you. I’m gonna kill you.”

Specht and his family temporarily moved to an undisclosed…

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A former priest in Oakland County has pleaded guilty to sex abuse, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced today. 

Gary Berthiaume, 79, was sent to trial in July by Judge James Brady in Oakland County’s 47th District Court on two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct (CSC), 15-year felonies. That development involved the original case against him, which was charged last year. 

In June, Berthiaume was charged with additional felonies in two new cases. Both cases were sent to trial by the end of September. 

All three cases stem from allegations of abuse in the 1970s involving three different victims who were between 13- and 15-years-old at the time. Berthiaume was a priest at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Wyandotte and later Our Lady of Sorrows in Farmington during that timeframe. 

Monday before Judge Daniel O’Brien, Berthiaume pleaded guilty to the following: 

• two counts of second-degree CSC, 15-year felonies. 

He pleaded no contest to a third charge: 

• one count…

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Myrtle Beach SC – lawsuit has been filed claiming a child was sexually abused by a priest at a Catholic church in Myrtle Beach.

According to the lawsuit filed by “John Doe,” Father Robert Kelly at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church groomed and sexually assaulted the child while he was an altar boy in the early 1990s.

Father Kelly died in 2004 and the lawsuit was filed against The Diocese of Charleston and The Bishop of the Diocese of Charleston.

The lawsuit claims the diocese was either aware or should have been aware, of various illicit and improper sexual relationships which Father Kelly maintained before coming to or during his time at the Charleston Diocese.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges the diocese allowed “predatory priests” to have unsupervised access to children and claimed Kelly likely groomed other children.

“All Defendants abused Plaintiff’s trust and innocence and caused him many types of injuries…

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[See also the Government’s Sentencing Memorandum.]

Akron, Ohio – A former priest was sentenced to life in prison in Akron Federal Court Tuesday afternoon after being convicted of numerous sex crimes involving children.

Robert McWilliams pleaded guilty on July 16 to various crimes, including production and distribution of sexually explicit images of minors and juvenile sex trafficking.

He was taken into custody on Dec. 5, 2019 at his Strongsville, Ohio church, St. Joseph.

McWilliams was also affiliated with St. Helen’s in Geauga County, Ohio.

McWilliams assembled a “disturbing” child pornography collection of over 1,000 videos and images, extorted teen victims for more graphic images, and compensated at least two other boys for sexual acts, prosecutors claimed in the pre-sentencing report.

According to the court records, McWilliams used confession as a way to extort inappropriate material from the minor victims.

“He is a consumer of child pornography, and an extortionist…

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A South Carolina man has filed a lawsuit in Horry County accusing a priest at a Myrtle Beach Catholic church of sexually abusing him about 30 years ago.

The lawsuit, filed Nov. 3 by a man identified only as John Doe, alleges that Father Robert Kelly groomed the boy to engage in a sexual relationship when he was a young altar boy at St. Andrews Catholic Church in the early 90s.

Kelly died in 2004, and it’s not clear whether the alleged incidents were ever reported by the boy to law enforcement.

When asked about Kelly’s work history and any misconduct on his record, the Diocese of Charleston, named a defendant in the suit, said they received a copy of the lawsuit and are reviewing it.

“We will respond to the pleading in due time,” they said.

The lawsuit alleges the Diocese knew or should have known that Kelly had…

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It was after a pair of Catholic churches caught ablaze last summer, one in Southern California and another in Florida, that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops decided to start documenting and tracking vandalism at Catholic sites across the country.

The two fires occurred on the same morning: July 11, 2020. One destroyed the rooftop of the historic San Gabriel Mission — the fourth of a series of missions across California that Fr. Junípero Serra founded during the Spanish colonization era. The other ignited in Queen of Peace Catholic Church as parishioners prepared for Mass in Ocala, Florida.

Nobody was injured, but Aaron Weldon — of the bishops’ Office of Religious Liberty — said the fires were “the impetus for us to start monitoring these sorts of events.”

Since then, the U.S. bishops’ conference has tracked more than 105 incidents of vandalism of Catholic…

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An Oct. 10 vandalism of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, Colorado, was the 100th incident of destruction to Catholic sites in the U.S. since the U.S. Bishops Conference began tracking the phenomenon in May 2020.

“These incidents of vandalism have ranged from tragic to the obscene, from the transparent to the inexplicable,” said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, chair of the USCCB Committee for Religious Liberty, and Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, chair of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development in a joint Oct 14 statement. “There remains much we do not know about this phenomenon, but at a minimum, they underscore that our society is in sore need of God’s grace.”

The Oct. 10 incident at the Denver cathedral included satanic and hateful graffiti spray painted on the exterior wall and door. The next day, the 101st incident took place…

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Joe Wojtas’ recent reporting on The Diocese of Norwich (“Priest abuse victims group opposes diocese actions in bankruptcy case,” Nov. 8) spending an astounding $1.1 million dollars in legal fees in only 10 weeks, related to its bankruptcy case, is further evidence of the diocese and Bishop Michael Cote’s ongoing plot. A plot denying plaintiffs, victims of sexual abuse, their due, full legal compensation. As Wojtas reports, the diocese claims its bankruptcy stems from more than 60 men filing lawsuits, claiming they were raped and sexually assaulted as boys by two Christian Brothers and staff at the diocese run Mount Saint John Academy in Deep River. The alleged crimes occurred from 1990 to 2002.

The Diocese of Norwich’s financial claim of insolvency and its wasteful spending on legal fees must face continued scrutiny for accuracy and truthfulness. The diocese, Bishop Cote, and the Church have a long, smug history of secrecy…

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The Federal Criminal Police chief has warned that the huge increase in cases is stretching police resources. On the same day, a Catholic priest was fired over a probe into child sexual abuse images.

Germany has seen an almost doubling of cases involving images of child sexual abuse in the first half of 2021, the head of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said on Sunday.

BKA President Holger Münch told Bild am Sonntag newspaper that there were as many cases from January to July as recorded in the whole of last year.

“The number of reports that we receive about such crimes is up, and the number of investigations is increasing,” Münch said.

“The significant increase… will increasingly bring the police to their resource limits,” he warned, adding that the BKA would likely be called upon to “provide more intensive support” to police in Germany’s 16 states in the fight against crimes involving child sexual abuse images.

Abuse cases…

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In Netflix documentary Procession, six men who survived sexual abuse as children make short films to try and process their trauma

Everything in the bedroom is white including a white crucifix on a white wall. A holy man sits on the corner of a bed, trousers off, legs open. “You need to confess everything,” he says, gripping a young boy’s arm to pull him closer. “The Catholic church has been very good to you, to your mother, to your brother and sister.

“You don’t want that to all go away, do you? So tell me, what else have you done wrong? What about when you think of girls? What do you do when you think of girls? If you can’t tell me, then you can show me. Show me what you do when you have impure thoughts.”

The disturbing scene, with its sinister music, is interrupted by a roar of…

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As an advocate for victims of sexual abuse for more than a decade, Gemma Hickey says they had a lot to consider by putting their name on a lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s and Father Denis Walsh.

When allegations of sexual abuse are made, those making the claims usually remain anonymous, but Hickey says they did not want to use a pseudonym, even though that comes with risks.

“The cost of staying silent is too great for me,” said Hickey. 

“The institutional response from the church has led me to where I am today. It’s a very painful process,” said Hickey, who added they want justice for the abuse they endured as a child.

Hickey was raised as a Roman Catholic in St. John’s and attended church and church events at several parishes in the city.

In their statement of claim, Hickey alleges that during that…

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A third former priest has been indicted in Rhode Island as part of the state attorney general’s ongoing review of allegations of sexual abuse by clergy.

Attorney General Peter Neronha said Tuesday that a grand jury had returned an 11-count indictment charging a former priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, 81-year-old James Silva, with sexually assaulting a male victim under the age of 14 between 1989 and 1990, following an investigation by his office and the Rhode Island State Police.

Silva faces two counts of first-degree child molestation and nine counts of second-degree child molestation. He was interim director and assistant director at the Office of Ministerial Formation within the Providence Diocese from 1986 until 1991.

The diocese said in a statement Tuesday that Silva was removed from the ministry nearly 30 years ago and included on its list of credibly accused clergy. It says it remains committed…

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A former priest at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Farmington pleaded guilty to several sex crime charges Monday, Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office said.

Gary Berthiaume, 79, pleaded guilty to Judge James Brady in Oakland County’s 47th District Court on two counts of second-degree CSC and and no content to one count of gross indecency, the news release said.

Charges for second-degree criminal sexual conduct could be punishable by up to 15 years in prison, while the gross indecency charge carries a 5-year felony or $2,500 fine.

All three charges stem from the 1970s in three separate cases, in which Berthiaume sexually abused three different victims who were between 13 and 15-years-old at the time, while he was a priest at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Farmington and St. Joseph Catholic Church in Wyandotte, the news release said.

“This plea secures long-awaited justice for those who…

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A Cleveland-area Roman Catholic priest has been sentenced to life in prison on convictions of child pornography and exploitation.

The Rev. Robert McWilliams was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Akron in front of an overflow gallery filled with the family of three victims. McWilliams, 41, previously pleaded guilty to eight counts involving exploitation of children and pornography.

U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi said the public needed to be protected from McWilliams, saying he preyed upon youths who sought his help. McWilliams became a priest in May 2017 and was a parochial vicar at the church’s school. He was arrested in December 2019 at his church in Strongsville, Ohio.

Prosecutors alleged in court documents that he had tens of thousands of pornographic images, some depicting very young children. Authorities also alleged that he forced teenage boys to provide him with sexually explicit images and paid two boys below the…

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[Google translation; French text below.]

The champion of Maronitism is once again worried by justice. After being convicted in 2013 by the Vatican, Mansour Labaky faces civil justice. The 81-year-old priest will be tried Monday in Caen, Normandy, on charges of rape and sexual assault on minors.

The sky is low over the mountain of Broummana. At the top of a hill lined with pine trees stands an austere white building. At the reception, a lady behind her counter picks up the receiver: “Hello? May God bless you Monsignor, journalists are there to see you. The switchboard operator changes her face. “Ah, isn’t he here?” He’s not here, ”she points out, nodding her head. “He doesn’t come here often. He has a lot of institutions (to manage), ”she adds. We will never really know if the man she speaks of, the Maronite priest Mansour Labaky, was at that time within the walls of the main building of the Convent of the…

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[Includes video of Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort.]

The Roman Catholic Church in France will sell some of its assets to compensate victims of sexual abuse, French bishops announced on Monday, one month after the release of a sweeping report on sexual abuse by the clergy that has fueled growing calls for reform.

“We will ensure that no one is left behind,” Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, the archbishop of Reims and the president of the Bishops’ Conference of France, told reporters after a meeting of bishops over the past week in Lourdes, a popular Catholic pilgrimage site in southwestern France.

The measure, one of several approved near unanimously on Monday by the bishops, was greeted by victims groups as a significant step in the French church’s reckoning of sexual abuse in its ranks, which accelerated after the release of the report last month.

But they cautioned that they…

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Around 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by clergy over the past seven decades

France’s Catholic Church has said that it will sell its properties for funds to compensate thousands of victims who were sexually abused by the clergy in the past seven decades.

The announcement comes a month after a major investigation by the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in Church (CIASE) revealed that an estimated 330,000 children have been victims of sexual abuse within the French institution since 1950.

France’s top bishop, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, said in a statement on Monday that the senior clergy meeting in the holy site of Lourdes had recognised the church’s institutional responsibility.

The Church has decided “to go on a path of recognition and reparation”, Moulins-Beaufort, the archbishop of Reims, said.

The fund, set up by the bishops, will find finance to “whatever extent necessary through the divestment of real estate and other assets”,…

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France’s Catholic Church said on Monday it would sell real estate and, if needed, take out loans to set up a fund to compensate thousands of people sexually abused by clergy.

A major investigation found in October that French clerics sexually abused more than 200,000 children over the past 70 years. read more

Senior clergy meeting in the holy site of Lourdes had recognised their Church’s “institutional responsibility” and decided “to go on a path of recognition and reparation,” France’s top bishop, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, said.

Bishops would set up a fund “financed to whatever extent necessary through the divestment of real estate and other assets”, de Moulins-Beaufort, archbishop of Reims and the head of the French Bishops’ conference, told journalists.

“If needed, we are also prepared to take on loans in order to fulfil our obligations,” he added at the end of the meeting. He gave no details on…

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After a three-year investigation, state investigators have identified 258 documented victims of sexual abuse and misconduct by 57 Catholic Church officials, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said Thursday.

The victims, who reported abuse dating back decades, include 97 from the Lincoln Diocese, 158 from the Omaha Diocese and three from the Grand Island Diocese.

But largely because of statute of limitations laws, Peterson’s office was unable to prosecute any of the abusers. Just one case was still viable, but the victim chose not to participate in the prosecution.

“We’ve not been able to bring our own justice system to bear on those predators,” Peterson said during a news conference to release his office’s 182-page Report on Clergy Abuse. “And that’s extremely frustrating.”

Nor was it able to take formal action against church leaders who failed to report suspected abuse to law enforcement. Sometimes, a diocese would require a…

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[Via The Guardian]

Conference in Lourdes recognised that church had allowed abuses to become ‘systemic’

Senior members of France’s Roman Catholic hierarchy knelt in a show of penance at the shrine of Lourdes on Saturday, a day after bishops accepted the church’s responsibility for decades of child abuse.

But some of the survivors of the abuse – and lay members supporting them – said they were still waiting for details of compensation and of a comprehensive reform of the church.

In Lourdes, a place of pilgrimage for Christians, roughly 120 archbishops, bishops and laymen gathered at the unveiling of a photo showing a sculpture representing the head of a weeping child.

At the request of the victims, the clerics did not wear their religious clothing for the ceremony.

The wall featuring the photograph will serve as a “place of memory” for the victims. The photo itself was taken by one…

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The committee that represents people who say they have been sexually assaulted by priests and other members of the Diocese of Norwich have filed a motion in federal bankruptcy court opposing the Catholic diocese’s attempt to prohibit victims from filing claims after Feb. 10, 2022.

The claimants’ committee, which is being represented by the Bridgeport law firm of Zeisler and Zeisler, wants a 120-day window from the date that a plan advertising the deadline, otherwise known as the bar date, is approved by Judge James Tancredi, as opposed to the 90-day window being requested by the diocese. 

In addition, the committee is opposing aspects of the claim form that alleged victims have to submit including questions such as whether victims ever got married, what jobs they have had and whether they were ever sexually assaulted by anyone else. It says these are irrelevant to the victims’ claims of sexual assault by diocesan employees and are designed to limit the diocese’s exposure to damages. In addition, the committee states they also a pose…

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France’s bishops will on Monday set out their plans to compensate victims of child sexual abuse by members of the clergy in a scandal that stretches back decades.

 The vote, which will take place behind closed doors, comes a month after a devastating independent report confirmed massive levels of child sexual abuse by priests dating as far back as the 1950s.

The report described what it called the “veil of silence” the Church cast over the offences and said that over the decades, 216,000 minors suffered sexual abuse by priests.

On Friday, France’s bishops for the first time formally recognised that the Church bore an “institutional responsibility” for the abuse.

Senior members of the clergy knelt and prayed on Saturday in a show of penance which, while welcomed by some victims of abuse, was dismissed by others as an empty gesture.

Campaigners are pressing for details of how the Church…

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In the weeks leading up to his arrest on child pornography charges, Father James W. Jackson wrote at length in his parish bulletin about sex abuse scandals perpetrated by “psychosexually dysfunctional” priests, singling out former cardinal Theodore McCarrick as a “creep” who hid a sinful private life with outward good works with the help of corrupt friends in the Catholic hierarchy.

“Any man who tries to live his celibacy without faith, sanctifying grace and a serious life of prayer and dedication to the interior life will eventually (and sometimes this takes only a few years) turn to empty amusements and pleasures in drink, food, fancy vacations at best and pornography and the pursuit of sexual relationships at worst,” he wrote. 

“Without the faith (I mean real belief in God) and the pursuit of the interior life,” he continued, “Celibacy just creates a class of professional bachelors who are still saying…

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A former priest in the York community is among 56 others who have been named as sexual predators after a three-year investigation by the Nebraska Attorney General’s office.

In all, the state has identified 258 documented victims of sexual abuse and misconduct by these named Catholic Church officials, according to an announcement made this week by Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson.

The victims, who reported abuse dating back decades, include 97 from the Lincoln Diocese, 158 from the Omaha Diocese and three from the Grand Island Diocese.

But because of statute of limitation laws, Peterson’s office was unable to prosecute any of the abusers, he said during a press conference to release his office’s 180-page report on clergy abuse.

The former priest who once served in the York community, named in the report, is Monsignor Jerome Murray. Murray was ordained in 1949 and served in the diocese until 1999….

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AG Peterson releases report of clergy sexual abuse

The Nebraska Attorney General has released a report of child sexual abuse committed by the clergy of the Nebraska dioceses.

The investigation began in August of 2018 when the Nebraska Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the three Nebraska Dioceses for files relating to sexual abuse dating back from January 1, 1978, according to a release from Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson.

The report concluded that there were credible allegations of sexual abuse or misconduct with 258 victims across the three dioceses. Below is a list of the diocese and the number of victims in each.ADVERTISING

• Omaha Diocese – 158 victims
• Lincoln Diocese – 97 victims
• Grand Island Diocese – 3 victims

Fifty-seven church officials perpetrated the abuse. The officials were mainly priests, deacons, and Catholic school teachers.Death of Iowa man being investigated as a homicide, DCI assisting 

…

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Attorney General Doug Peterson said the most troubling finding was that, on numerous occasions, those in authority chose to place the reputation of the church above the protection of the children.

A report issued by Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson details decades of abuse at the hands of clergy members.

The AG’s office asked the three Nebraska Dioceses to turn over all files relating to claims of improper sexual conduct, sexual exploitation, child pornography or sexual communication with a minor dating back to Jan. 1, 1978.

“The summaries are replete with accounts of priests using alcohol, offering camping or other types of road trips. Video games, food and various other enticements to isolate and exploit their young victims,” Peterson said.

The AG’s investigation began in August 2018. In February 2019, the Nebraska Department of Justice issued 426 subpoenas to Catholic churches and schools across Nebraska.

Peterson said, in reviewing the…

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[To read the Nebraska Attorney General’s report, click here.]

Survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy got a gut punch Thursday morning when Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson announced the results of a three-year investigation: Due to the statute of limitations, only one of 258 cases could be criminally prosecuted.

In that one case, however, “the victim decided they could not participate in the prosecution,” Peterson said with a twinge of emotion.

“Our hope is that somehow this report will allow all victims to know at least that their voices have been heard,” he said, calling the investigation a difficult process and the results “gut-wrenching.”

The state’s investigation began in August 2018. At that time, Peterson asked the Archdiocese to hand over its own records dating back to 1978 on allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct by clergy.

Peterson said Thursday that although the church and its…

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Federal authorities have filed additional child pornography charges against Father James W. Jackson, who was arrested Oct. 30 after Rhode Island investigators allegedly found hundreds of explicit sexual images on an external hard drive in his rectory office.

Father Jackson, 66, a member of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP), was pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Providence and previously pastored a Traditional Latin Rite parish in Littleton, Colorado. 

Father Jackson made his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Providence via teleconference Wednesday on a federal criminal complaint charging him with distributing child pornography, and possessing and accessing with intent to view child pornography.

He was released on an unsecured bond Wednesday with electronic monitoring, and was allowed to return to his home state of Kansas to live with a relative while waiting for the charges to be adjudicated.

It was disclosed in federal court that Jackson has…

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Pope Francis on Thursday called on all those who work with children, starting from the scandal-stained Catholic Church, to join together in an alliance to better prevent sexual and other abuse of minors.

In a message to a conference in Rome about keeping children safe, Francis said the church’s own efforts are driven by “the sorrow and the shame for not having always been good custodians in protecting minors who were entrusted to our educational and social activities.”

Pedophile priests have easy access to children in parishes, schools and Catholic after-school recreational programs.

Their acts of abuse by pedophile priests, coupled with revelations of widespread cover-ups by bishops and other church authorities, have marred the Catholic Church’s reputation and eroded the trust of countless rank-and-file faithful in many countries for decades now.

Francis described as urgent the need for “renewed training of all those who have educational responsibilities and who…

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The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation says it is still waiting for records from the federal government related to residential schools, despite a comment from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that all federal records have been provided.

Trudeau told a gathering of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc leaders, residential school survivors and their families in Kamloops, B.C., earlier this week that “all the records in possession of the federal government have already been turned over” to the centre in Winnipeg.

He said Ottawa would look for further records, such as those held by the Catholic Church, which operated most of the 140 institutions between 1831 and 1996.

In a written statement, the national centre says it’s still waiting for the federal government to provide the final versions of school narratives and supporting documents used in the assessment process for compensation claims stemming from abuse at the institutions, including the Kamloops Indian Residential…

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A group of residential school survivors is joining the Ontario New Democratic Party in calling for Greg Rickford to be removed from his role as Indigenous Affairs minister, saying they don’t trust him to work toward reconciliation or handle sensitive issues like the search for the remains of missing Indigenous children. 

The group says their distrust stems from a legal settlement made 16 years ago that Rickford signed on behalf of the law firm where he was working. That firm, Keshen and Major, was representing several residential school survivors. 

The settlement led to complaints from a dozen survivors over how the resulting compensation was handled — including allegations money was taken from survivors by one of the other lawyers at the firm, Doug Keshen.

While it was Keshen, not Rickford, who was accused of wrongdoing, Garnet Angeconeb, an advocate and residential school survivor from Lac Seul First Nation, wrote in a statement released Friday by…

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As the church bells ring twice a day, at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., every day at St. Anthony’s in Neopit on the Menominee Reservation, advocate Lorraine Shooter said the post-traumatic stress disorder in some of the elders nearby becomes triggered.

The elders had been students at St. Anthony’s School at a time when U.S. government and church policy was to forcefully assimilate Indigenous youth and separate them from their traditional culture and language.

Shooter, who’s with the organization Menominees Against Dope, helped organize a vigil in Keshena Tuesday night for the survivors of abuse at Catholic schools and to demand accountability.

Dewey Schanandore, 75, said he suffered regular physical abuse when he attended St. Anthony School from 1954 to 1962.

He recalls the first time it happened in third grade when he was sitting at his desk studying when a teacher knocked him on the…

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The French Catholic Church bears “institutional responsibility” for the thousands of child abuse cases documented in a report released in October, French bishops said on Friday.

The church allowed the abuse to become “systemic,” said Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, chair of the country’s Bishops Conference.

“This responsibility implies a duty to provide justice and reparation,” Moulins-Beaufort said.

He made the comments at the conference’s annual meeting following a vote by the bishops.

What was in the report?

On October 5, an independent commission published findings on child sex abuse in France’s Catholic Church between 1950 and 2020.

The 2,500-page document details how an estimated 3,000 child abusers, two-thirds of them priests, worked in the Catholic Church in France over seven decades.

There were an estimated 216,000 victims of such abuse. The report found that the “vast majority” of victims were young boys from a variety of social backgrounds.

It described the abuse as a…

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The potential $50 million to $100 million cost of a Canadian papal visit isn’t far off the amount the Catholic Church still owes residential school survivors, say advocates.

They say that bill — estimated at slightly more than $60 million — must be paid and all documents about the schools disclosed before one dollar is committed to bringing Pope Francis to Canada for an expected apology. One Vatican expert says that’s highly unlikely, but survivors say they’ll keep pressing.

“That money should go to survivors first. The Vatican is rich. They owe us for what they did,” Cote First Nation survivor Madeleine Whitehawk said.

“They have not been honourable. Saying sorry is not enough.”

Last week, the Vatican announced the 84-year-old pontiff intends to come to Canada to further the “long-standing pastoral process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.” No dates or locations have been confirmed.

Saskatchewan Cree lawyer Eleanore Sunchild, who has represented thousands of survivors, said a “photo op” by Francis is not…

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Daniel McCormack was released Oct. 7 from a Rushville detention facility, the Illinois Department of Human Services confirmed.

Convicted child molester Daniel McCormack was released from custody last month, the Illinois Department of Human Services confirmed Tuesday.

McCormack, who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing five children while he was a priest at St. Agatha’s parish, was released Oct. 7 from the state’s Treatment and Detention Facility. He has since registered as a sex offender with the Illinois State Police and is listed as living in the Near North neighborhood.

McCormack’s release comes despite the fact that, in 2017, a Cook County judge ruled McCormack a “sexually violent person.” This set up the former priest for an indefinite stay at the state facility for sex offenders, where McCormack remained after serving his five-year sentence in 2009.

But in May of this year, an Illinois First District Appellate Court panel  View Cache